Shopping for Ten Hag and Manchester United in 2023: Strikers
Shopping for Ten Hag and Manchester United in 2023: Strikers
By Carl Anka and Mark Carey
4h ago
25
Save Article
Welcome to another edition of our “Shopping for Erik ten Hag” series, where we look at areas of the team the Manchester United manager may want to strengthen before the coming season. We also explore how Ten Hag has previously used players in that position, before recommending some who could serve a purpose for United in the future.

The most recent edition of the series looked at goalkeepers. Today, our trolley trundles into the strikers’ aisle.

What does Erik ten Hag want from a striker?

Early last November, three months into his debut season at United, Ten Hag was asked why he still had faith the often injury-prone Anthony Martial could lead their attack.

His answer doubled as a succinct explanation of what Ten Hag looks for in a No 9: “It’s quite clear in my way of playing, I like the type (of player) that Anthony Martial is because he can hold the ball, he’s a target, he can link up, he can also run behind, he has speed, he can finish and he’s a good presser.”

Ten Hag used a variety of strikers across his five-year spell as Ajax coach before coming to Old Trafford, but he prefers mobile types who can contribute to team build-up as well as dominate within the opponent’s penalty area. He wants a dependable goalscorer who can finish chances with their feet (as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar did at Ajax) or in the air (Sebastien Haller was dominant for the Dutch club when attacking crosses under Ten Hag).

Study Ten Hag press conferences for long enough and you’ll see the United manager compliment attacking players who create goalscoring opportunities through their off-ball movement. He often brings up moments where his players run behind defences.

Ten Hag’s use of the 6ft 6in (197cm) Wout Weghorst as a No 10 in certain games last season showed he is willing to make tactical concessions to get the most out of his No 9, but he would prefer for his strikers to be a reference point for the entire team when in possession.

Ultimately, a new No 9 arriving at United this summer must have a complementary playing style to both Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford.

Why aren’t Harry Kane or Victor Osimhen on this shortlist?

If United were free of financial fair play (FFP) and other budgetary constraints, then perhaps Ten Hag would move for one of Kane or Osimhen this summer. However, senior figures at the club are thought to be wary of entering a protracted and complex negotiation for either of them, only to be presented with a prohibitively-expensive asking price that could cause a deal to collapse in the latter stages of the transfer window.

The Athletic has previously covered why Kane and Osimhen are two of the best strikers in the world, and we put a spotlight on players who play similarly to the pair.

(Several reader comments have also enquired about the suitability of Dusan Vlahovic for Ten Hag’s team. The Juventus 23-year-old is a fine player when working within the penalty box, who makes good use of his strong frame and good finishing to put chances away. However, Vlahovic tends to take a lot of low-quality shots and is not the most comfortable when asked to drop deep and link play in the way Ten Hag often looks for in a striker.)

The leading candidate: Rasmus Hojlund

At the time of writing, it looks like Atalanta’s Hojlund will become Ten Hag’s new No 9. The Athletic has already reported that the club have agreed preliminary personal terms with the player and if – given the current difference in valuations, it’s a big if – they and Atalanta can agree on a valuation for the striker, a deal can be done.

But what sort of player would that bring to Old Trafford?

You can read an in-depth piece on Hojlund here but, for our shortlist, we will first take a look at the 20-year-old Dane’s smarterscout profile for last season.

Hojlund’s debut year in Serie A was promising but a little curious. Twenty of his 32 league appearances were as a starter, with manager Gian Piero Gasperini sometimes choosing to use him as a second-half ‘closer’ to run against tired opposition legs. (This is why his statistics may be a little skewed, as he played in shorter bursts compared to other strikers on this list.)

When Hojlund did enter the field of play, he gave a good account of himself. Ten Hag may have spoken of wanting an experienced striker who brings “no risk”, but the joy of Hojlund — who only left his teens in February — comes in pondering the player he might be in two to three seasons’ time.

“Potential” is the operative word when describing him.
Here’s what the smarterscout graphic is telling you:

Hojlund dribbles well and is good at linking up with team-mates. The six-cap Denmark international is a speedy forward who uses a lot of short, punchy movements to get the ball, and himself, past opposition defenders. He’s a fan of a one-two move to attack space behind defences and has no problem sprinting from A to B when a counter-attacking opportunity occurs.
His good score for receptions in the opposition penalty area shows he has a striker’s knack for timing his runs. He’s good at stopping and resetting runs into the box to remain onside and in good positions to connect with crosses.
Those good scores for defending impact and defending intensity also show he can be a good presser when needed. Hojlund isn’t always the best in terms of winning the ball high up the field, but he will hassle and harry if an opposition defender is being slack in possession.
If you’re wondering why a player who scored a whole nine league goals last season is being quoted with a price tag north of €70million (£60m, $78.7m), take a look at his shot map.

Hojlund has a solid left-footed shot that he often uses as he attacks the left half-space and spaces close to the near post.
A very charitable reading of Hojlund is that he plays like a young Edinson Cavani. The young Dane currently lacks the now 36-year-old Uruguayan’s nous when playing closer to the halfway line than the penalty area. Still, he is a promising talent who could be moulded into one of the better strikers in the world with time and proper coaching. A settled United side led by Ten Hag might be just the place for that.

Hojlund looks in pole position to be the next United striker, but there are other talents around the world that the club should be looking at, either now or in future seasons.

Such as…

The pricey up-and-comer: Goncalo Ramos

Ramos is the latest player to emerge from Benfica’s talent factory.

In June, we reported the 21-year-old was one of a collection of strikers scouted by United last season. His smarterscout profile gives an idea of what they saw while watching him perform in a side that won the 2022-23 Primeira Liga title.
Here’s what you need to know:

Ramos shoots. Loads. That 96 out of 99 score for shot volume indicates he was the man who applied the finishing touches on most of Benfica’s chances. And that high score for xG from shot creation tells you he’s taking many good-quality goal attempts that will likely lead to his team scoring.
He is excellent at getting the ball into the penalty area (receptions in the opposition box). Ramos is good at quickly sprinting into the 18-yard box to blow past a defender and get on the end of a cross. He’s a lethal one-touch finisher.
Ramos does not get too involved in build-up play. Part of that is down to his side’s dominance in the Portuguese league (Benfica lost only three times in 34 games, scoring 82 goals and conceding 20), meaning he doesn’t have to drop too deep to get onto the ball. When Ramos does leave the penalty area in search of the ball, he likes to drag defenders out of position before making simple passes to team-mates in the open space.
He is a good presser, able to win the ball high up the field and make a useful pest of himself when needed.
When we highlighted Ramos in our 2022 World Cup Radar, we discussed early comparisons to Thomas Muller. “I score goals but what I need to work on is my repertoire. I haven’t always played as a striker,” said the Benfica man in a previous interview. His technique might not always be the cleanest but – as with Muller – he has a knack for turning up at the right place at the right time.

Going off non-penalty goals, Ramos was the most prolific player in Portugal’s top flight last season. Take note of the cluster of goals inside the six-yard box and to the left. Ramos is especially dangerous when attacking the near post. His powerful shot can turn half-chances into goals, as evidenced by his hat-trick in his first senior international start against Switzerland in the World Cup’s round of 16.
If there are any concerns over Ramos, they concern his back-to-goal play, where he can be a little stiff when looking to bring others into play. He is not blessed with blistering pace and his touch could do with a bit of refinement.

Ramos is the most “complete” striker on this shortlist, and that is reflected in some of the transfer sums swirling around his name.

Another season with Benfica and a good European Championship next summer will likely make him one of the most expensive strikers in the world. Ramos might one day be a £100million signing, but he’s not there just yet.

The other pricey up-and-comer: Evan Ferguson

Ferguson did not make his first-team debut for Brighton & Hove Albion until Boxing Day (December 26) last season. And he would not make his first senior start until January 3, when he scored in a 4-1 victory over Everton.

So why are so many fans interested in a striker who has only played the full 90 minutes in one Premier League game?

His smarterscout profile can give us a few clues. Like Hojlund, Ferguson, who is even younger at 18, is of interest because of his burgeoning potential rather than any plug-and-play readiness for a new team. (Ferguson’s numbers are skewed by the fact nine of his 19 league appearances were as a substitute.)
Here’s what you need to know:

Ferguson is another striker who likes to get a shot away. The six-cap Republic of Ireland international has a maturity beyond his teenage years and can get past defenders to get goal attempts off without too much fuss.
He can be a practical focal point for his team’s attack. Ferguson’s high scores for link-up play and ball retention indicate this is an all-round player. He’s not (yet) a Harry Kane-level passer, able to drop deep and operate like a quasi-playmaker, but he’s a solid option for collecting longer goal kicks and exchanging short passes with team-mates.
The Irishman chips in with the defensive stuff, working as a ball-winner (ball recoveries & interceptions and defending impact) in Roberto De Zerbi’s fun, counter-punching team.
Ferguson’s shot map might not look like much but rest assured; he looks set to have a big 2023-24. Of all the teenagers who featured in Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup play last season, Ferguson had the most shots on target (23), most big chances (14; with seven scored) and most goals (10).

The good thing about that shot map is how many he’s been able to get off from around the penalty spot. Despite his young age, Ferguson is not taking too many of the long-range/low-quality attempts several of his peers are fond of. He’s already got the habits of a good, more experienced striker, and is learning at a rapid rate.

Ferguson favours a Kane-style low shot, aiming for the corners away from the goalkeeper. He’s young but has many of the tools needed to be a dependable Premier League goalscorer.
If Sir Alex Ferguson were still United manager, his namesake is the sort of young but Premier League-tested striker he’d look to snap up for a relatively low price.

However, Brighton’s rapid climb up the table to European qualification, coupled with an inflated market for strikers, may make United’s interest in the 18-year-old difficult to act on.

The former Ten Hag player: Brian Brobbey

Ten Hag has developed a fondness for signing players he’s either worked with in the past or who were opponents when he was in charge of Ajax. If he were to go shopping for a striker back in the Dutch Eredivisie this summer, there’s one standout candidate: Ajax’s Brobbey.

Here’s a look at a 5ft 11in (1.8m) tank of a player who has already made 32 appearances for Ten Hag with the Amsterdam club, scoring 13 goals in them.
What you need to know:

Brobbey takes a bull-in-a-china-shop approach to his movements in the penalty area. Blessed with a low centre of gravity and powerful thighs, this is a striker who can bully defenders when working close to goal. He takes a lot of shots (shot volume) and has clever movement when he wants to lose his marker in the penalty area (receptions in the opposition box).
He can be a handy focal point for his team’s attack, exchanging simple short passings with nearby team-mates (as indicated by his good scores for link-up play and ball retention) and likes a short pass either sideways or backwards while constantly looking for space ahead.
As a defender, Brobbey is mediocr. If there is one concern, it’s that he can be a tremendous forward on his day but has spells where he can be decidedly off it.
There is also an overconfidence that can creep into his play and causes him to make silly passes or fluff chances. Brobbey has already left Ajax once to ply his trade in one of Europe’s top five leagues, but an indifferent spell at Germany’s RB Leipzig saw him last only six months of the 2021-22 season before returning to Ajax – first on loan, and then on a permanent deal. He then scored 13 goals in 32 appearances in a difficult league season for Ajax as they finished only third in 2022-23.

Brobbey should be a player “too good for the Dutch league” but parts of his game still need to be ironed out. Deploy him as your centre-forward in a team who can dominate possession, and he has the attributes to bully defenders in the penalty area. Ask him to contribute further away from goal, however, and you may have to give him a few pointers on the training ground.
The 21-year-old Dutchman has already (jokingly) said he’d love to reunite with Ten Hag and play for United, but there is a rawness to his play that can lead to inconsistent runs of form. Almost half (15) of his league appearances last season came as a substitute. Managers – including Ten Hag – believe in his talent, but do not trust him wholly.

There is enough talent with Brobbey for him to be the lead striker at a club of United’s stature one day. Figuring out when that day might be is proving more complicated than expected.

That leaves one more player on our list; someone who had a poor 2022-23 but came out well in a previous test we ran for Ten Hag’s United…

A Ten Hag-friendly fixer-upper: Gianluca Scamacca

When West Ham bought Scamacca last summer for £35million ($42.6m), it was considered something of a coup.

Here was one of the better young strikers in Serie A, joining a side who were supposed to be on the up after successive top-seven finishes and a Europa League semi-final. Yet Scamacca struggled in his first season in England, beset by injuries and scoring eight goals in 27 appearances. In May, team-mate and fellow attacker Michail Antonio offered an honest assessment of the Italian’s time in east London so far.

“He’s actually quality,” Antonio told the Filthy Fellas podcast. “The problem is he can’t play the way the gaffer (David Moyes) plays. He needs a different type of manager to play his type of football. He needs a manager who he can play with and have other players come off him and stuff like that. You can see when the ball comes into him, it sticks and he’s tidy.

“How David Moyes plays, it’s more like: if you’re up front, you’re dealing with scraps and you’ve got to be more of a fighter — and that’s not him.”

One manager who does like having players come off the striker and “stuff like that” is Ten Hag. The United boss previously managed to get a tune out of Haller – another striker to struggle at Moyes’ West Ham, with seven goals in 34 appearances from 2019-21 — at Ajax and might be able to repeat the trick with Scamacca.

Last season, when we ran a Shopping for Ten Hag series for strikers who could play second fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo, Scamacca came out very well in our metrics as a shot-taker and was helpful when linking up with team-mates.
At West Ham, that link-up play dropped off, but he can progress the ball to a decent degree if opportunities arise.
As evidenced by his high score for shot volume above, Scamacca is still an energetic forward who looks to have a pop.

However, as his shot map below demonstrates, his tendency to take on low-quality chances from outside the penalty area remained.
In his West Ham debut season, he was a striker who performed better when operating within the width of the goal and liked to hover in around the 18-yard box but didn’t seem too hungry in terms of taking the fight to opposition defenders as a solitary target man.

Similar to Haller’s time under Moyes, Scamacca’s 6ft 5in (196cm) height and broad shoulders can lead one to believe he can play as a classic target man who likes chasing long balls and roughing up defenders, when he’s actually more comfortable being a link-up player, looking to shoot from whatever pockets of space open up for him.

A recent interview where he talks up his love for AS Roma has led some to believe the 11-cap Italy international is pining for a move back to Serie A after one year away, rather than sticking around to prove himself in the Premier League.

The Athletic would like to argue that Scamacca is a Ten Hag-friendly striker hiding in plain sight.

All of these strikers come with an element of risk

Short of a sudden cash injection enhancing their summer budget, United will shop in the £40million-£70m range over the coming six weeks rather than the £100m premium bracket for (in theory) guaranteed 20-goal-a-season players.

Ten Hag faces a tricky situation with any incomings, having to buy and then refine any new player while hoping Martial can remain fit and focused enough to deputise if the summer signing has teething problems. Marcus Rashford can also play through the middle but is best off playing against defences that push high up the field rather than defend deeply in a compact shape.

There are many strikers who are ideal for how Ten Hag wants to play, but they are unfortunately either too expensive or are on the books of a top-six rival to United (Julian Alvarez is a near-perfect Ten Hag forward, for example.)

United are indeed shopping for a striker, but Ten Hag will have to do extra coaching to get the 20-goal player that’s needed.