Graeme Souness: 'Hojlund and Onana are problems for Man Utd'
Man Utd started the new season unconvincingly, beating Wolves 1-0, Nottingham Forest 3-2 at home and falling at Arsenal and Tottenham in the opening four rounds of the Premier League. "Red Devils" is currently down to 11th with six points.
Souness believes that the unreasonable transfer process is the reason why Man Utd is not performing well. This summer, the owner of Old Trafford said goodbye to David de Gea - the team's most senior player, to recruit Onana for 62 million USD. Onana is a modern goalkeeper, outstanding in his ability to pass the ball with his feet, and is expected to help Man Utd improve its ability to deploy the ball from home.
After that, Man Utd bought Hojlund for $83 million in upfront fees and $11 million in additional fees. This is a controversial deal, as the Danish striker does not have an impressive scoring record, with nine goals in 32 matches in Serie A last season. Hojlund also injured his back, missed the first three matches and only came on the field at the end of the loss to Arsenal in round four.
"I don't think Man Utd is stronger than last season," Souness told Sunsport this week. "They spent a lot of money on Hojlund, who doesn't have a good scoring record. Now he comes to a league where scoring is really difficult. I could be wrong, but such an unproven striker "It's also a big gamble. I think Onana will help Man Utd deploy the ball better from home, but I'm not sure if he can do the most important thing, which is to prevent the ball from going into the net."
Besides professional factors, Man Utd also faces many problems behind the scenes. After sending Mason Greenwood, the striker who was accused of assaulting his girlfriend, to Getafe on loan, Man Utd encountered similar problems with Antony. On September 10, Man Utd announced that Antony would stay in Brazil and not return to England, after accusations that he attacked his ex-girlfriend.
Man Utd's dressing room was still chaotic when Jadon Sancho publicly responded and implicated coach Erik ten Hag in lying. On X - the social network formerly known as Twitter, the English midfielder refuted Ten Hag's statement that he did not practice well, became a "scapegoat" for a long time and this was unfair. .
According to Souness, Antony or Sancho is not a long-term solution if Man Utd wants to compete for the Premier League and Champions League titles, and criticized the duo Anthony Martial and Casemiro. Martial has not met expectations since joining Man Utd in the summer of 2015, and has not even reached the ten-goal mark since the 2019-2020 season. Meanwhile, Casemiro has declined somewhat and shown signs of age since the beginning of the season.
Souness worked as a player from 1970 to 1991, winning the European Cup three times with Liverpool. He began working as a coach and player at Rangers in 1986, until retiring in 2006 at Newcastle. At the age of 70, he worked as a commentator on Sky radio.
