Gary Neville heaped praise on Rasmus Hojlund after he made his Manchester debut in the 3-1 defeat by Arsenal on Sunday. 

Erik ten Hag’s side suffered their second defeat of the season as Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus struck for the Gunners deep into injury-time. 

After previously being ruled out by injury following his £72m move to United, Hojlund marked his debut as he came off the bench to replace Anthony Martial in the second-half.

Speaking on Sky Sports, the former defender said: ‘Manchester United haven’t had a striker that they can hit. That’s the problem. 

Rasmus Hojlund came off the bench to make his Man United debut against Arsenal on Sunday

Gary Neville says Hojlund could be the answer to United’s search search for a prolific striker

Hojlund’s debut at the Emirates ended in despair as United lost via two injury-time goals

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‘Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t a classic targetman, Martial’s certainly not, Rashford’s not. At least they’ve got someone who looks he’ll mess people around and get his body in there. He’s aggressive, and he’s a runner. 

‘The thing for him is he’s learning the game still. He’s only played a couple of seasons of top level football and we’re expected him to be Erling Haaland. That’s the problem. 

‘Manchester United haven’t got anyone else with experience to back him up. We’ve been watching Martial for 9-10 years at Manchester United and he’s not what Erik ten Hag wants. This lad, lot of pressure on him, big price tag, but it was an encouraging start.’

Meanwhile, United boss Ten Hag felt his side should have been awarded a penalty after Hojlund went down inside the box from a challenge by Gabriel. 

He said: ‘The performance is right, we played a good game but everything went against us. And then you don’t win the game. 

‘You saw the game, it’s not offside, that is the wrong angle, then a penalty on Hojlund, we concede a goal and that is a foul on Jonny Evans.’

United were level at 1-1 after Marcus Rashford’s opener was cancelled out by Martin Odegaard, before Arsenal’s record signing Rice secured a 96th minute winner which was shortly followed by Gabriel Jesus netting on his return from injury.