Service is part of it, but my cousin (a United fan) recently argued to me that the underlying cause of the service issue is Hojlund's poor positioning. I'm inclined to agree.
A few stats to chew on, each of which follows from the previous:
- Hojlund's xG per shot is 94th percentile amongst strikers in Europe.
- Hojlund's shots/90 is in the 1st (!!!!!!) percentile amongst strikers in Europe.
- Hojlund receives 3.86 progressive passes/90, which is in the 6th percentile amongst strikers in Europe. This would support the claim that the problem is his service.
- But wait! Erling Haaland receives just as few progressive passes/90 (3.93)! Does Haaland also get no service?
- Of course not. Look at their touch maps. Hojlund takes more touches/90 than Haaland does (24.6 to 20.0), and they receive a similar amount of progressive passes, but Haaland has almost triple the amount of in-the-box touches as Hojlund (7.13 to 2.54). Over 1/3 of Haaland's touches are in the box, compared to 1/10 for Hojlund.
- What naturally follows from the difference in where they're receiving the ball? Haaland takes over 4x as many shots per 90 as Hojlund.
The thesis? Hojlund gets service, but because he's not positioning himself in dangerous areas he's not getting service that would lead to scoring opportunities. He barely shoots, as he's barely in a shooting position.
First season it looked like there was a system but that lasted as long as his keyplayers Varane and Martinez were healthy.
