‘Fantastic’ – Roy Keane praises Manchester United star who has ‘toughened up’

Roy Keane praised Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund after his recent run of scoring form.

The Dane went into United’s Premier League game against Aston Villa having scored in five of his last six appearances.

Hojlund had not scored a top-flight goal up until the reverse fixture against Villa on Boxing Day, but has found the net in every league game since, and opened the scoring at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.

High praise from a United legend

And United great Keane was full of praise for the 21-year-old, telling Sky Sports: “Absolutely [he’s delivering]. Over the last three or four weeks, he’s been fantastic.

“I think every striker needs that confidence, that belief, and now he looks like a different player. He’s getting the chances, he looks like he has that hunger, the desire to score goals and when you look at him physically, he’s a big, strong boy and he’s toughened up since he first came to the club.

“He’s turned a tricky start around over the last few weeks and when you put the ball in the back of the net, it lifts you and you can see that in his body language.”

Hojlund is one of a trio of youngsters who United supporters are excited about, with Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho both emerging as key players in recent months.

United boss Erik ten Hag praised his young stars in his press conference last week, saying: “I think they enjoy to play together. There is adventure. They are a danger.

“They want to do it together and to pass to each other so that everyone can play to their qualities and everyone can score goals.

“It’s great if they want to do it together because that is the key, then we can have a lot of pleasure from this. They are young players and the future for Manchester United is quite bright with such talent on board.

“But you have to develop the talent and there is a lot of space for improvement and that is necessary if you want to go to the top levels.”