Rasmus Hojlund has had an unfair burden placed on him in his first season at Manchester United, according to Andy Cole.
Erik ten Hag wanted Harry Kane, but United were unable to pay the £100million fee and saw the England captain join Bayern Munich.
United instead signed relatively unknown Denmark striker Hojlund, then 20, from Atalanta, for a fee of £72m.
Hojlund, 21, has struggled in his debut season at United, scoring 14 goals from 39 appearances, with injuries having restricted his game time.
United legend Cole said it was unrealistic to expect Hojlund to lead the team's attack and be prolific in straight away, given his age and relative inexperience.
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“I've said many times, for such a young man to come to a club like United and be expected to score goals, it's difficult,” said Cole. “To come to United and know that you have no-one to learn off, it's difficult.
“When I came I had Sparky [Mark Hughes], Eric [Cantona], then they moved on.
Andy Cole helped Manchester United win the Treble in 1999 (Manchester United via Getty Images)“Yorkey [Dwight Yorke] comes in, Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] and Teddy [Sheringham] and I genuinely like to believe that we took something from each other’s game. We learned off each other.
“You have a young man coming in, he has come to United and everyone is saying 'he's United’s No.9' and you're like 'he doesn’t have the experience to be United’s No.9'.”
Cole was speaking at the world premiere of 99, a three-part docu-series available from May 17 on Prime Video worldwide.
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