Is Rasmus Højlund one of Europe’s most quick-firing strikers right now?
Rasmus Højlund just can’t stop scoring.
After a slow start to life in England that saw him fail to find the back of the net in his first 14 Premier League appearances, Rasmus Højlund has now found his feet, scoring in each of his last six appearances in the competition.
Despite hitting the back of the net five times in the Champions League and becoming the first player in Manchester United’s history to score five goals in his first four UCL appearances for the club, it took a while for the Dane to bring his goalscoring talents into domestic football, but since he finally broke his duck against Aston Villa on Boxing Day, he hasn’t looked back.
Rasmus Højlund is the youngest player in Premier League history to score in six consecutive games.
21 years and 14 days old. ⭐ pic.twitter.com/ikx6IG2NDr
— Squawka (@Squawka) February 18, 2024
Rasmus Højlund became the youngest ever player to score in six consecutive Premier League games with strikes against Aston Villa, Tottenham, Wolves, West Ham, Aston Villa again and Luton Town. The Dane has also been directly involved in more Premier League goals than any other player in 2o24 (8), scoring six goals and providing two assists in his five league appearances during this calendar year.
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You can see he is now full of of confidence and Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson believes you can see a completely different player now than earlier in the season and how he will go on to be a superstar.
“I like him. He’s a young kid, he’s 21 and playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world. If there was one thing you could bottle up in football, you ask anyone, it’s confidence. He’s got confidence now and football is all about confidence. He holds the ball up well and lays it off well to the wingers.”
“You start to get into the game a lot more and the confidence rises. Those chances keep coming and you start to take them. In those first 10 games, when he was going without a goal, he was snatching at everything. And he’s got it.If that ball [for Hojlund’s opening goal] at Villa comes in at the start of the season, he would’ve hit it as hard as he could. But he places it under the goalkeeper.”
“He’s a good player, I think he will be a superstar.”
READ MORE: Rasmus Hojlund backed to become one of Europe’s best strikers by ex-Man Utd star Lee Sharpe
His latest strikes for Man Utd were his fourth and fifth goals in the opening 20 minutes away from home in the Premier League this season after Marcus Rashford at Wolves and Alejandro Garnacho at Everton, as he made it five consecutive Premier League matches when scoring in the opening 30 minutes of the match. First he opened the scoring after just three minutes against Tottenham, before adding a second after 22 minutes against Wolves, and then once again scoring the opening goal of the game against both West Ham and Aston Villa (23rd & 17th minutes). Most recently he scored Manchester United’s earliest ever Premier League away goal (37 seconds), as well as giving them their fastest ever 2-0 lead in an away Premier League game (7th minute) when he scored twice against Luton.
However, Manchester United will now have to do without the forward for the foreseeable future, with their official twitter account confirming that the Dane has “suffered a muscle injury which is expected to rule him out for two to three weeks.”
The Red Devils will have to do withoutone of the most quick-firing strikers right now in the English top flight, with seven of his eight Premier League goals coming in the opening 30 minutes of matches. But how does he compare to forwards from Europe’s top five leagues? We’ve taken a look.
Who has scored the most goals in the opening 30 minutes in Europe’s top five leagues so far this season?
| Player | Team | Goals | Goals <30 Mins |
| Omar Marmoush | Frankfurt | 9 | 8 |
| Harry Kane | Bayern | 25 | 7 |
| Lautaro Martinez | Inter | 20 | 7 |
| Andrea Pinamonti | Sassuolo | 8 | 7 |
| Kylian Mbappe | PSG | 21 | 6 |
| Erling Haaland | Man City | 17 | 6 |
