If I was a betting man I would have dropped a few quid on the 2/1 to dribble the ball out of play and the 5/2 to trip over the ball. Both of those are more likely to happen than not.
Agree. Wtf did people expect from Berbatov anyway ? He was fine for us You cannot be serious with this
If you had Mata and Lingard and co as your supply then you would be shiite too. Coupled with a negative manager then the whole thing is hopeless.
During his prime he was a proper "Elite club" striker. He won titles here, he was a success. Appreciate the time he was here.
From an outsiders perspective, I don't think it's the supply lines that are the problem. Granted, he would benefit from better players behind him but his first touch would still be that of a baby rhino. He can score a great goal but can equally look like a Sunday league player all in the same match.
Lukaku has his own ball control corner using Atlas stones now. Just hope he doesn't try to pick them up.
I think if he drops his weight, a lot of the issues in his game will automatically improve. First touch can’t be good if you can’t move quick enough to get in position to take a good touch.
Have we had a player who has nosedived so quick in performance? Neutral fans always will mock, but when its widely accepted by owm supporters, things must be bad
Being bulky doesn't help you be a target man. Strength on the ball yes, but that's more about positioning your body and Lukaku was plenty big enough for that before. Control, deftness of touch and agility are all hampered by excess weight. Besides, its been reported in the press Jose was not happy when he first started putting weight on.
For feck sake, we had high expectations then, so Berba failed in our eyes. We have low expectations now, so Lukaku is ok in some eyes today. Berba is way way way better than Lukaku will ever be.
What I am saying his strength is goal scoring and to maximise his strength would be to have wingers that can cross. Moreover players of the ilk of Lingard, Mata are simply not good enough or even suitable for a player like Lukaku.
Hell, Berba with two bricks attached to his feet would still have a better touch than Lukaku. And I wasn’t even a huge fan of Berbatov (too slow, lack of movement), but he was miles ahead of Lukaku.
Have to agree here. Berbatov was not a slow palyer, though. Yes, he was not a pacey type of player but he was mainly a lazy bastard in his offball movements. Still would offer more to our game than any of our current strikers.
Yes, but compared to our pacy, fluid frontline of Tevez, Rooney, and Ronaldo, throwing Berbatov in there just made him look really slow in comparison to what we were used to.
Why don't we sign this guy up https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/46453844 He is certainly more mobile than Lukaku & our defence, & would only cost us a few quality steaks each day.
You're not wrong of course. To maximise his strength, the man also needs to make good runs consistently. He is too static
Guy is a limited player, simple as that. Like a number of our players, and I think many accept this. We all want to see someone get the best out of Lukaku, but I cannot see that under Mourinho. And, as I said, he is a player with limited ability. Whether he works on his touch etc, who knows. But his form is dire, his general play, decision making.. all of it seems completely misaligned at the moment. You have to do more than score a few goals as a big-club-No-9, and he simply is not doing it. Doesn't seem capable either. His weight gain is weird, no benefit there at all. I see him as a Zaha type player... a good player, if he is playing for a club with little expectation, as he afford to keep doing things wrong.
He’s exactly the kind of player Jose likes much like his other donkeys he holds close like this reservoir dogs of s&@%. If your tall, bulky, and do everything your manager says like flapping seals, even though they awful on the pitch who couldn’t be comfortable on the ball if a gun was pointed to their family’s heads, then technical ability does not matter with mourinho which most of the donkeys in this team doesn’t posses. But it doesn’t matter if your the worlds best player, he would choose his talentless untouchables over what’s best for the team. Look at our spine that will play tonight DDG Smalling Jones Matic fellaini Lukaku DDG does not count has he’s just part of the spine, look in front of DDG - what do they all have in common? None of them are comfortable on the ball, so from three phases of play Jose has built a spin of a group players, who are unable to start the play from the back, midfield needs three or four touches on the ball to even be comfortable passing, and our no9 loses the ball more times than a guy drinking 10 pints of beer. So in all lukaku leading the line symbolises what this team slash spine is all about, long ball that is anti ball playing. Defence can’t pass from the back, midfield moves slower than a sloth, and the no9 can’t hold onto the ball even if you threw Velcro on him. The entire spine minus DDG that Jose holds dear are all limited players, who are not good teqhnically
I don't think he has improved that much compared to when he was with us so far. Last season blinded me a little bit with how well he did to go into a big club and for once be the supposed focal point rather than at Chelsea, but he just hasn't improved much on the key factors that were stopping him at Everton from being appreciated more by opposition fans and pundits alike. For us he was excellent because he would get the goals and that was all we needed, because it was something that we lacked for many years under Moyes at the end, a consistent 20+ goals a season striker. This meant that his frailties weren't really discussed much because it only mattered towards the end of his time with us when the whole squad was generally under-performing and we were pretty pissed off as a fanbase. It's a completely different ball game for him now at United. He can't just be a goalscorer, and when he isn't scoring....well, he hasn't shown nearly enough the pace and power that we loved at Everton. He didn't need to bulk up at all so i'm surprised at the staff who let him do that because when he was leaner he was still stronger than 95% of all defenders in the league and would brush them off with ease when he was at full throttle. He was at his best when he had people like Baines/Deulofeu threading lovely little through balls/driven crosses to him and playing in a team that was on the front foot with an attacking mindset. He'd honestly thrive with a fullback like Robertson who is the best in the league at those types of deliveries at the moment.
I used to think it was down to lack of service but, after watching him closely in recent months, I've come to the opinion that he doesn't move enough / doesn't find space for himself to invite a pass and that the likes of Vassell would probably score more than Lukaku does in our system.
He is static, maybe it is down to the fact he is not getting crosses so there is no need for him to make runs. Tbf the whole team is static, I wouldn't be surprised if DDG covers more distance in 90 mins than some of our midfielders.
Lukaku's Touch is an oxymoron. Like saying "Mata's height", "Fellaini's passing" or 'Chris Smalling's football brain".
Crossing to him is pointless, the man never near post runs. All he does is point fingers to random directions. He's a joke
I think most are being a little unfair on Lukaku. He's being played as a target man, HE IS NOT a target man. He's strong, quick and, usually, a good finisher. Holding the ball up is not one of his strengths.
Lukaku is a good striker on form. However good is not great, and great is not world class. Man Utd need to have a world class striker to be successful. He wouldnt get in the team at City, nor Liverpool, nor Spurs, nor Arsenal so why should he get in our team. Has the touch and mobility of a donkey
That might be too harsh. The guy is the leading scorer for Belgium and proven himself in the PL earlier. I'm not defending Lukaku but we Agreed. The guy is the leading scorer for Belgium and has proven himself in the PL. What we need is a proper midfield to provide him with the chances and I'm sure he would deliver. His being not in form and our poor midfield has made him an easy scapegoat.
This is a mitigating factor. Some games there's close to zero delivery. He's still not good enough for us I think, but he's much better than what he's shown this fall (not even PL level at times).
I'm not doing this modern day Man Utd fan thing very well am I, my first thought when he stood on the ball was he was lucky as he could have done himself some serious damage there, and not oh I must rush to RedCafe to try and outdo like minded people wanting to take the piss out of him....
Hardly made an impression? His hattrick against Liverpool with the overhead kick too alone should make it that made an impression in the big games. He has scored against Chelsea too and many other big games. Berba never played or rarely played as the CF. He mostly played as a number 10 with Rooney playing the CF position.
This season it's been atrocious. The rest of his career it's been inconsistent. One moment he'll have a terrible first touch and lose an easy ball, the next he'll bring in a fairly difficult ball perfectly. Only one gets put into the clips/gifs/memes.
