Manchester United's number nine shirt comes with the crushing responsibility of scoring goals. Since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, United have struggled to find a consistent finisher to fill that particular squad number. Rasmus Hojlund is the club's latest number nine, taking over from the perennially underwhelming Anthony Martial.
No shirt number in English football carries the same weight of expectation as the number nine. To wear a digit that brings a demand for goals at Manchester United , England's most famous and best-supported club, is a burden few have been able to bear. Fixed squad numbers are a relatively new convention.
Players could change the digit on their back from week to week as late as the second season of Premier League football, but a select group of confident figures consistently took on the challenge of leading the team out as United's number nine throughout the club's trophy-laden history. Not every player has been able to meet the lofty expectations set by that specific shirt. United's recent history is littered with underwhelming number nines - a trend which the latest incumbent, Rasmus Hojlund, will do his best to buck after taking on the digit during the summer of 2024.
Here is how Hojlund and his predecessors have fared. Goals - Any number nine worthy of the shirt will have a strong strike rate. Longevity - Only the best have been able to hang on to the most iconic number in English football at the country's biggest club for multiple years.
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