Since Haaland and Denmark reached the last four of the European Championship, Nordic players have begun to be noticed by more and more big teams.
Real Madrid, who want to find a successor for Benzema, have a crush on Atalanta's 20-year-old young centre-forward Hoilund. Scoring a hat-trick on his European Qualifier debut, Arsenal and Juventus also have a keen interest in the young talent.
01. 7-month transfer fee increased 10 times! Real Madrid want to grab people with Arsenal and Juve
a. 10-fold increase in 7-month transfer fees: from Denmark to Austria to Serie A
In the summer of 2021, Hoylund, who was only 18 years old at the time, was promoted to the first team of Copenhagen, Denmark. As a result, he failed to score in the next 15 Danish league games.
Half a year later, in the winter window of 2022, the storm in Graz, Austria, spent 1.8 million euros to get the young man, who was not widely regarded at the time.
Unexpectedly in the Austrian league, Hoilund burst out. He scored six goals in 13 Austrian league games in the first half of the year, and in the first month of the new season, he contributed six goals and three assists in eight games.
Serie A Atalanta quickly discovered the supernova, spending 17.2 million euros (almost 10 times the transfer fee seven months ago) to bring him to the Apennines.
b. 11 seconds in 100m: In addition to Real Madrid, Juve and Arsenal also pay attention to him
Stepping onto the stage of the five major leagues for the first time, he handed over a report card of 7 goals and 1 assist in Serie A in half a season, which made the 20-year-old Hoylund widely noticed.
Especially his extreme speed, Atalanta coach Gasperini even proudly said: "He runs 100 meters, he doesn't even have 11 seconds." ”
Real Madrid have taken aim at the fast-moving "Danish Haaland" as one of Benzema's potential successors.
Arsenal in the Premier League are also eyeing him and are considering bringing him to the Premier League. At the same time, AC Milan and Juventus are also watching him, especially the latter, and if Vlahovic leaves, Hoilund will be their first target.
02. It's not just fast! Very characteristic in running
a. Speed is the core competitiveness
After the success of the European Championship and the defeat of the World Cup, the Danish team has also made some adjustments to the squad.
Darmsgaard gained more trust, while the rise of Hoilund and Bach also brought new vitality to the team.
Hoylund's long-distance running ability is very eye-catching, and in Serie A, he completed the classic scene of scoring a long-distance counter-attack.
This time against Finland in the European qualifiers, he defended from a corner kick and then dribbled all the way forward, and it was difficult for the opponent to limit his speed. The most important thing is to have a cover run when entering the box, allowing Dames to follow Jensen after a brilliant pass.
Because Hoylund is fast and has a good ability to grab points in front of goal, the defender has only one option to follow him.
In this way, Hoylund's speed advantage can also create depth space for teammates to get opportunities, but this time Jensen actually slipped.
Hoylund was so fast that many people forgot that he reached 1.91 meters tall.
Fast arrow players that can bring a variety of offensive modes. This kind of hook running response is also very common in the matches of Mbappe and Haaland.
It is clear from the camera that Hoylund was originally behind the Finnish centre-back. He swam back, suddenly accelerated forward, and used his speed to get in place ahead of time and grab the long pass landing point.
However, this time the teammate's pass landing point was not very comfortable, more leaning to the wing, and Hoylund could only control the ball and pass back.
b. Speed and height give you a point grab advantage
Many people like to compare Hoylund to Haaland, because they do have some similarities in height, speed and starting explosiveness.
Because the speed is fast, and the height is more than 1 meter 9, it will naturally bring an advantage in grabbing points. Haaland can always smash the ball into the goal and Hoylund has the potential to do so in the future.
Especially when the overall attack is smooth, it is difficult for the opponent to limit the movement of Hoylund.
This time he had a continuous pause and a change of center of gravity before he snatched the spot, followed by taking advantage of his starting speed to throw off the centre-back and complete the fatal blow in front of goal.
Braithwaite crossed the ball to right-back Bach on the right, who crossed with a high-quality flat ball, and in the middle Hoilund took advantage of his change of rhythm to suddenly accelerate to save the goal after a pause to complete a beautiful point-grabbing score.
03. Static strength and center are not very solid: more runs to compensate
a. The basic skills of the center are average: static strength is not enough
Standing 1.91 meters tall and 20 years old, Hoylund's talent is self-explanatory. However, in terms of his current technical capabilities, with the delicacy of the Nordic technological flow, there are also problems of confrontation and strength.
He prefers to make up for his shortcomings through a wide range of runs and interspersions.
When Braithwaite pulled back in tandem, Hoylund should have been the centre-forward's positioning. However, this time he took the ball with his back and could not make a move after being held up by the opponent, and eventually lost the ball.
This time it was a similar thing, goalkeeper Schmeichel Jr. quickly drove to find Hoilund, who could not do much with his back and was snatched by the opponent.
It's not that Hoylund has very poor strength, the point is that his movements when carrying the ball on his back are a bit slow and require full sinking power, which is a defect in his movement habits.
In this wave of attack, Hoylund took the ball near the box on these two occasions, and then shot the ball to Daremy, which was regarded as the most successful center striker shot.
However, it can also be seen from the first shot that he obviously struggled to hold the ball in the confrontation, and the second move required more space and time.
In the league game against AC Milan, Hoilund was completely limited by Jaffe, also because the opponent was close to the defense, he could find a very limited way, resulting in the center shooting 0 shots in the whole game, while losing nearly 80% of the one-on-one confrontation.
b. I like to run: I am also very positive in counter-stealing
As you can see from the statistics, the 1.91m tall center has only a 35% success rate in one-on-one matches in Serie A this season.
White centers mature slowly, which may also be related to the development cycle of muscle strength. Hoylund's future can still be expected, but there are some shortcomings at the moment.
Fortunately, he has a strong running ability and likes to press his opponents in the game. This time, it was Hoylund who went straight up to grab and make a mistake in the other party's siege.
In the second attack, Damsgaard's direct ball gave Hoylund a golden opportunity to face the goalkeeper, but unfortunately he did not take it. He is still very young after all, scoring seven goals in Serie A this season while also missing six great scoring chances.
Looking at the attack again, Hoylund first ran to the flank of the box to get the ball. His technique at his feet is acceptable, enough to complete some simple ball control and dribbling.
After splitting the ball, he walked into the box, his teammate's cross was pushed back to the back post, and Hoylund was very threatening with a powerful header, and although he did not score, his movement characteristics were still on display.
Conclusion:
Considering the peculiarities of this era, it is the norm for technology weakening and the ability to run to compensate. The technical characteristics of Hoilund are still very much in line with current requirements.
As long as he is 1.9 meters tall and does not suffer serious injuries, with the current speed advantage and running efficiency, there should be a greater probability of success in the big team in the future.