Bettoni: Hojlund gets more inspiration in Napoli than in MU

Out-on-loan Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund is playing with a point to prove at Napoli following his summer transfer window move - according to one expert on the club.

Speaking with The Manchester Evening News, Football Italia editor Lorenzo Bettoni explained how the Dane was well received despite his disappointing spell at United.

"Napoli fans are pretty much everywhere in Italy when Hojlund arrived, Napoli did the medical tests in Rome and when he arrived, there were so many Napoli fans welcoming him," Bettoni said. "Fans were pretty happy with the signing because what he showed in his season at Atalanta was pretty promising.

"Even if the time at Manchester United wasn't excellent for him, far from it, but they were pretty happy." The love of the Napoli fanbase will be one of the driving factors for the United recruits switching Old Trafford for the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

Bettoni believes that Hojlund may be gaining the inspiration from elsewhere, too. "There is a factor in the player's mentality, as well," he continued.

"You can see by the way he plays that he has something personal to prove because clearly the last two seasons at Manchester United weren't very good. Knowing Conte, he would have talked about this with the player.

"It's an important task for Hojlund, because he needs to lead the attack while [Romelu] Lukaku is injured. So he has a personal point to prove as well, because he wants to show what kind of striker he is and I think the way Conte motivates the players it is one more reason why he looks so excited to play and is really willing to make an impact."

Few would have predicted this summer that Hojlund would be assisted by Kevin De Bruyne during this campaign. But that is how it has played out for the forward as the pair joined forces to devastating effect in the victory over Sporting CP in the Champions League.

Hojlund will likely have to do without De Bruyne until February due to injury and Bettoni has warned that the striker will need to adapt his style in the interim. "On paper, we have not seen so much of Hojlund without De Bruyne so far," he concluded.

"Technically it will be more about holding the ball and a few less runs into the spaces, but this is just technically because in games when Napoli decide to sit deep and not press too high and not try to win the ball high up the pitch, they will need to counter-attack and Hojlund will be a very important player in this phase as well. Against other teams, without De Bruyne, Hojlund will need to be a lot more involved in the link-up and much more solid physically so that he can hold up the ball, link-up with the wingers and the central midfielders, as well.

"It will be a lot more about the link-up play and trying to work well with his teammates rather than just trying to make forward runs and runs into spaces."