Chido Obi, who joined United in September after his schoolboy contract at Arsenal ended, is seen as one of the club’s top prospects. ..Continue Reading
Having been invited to train with the first team several times by Ruben Amorim, the young player made his debut for United in the final minutes of their 1-0 loss to Spurs on February 16.
A week later, he got more playing time in their 2-2 draw with Everton. On Sunday evening, Chido Obi made a strong impression after replacing the struggling Rasmus Hojlund in the 68th minute against Fulham.
“He’s been a real handful in there you know,” said Alan Shearer, who was on commentary duty for the BBC. “He’s certainly offered a lot more than Hojlund has when he was on the pitch. He’s been a nuisance and tough to play against.”
Shearer added: “I like what I see from Obi, I really do. He’s certainly given them a different option to play with.”
Following the final whistle, it was revealed that Chido Obi had three significant opportunities in 52 minutes against Fulham, whereas Hojlund has only had three major chances in 22 Premier League matches this season.
Hojlund has struggled in front of goal for much of the 2023/24 campaign, with his most recent goal coming in a 2-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League on December 12 of the previous year.
In contrast, Chido impressed many with his brief appearance against Fulham, earning praise from Manchester United’s all-time top goalscorer, Wayne Rooney.
“What I really like about him is he’s put himself in some really good positions,” Rooney said. “I’ve been really impressed by him. He looked like the one who could go on and nick it.”
Rooney added: “”[He was a] little bit naive with some of his chances but I think it’s really encouraging for Manchester United. They’ve obviously got Zirkzee and Hojlund not scoring. Now, that might be another option moving forward in the season.”
Ruben Amorim gave his take on the striker situation at Old Trafford after Sunday’s defeat.
Speaking in his post-match media duties, he said: “Anything can happen in the next games, during training, we don’t have a lot of time to train but we need to see the opposition, feel the moment of the player physically, with a lot of games, because we are going to start playing Thursday-Sunday.
“Anything can happen but I will focus just on the next game and not in that way I’m not going to change the striker. I will just choose the best players to win the next match.”
He added: “We have a problem with goals. Today we create situations but even in the last game sometimes you felt just with set pieces we are going to make some danger,” he said.
“The first step is to create situations. Today we create but we have to improve that to help our forwards and strikers to score.”
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