Peaks and troughs are a part of any player’s loan spell with so many unknowns in a new environment but Joe Hugill is yet to experience at peak.
The Manchester United striker was sent on a season-long loan at Wigan Athletic in League One for some senior football experience.
However, the “senior football experience” has been a truly chastening one so far, with Joe Hugill yet to score in a competitive fixture and his performances not being much better.
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It seems like he’s hitting a nadir every week and this week’s nadir arrived away to Birmingham City in a 2-1 loss.
Joe Hugill’s drab display
Wigan have won just a single game of their first four fixtures and stand perilously close to the relegation zone, not an ideal situation for a young striker to be in.
However, a reason behind that predicament is down to the performances of Joe Hugill as well, who has been trusted with the starting striker berth in every game so far to no avail.
The loss against Birmingham is the earliest he has been subbed off, indicating the manager is finally losing patience.
Against Birmingham, Hugill played 60 minutes, and he was truly a non-factor in all that time as he touched the ball just eight times.
He attempted only four passes, completing three of them and unbelievably losing all nine duels he contested during his time on the pitch.
He was absent defensively as well, as a single interception, combined with one foul committed was his only contribution going the other way.
This might be his last game as a starter for a while unless he gets back to scoring at the rate that made him an exciting youth prospect.
Decoding Hugill’s troubles
Hugill signed a new contract before going out on loan so the club clearly holds some hope that even if he doesn’t become United-quality, there’s definitely a high-level professional footballer there.
However, his goal record at youth level, where his physicality helps him a lot, is looking increasingly difficult to translate to senior football.
The physical advantage is gone and other parts of his game, like passing, pressing, or linking up are not as polished to help a team in other ways.
It has led to him ghosting through games because Wigan don’t dominate the ball and create chances, and Hugill can’t fashion anything for himself.
While it can be argued that this is an oversight of United in choosing a team, this is also down to Hugill getting challenged to improve his game.
Scoring in a dominating team at a lower level wouldn’t have done much for his future prospects so this challenge is exactly what he needs.
It just depends on whether he sinks or swims in this situation. That could decide where he’s playing his football next season.
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