Dimitar Berbatov says Rasmus Hojlund needs to keep his game simple and continue putting in maximum effort if he wants to flourish at Manchester United.
The former Old Trafford striker has encouraged the Dane to “work your ar*e off” to break his Premier League goal duck, although accepts that this also depends on the performance of Hojlund’s teammates.
Hojlund has scored three times for United this season, all of them coming in the Champions League. He is yet to score in seven Premier League matches after finding no joy in Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City. The 20-year-old arrived for £72m in the summer with his pricetag adding more pressure for him to be the main goal-getter for United.
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His overall displays have impressed and United fans have twice booed Erik ten Hag for taking him off in games.
However, the attacker will need to get scoring in the league soon to avoid the spotlight honing in on him. Berbatov believes the lack of a Premier League goal is a “burden” on the shoulder of Hojlund but says his efforts so far cannot be criticised.
“He’ll want to score in the Premier League. You can see that with the effort that he’s putting in. You can see that he’s trying his best,” Berbatov told Betfair. “My advice to Hojlund is to not over-complicate things.
“Just stick to who you are and what has given you success in the past. Work on your weaknesses and eventually it will pay off. As I said before, that paying off needs to be right now because he’s at Man United and he’s not going anywhere.”
Mason Mount was United’s first signing of the summer but has not hit the ground running in his opening few months. Berbatov says he finds himself in a similar situation to Hojlund as a result, even if for slightly different reasons.
“The only thing [Hojlund] needs to do, alongside Mason Mount, is to keep working on the training pitch. They need to block out the noise from the media and the fans and concentrate on their training.
“The only solution is to continue working your ars* off. In games, you just must hope that the whole team turns up.”
On Mount, Berbatov added: “Man United spent a lot of money on him. He’s a really talented player but at the moment it’s not working, and he’ll know that. Everyone does.
“I’m sure he’s working hard to produce in games because we know he can from his time at Chelsea. He needs games to build his confidence and he needs to re-establish his self-belief. That will only happen when he’s allowed to play.
“When he makes mistakes, he must keep going. Man United paid a lot of money for him so he has to keep going and prove his worth. If he keeps going then it will pay off, the trouble is that it needs to pay off as soon as possible because the team are in a difficult position.”
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