Rasmus Hojlund celebrates 21st birthday in style with great goal versus West Ham | OneFootball

Manchester United’s young striker, Rasmus Hojlund, turned 21 today and created the perfect birthday present for himself by scoring a great solo goal against West Ham at Old Trafford.

In fact, according to OptaJoe, the goal was extra special as he became “only the second player to score on his 21st birthday in the Premier League, along with Noel Whelan in December 1995”. The young Dane also became the youngest Manchester United player to score in four consecutive Premier League games for the club.

The Danish international has had a testing first season in England at times and has consequently had his fair share of critics.

Nonetheless, the young forward seems to have turned a corner as he has scored 10 goals in total and he is the team’s top scorer in all competitions, even winning the club’s in-house goal of the month competition for his fantastic strike against Tottenham.

It must also be stated that he is still the joint top scorer in the Champions League this season.

The Dane recently spoke of how he is beginning to adapt better to the speed of the English game and this is in no doubt contributing to his better form in front of goal.

However, the question is, just how good is United’s number 11 and how are far can he go in the future?

The Dane is on course to hit between 15-20 goals in all competitions, which is a strong total in his first season in England. Critics will say he has played many games so should be scoring more, but the context in which he plays must also be remembered.

Hojlund resides in a team that is far from free scoring and where it has been commented on many times how the rest of his teammates do not pass to him and how he must consequently create for himself.

If we take a look at the top scorers in the league and compare to where they were at Rasmus’ age, the Dane comes out looking quite favourably.

Erling Haaland is an obvious exception but Mo Salah had only scored nine goals in 48 games in the Swiss league for Basel. Dominic Solanke had scored one goal for Liverpool and was about to move to Bournemouth.

Son Heung-Min had never scored more than 12 goals in a season in the Bundesliga and rounding out the top five, Jarrod Bowen and Ollie Watkins were both free scoring at Hojlund’s age, but in the Championship.

In other words, apart from Haaland, none of the Premier League’s current top scorers were playing at as a high level as Hojlund is at the same age.

The truth is, leading the line for a giant team is an incredibly tough task, even more so for a team with the pressure and weaknesses like United.

Nobody knows how good he can become but he has all the tools to play at the highest level for a long time.

He is already playing at his boyhood club, he has electric pace, power, he is good in the air and he has a wonderful left foot. As she showed today, his right is not bad either.

Moreover, with an exciting supporting cast of Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho, the Dane should be able to grow for years with familiar talented faces. The forward has already spoken of how well he gets on with Mainoo.

INEOS will also be keen to surround the 21 year old with youthful talent and links to the likes of Michael Olise.

He is one of the shining lights of United’s season and the only thing left to say is happy birthday Rasmus!