Conte: ´Dominant´ Hojlund has ´huge margin´ to keep improving

Napoli boss Antonio Conte feels Rasmus Hojlund has a “huge margin” for improvement.

Hojlund, who is on loan at Napoli from Manchester United, scored twice as Napoli beat Cremonese 2-0 in Serie A on Sunday.

The Danish international opened the scoring in the 13th minute with a close-range finish, before adding another on the stroke of half-time with a half-volley.

Hojlund had further opportunities to add to his tally and score a first hat-trick since March 2023, but he has still scored the most goals of any Serie A player since the beginning of this month in all competitions.

Conte believes there is more to come from the 22-year-old, who now has nine goals from 20 appearances this season. Five of those goals have come in Serie A, meaning Hojlund has already surpassed the total of four Premier League strikes he managed for United last term.

“Hojlund is a player who is very young and can improve a great deal,” said the Italian in his post-match press conference.

“Since he first joined us, he has already progressed to become a dominant player in that role, because he’s starting to understand the right positions to take, how to defend the ball, when to come towards it or back off.

“He is really well-connected with the team.

“In my style of football, the strikers have a very important and special role in the overall approach, and he has huge margin for further improvement.”

5 – Rasmus #Højlund has scored 5 goals in 12 appearances so far in the current Serie A, already one more than he netted last season for Manchester United in the Premier League, 4 goals scored in 32 games played. Habitat. #CremoneseNapoli pic.twitter.com/SOYfxdQoQM

— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) December 28, 2025

This was Napoli’s final game of 2025, in which they won the league title for the second time in three seasons, while they also claimed the Supercoppa Italiana with a victory over Bologna earlier this week, and Conte was pleased his side could end the year on a high.

He said: “It was such a great calendar year full of satisfaction, and the celebrations in Naples are truly different to other places.

“We celebrated the Scudetto and the Supercoppa, now in Serie A we are up there, trying to stick close to the top spots.”

Injuries to the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Frank Anguissa have forced Conte into tactical switches in recent weeks, but he is hopeful for some big names to return in the coming weeks.

He said: “We are building our road with hard work and dedication, facing those difficulties as this is the last game of the year, once again we were missing a lot of big players.

“All I can hope for is that they all come back in 2026, hopefully as soon as possible.”