Speaking on Sky Sports, the former England player said, "I think this is a kid that needs persevering with. I looked at Ollie Watkins before. He's not going to become a Haaland or an Aguero, one of the great strikers in Premier League history, I don't think. But he can become an Ollie Watkins. You can look at someone like that, I think I can get to 20 goals.
"I wish he was the second striker this season. I wish he was learning, I did the interview with Eric ten Hag last week. He mentioned Harry Kane. If he was learning off Kane now or playing with Kane, I think you'd see a completely different player. Secondly, he's 21 years of age. He's a little bit scruffy in his work is his first season in the Premier League, and he reminds me a little bit of Darwin Nunez. He reminds me a little bit of Nicholas Jackson."
He added, "When you look at them, they're projects. Manchester United, this moment in time is their only striker. Manchester United is the only striker in the club. Forget Anthony Martial. He's not been there for years. If you look at Nunez and if you look at Hojlund, the really interesting thing for me is that that shop conversion is up 22% so when he actually gets chances, he's actually better than Jackson and Nunez.
"Now you might say, okay, but I think that's something really to work with. The expected goals at the bottom, he's only expected to score 7.4 goals. The service in delivery into him is poor you look at Nunez and Jackson, Jackson, they're at 16.3 and 17, double."