Heh, what's this? Weren't most on here agreeing that he was one of the best strikers at the WC?
Lukaku : Bulking up with muscle hurt me
- Thread starter Yorkeontop
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
So did the Belgium NT ask him to bulk up or risk not getting selected? If not, I don't understand why he wanted to bulk up on his already big figure.
Really don't get what putting on extra bulk would do for you in football in 2018. Certainly not at the top level. Not like Lukaku was stick thin or something.
Especially when Lukaku's touch and close control isn't that great - I'd rather he was fast and athletic than strong/bulky.
Especially when Lukaku's touch and close control isn't that great - I'd rather he was fast and athletic than strong/bulky.
He had 2 good games against trash opponents and 1 decent game against Brazil. The rest was bad. Average world cup at best.
don't believe this for one second. In such a short space of time and for what purpose? International football is "stronger" than the EPL?
Bulking up with muscle doesn't excuse the clumsy ball control, though.
Been taking pointers from Depay it seems
It can greatly affect your agility and therefore your touch but he was not exactly good in that department before bulking up.
You are focusing on 3-4 games in the Summer, for another team (Belgium).
I prefer to focus on his form for MUFC, in many many games, where he has been trash. His first touch has got even worse. He can't receive and control the ball. 10 minutes after coming on, he is huffing and puffing, struggling for breath, looking like he needs to be subbed off.
His form is abysmal and the obvious change is that he is twice the size as he was last season.
Now he has given an interview where even he mentions that becoming heavy is not working well for him.
I hear stories that most footballers are unusually daft. Lukaku fits that stereotype.
Why are people saying he got fat. He bulked, added some muscle if I get it correctly.
This explains why he hasn't been running as much. He's had to cut down his calories to try and lose weight. The guy must be drained of energy right now.
Putting on muscle made his physique sub-optimal for PL football. But trying to lose it has made his conditioning sub-sub-optimal.
If he started eating properly again, he'd probably go up a level or two, regardless of how muscular he is.
Putting on muscle made his physique sub-optimal for PL football. But trying to lose it has made his conditioning sub-sub-optimal.
If he started eating properly again, he'd probably go up a level or two, regardless of how muscular he is.
Exactly.
Even I notice significant improvements in agility when I am 165lbs, vs 155lbs. Basically, being athletic is much easier when you are lighter.
Consider that Lukaku is probably about 30lbs overweight and you get the idea why he struggles on a football pitch.
At a lower body weight, an athlete can raise his leg or jump higher, a lot easier than when he has a higher body weight. He is also able to run for longer and uses less oxygen while running around on the pitch.
Lukaku didn't quite seem to understand any of these concepts.
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Bunch of unfit kids on the internet.
It's as if they couldn't wait to call him fat, lazy and dumb.
It affects to an extent, have to agree. But as you said, he wasn't that great on that chapter either.
You just need to see videos of recent exibition games where you see extremely fat Ronaldo "Fenômeno" controlling the ball, and you realize that somethings cannot be taught, because I believe Lukaku probably spends at least some time trying to improve it.
He's gassed from cutting calories.
His inconsistent control is like what you'd see from a knackered player in extra-time.
His inconsistent control is like what you'd see from a knackered player in extra-time.
He was just cultivating mass, bro.
I don't care about him bulking up for Belgium I want to know why he was allowed to play 90 minutes of every game to the detriment of our season .our medical staff have a lot to answer for too. He should've been sent away on holiday. It's not like we didnt have any options upfront
Usually players who come to the EPL are told to bulk up so that they can handle the physicality. I have never heard of anyone bulking up for the World Cup or similar cup competitions. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Also, top players are always in peak fitness. They don't alter their body weight for different events. Ronaldo, Messi, etc have never even spoken about such things. People bulk up or lose weight trying to reach their peak fitness level.
Maybe Lukaku doesn't want to admit that he has hasn't looked after himself after the season ended and is now trying to make it sound like he did it on purpose. He reminds me of Diego Costa when he didn't play for half the season and left to Athletico.
Also, top players are always in peak fitness. They don't alter their body weight for different events. Ronaldo, Messi, etc have never even spoken about such things. People bulk up or lose weight trying to reach their peak fitness level.
Maybe Lukaku doesn't want to admit that he has hasn't looked after himself after the season ended and is now trying to make it sound like he did it on purpose. He reminds me of Diego Costa when he didn't play for half the season and left to Athletico.
Of course they can be taught, that's literally what happens with 100% of athletes, Ronaldo was also a futsal player which develops technique in smaller areas over everything else. One big difference for someone like Lukaku is that he has always been faster, stronger and bigger than everyone else on the field, he most likely based his game on these attributes for his entire formative years which gave him less opportunities to develop the technical and positional part of the game, he focused on finishing.
Something else that people should note is that one of the reason someone as massive as Ibrahimovic was agile and technical is that he was also a martial artist. Side activities or the type of football, you played at youth level will affect the type of technical level that you have later, it's a lot easier to develop physically at a later stage of your career and it should never be a focus.
Adding weight didn't suddenly turn his feet into cinder blocks. He was looking better while the team looked good during stretches of last season, now that the quality around him has dropped, he is turning into the donkey his skill level allows him to be.
Muscle
You're a grown ass man, Romelu, deal with it.
You're a grown ass man, Romelu, deal with it.
This guy just loves excuses.
He will have bulked up to maintain his physical advantage over everyone else after a long and tiring season.
At most World Cups, players start the tournaments knackered from their league campaign. But Lukaku was clever enough to give himself a platform to keep his physical edge whilst everyone around him was running on fumes. By being even stronger, he could stay ahead of the curve despite losing some of his conditioning. The problem is that his strategy has come back to bite him in the PL.
It was a gamble. There can benefits as well as costs. I think if he had his time again, he probably wouldn't have bulked up, but you can see why he did.
Yes, I did:
He knew that was the reason, but I am not sure he worked on it. They had to do lot of tests to see what's the problem, and his harmstring injury happened recently which implies that club didn't work on it earlier in the season. He also implies that this is now his new training regime, not something that happened at start of the season.
Anyway, he is still too big and he generally professional athlete doesn't need 4 months to lose weight, which is enough argument that he isn't working on it since start of the season.
Of all the expert comments in this this thread, this is the only one that seems intelligent enough to trouble the coaching units of Belgium and Man Utd with. Though I’m quite sure it’s something they’re aware of and working with.
I remember when, under Fergie, Darren Fletcher came back after injury and was too weak even for a technical player (as he was deemed then). He came back after the summer having put on the few punds of muscle he was ordered to, and couldn’t do a thing right for a year. Misplaced passes, lost possession, it’s incredible sometimes how a lost tenth of a second of explosiveness can effect a football player depended on reflex movements most of the time. Still, it’s also worth noting that even if this is a power factor, it is quite usual for top notch coaching teams to make wrong guesses regarding how to deal with this in their oh so human players.
Here endeth this expert comment.
Most people are doing no such thing. They are wondering how it is that quite a few United players seem to have had issues with weight gain over the past decade or so; Lukaku being the latest. This seems to happen less, or not at all, at other clubs.People just love it when they get a chance to call a professional footballer fat and lazy
Don't need to be subtle, just call us stupid.
Probably makes it worse given he's become less athletic. Wasn't amazing to start with though.
Absolutely! I'm lazy as feck and nowhere near as fat as Romelu. I'd outpace him on a football pitch on any given day and my horrible first touch is miles better than his. So when he makes excuses like this, Imma call his fat ass out.People just love it when they get a chance to call a professional footballer fat and lazy
Only makes it worse because he was already subpar on that aspect. Extremely fat Ronaldo fenómeno can still flawlessly control a ball on those fundraising matches.
Never mind Ronaldo/Messi, not sure if I've ever heard a professional footballer openly talk about his physique as an excuse to poor performances, it's the most daft thing you could possibly come out with. What's also unbelievable is there's many posters on here that think this guy is being scapegoated. Aside from the odd tap in this season, his performances this season have been a disgrace to the shirt but he's obviously not the only one. To the point we might as well have Rooney back in his place, which is something I thought I'd ever say.
Can't help but feel this is a really late excuse as to why he's out of shape thought up by some PR lackey.
For no other reason than the fact he's talking about bulking up between the end of the season and the WC, which is such a small amount of time it renders the story improbable. Even a casual fitness enthusiast will know about recovery times and muscle growth - even if Lukaku was training at 100% with zero holidays and the perfect diet, he only had about 4 weeks for this alleged transformation. Probably less if you think about being match fit for the first game.
Basically it's a lot of hot air - to have added the amount of muscle he's implying (in that it directly has affected his game post WC) would have taken months of intense training. What is more likely (given the time frame and visual appearance of Lukaku) is he maintained his fitness through to the WC and afterwards relaxed on holiday, lost a bit of strength, lost a bit of stamina and put on a little fat. All combining to make the very lethargic looking player we have seen since the start of the season.
For no other reason than the fact he's talking about bulking up between the end of the season and the WC, which is such a small amount of time it renders the story improbable. Even a casual fitness enthusiast will know about recovery times and muscle growth - even if Lukaku was training at 100% with zero holidays and the perfect diet, he only had about 4 weeks for this alleged transformation. Probably less if you think about being match fit for the first game.
Basically it's a lot of hot air - to have added the amount of muscle he's implying (in that it directly has affected his game post WC) would have taken months of intense training. What is more likely (given the time frame and visual appearance of Lukaku) is he maintained his fitness through to the WC and afterwards relaxed on holiday, lost a bit of strength, lost a bit of stamina and put on a little fat. All combining to make the very lethargic looking player we have seen since the start of the season.
Well thank you for the candid praise.
His physical transformation(detoriation) makes sense when taking the football played by us into consideration.
Regarding the Darren Fletcher comparison; Putting on weight(either muscle or fat) will make ones control over the body decrease unless one is able to do distribute the weight/muscle/strength unisonally thoughout the body. Something that is not easy to achieve, and thus it will take time for Lukaku to get used to his "improved" physique. This increased weight will not improve his touch on the ball, make him less able to shift directions fast when running(something that was a weapon for him due to his size) and make him a less useful footballer(in my eyes). But given that we play static, slow and simple football this would in theory make him more useful for us.
How many of you read the article? It answers most of the questions here.
It appears he is eating a lot of fish and veg. A lot.
Subtlety is far beyond my pay grade ...Don't need to be subtle, just call us stupid.
Basically he admit to not taking care of his body well, justifying his shit form of 4-5 months, and making excuses that his figure is not the right shape for PL plus hint of tiredness and hamstring injury.
Whose advise did he listened to? Sounds like he's the only one that thinks this way, never heard of other player spoke of something similar. Wouldn't surprise me if he's the one that decides this rubbish.
Then again it easily sounds like a cover-up.
If he's already satisfied with that performance, then he's in no way going to improve his game and abilities, sounding like an oblivious guy not wanting to see his flaws, thinking he's already at the top of his game.
Then again, except the recent Fulham game, he sort of does playing like he's the star ego of the team -- lazy ass not enough effort in work rate, pointing others to press while he's just there jogging/standing around, and blaming teammates not making the 'right' runs meeting his shit passes/crosses.
Is he lacking in the self-awareness department or something.. wouldn't surprise me if he disagree his first touches are shit.
Don't know why this sounds BS -- International football needs more muscle to play better, but not EPL.Romelu said:
Whose advise did he listened to? Sounds like he's the only one that thinks this way, never heard of other player spoke of something similar. Wouldn't surprise me if he's the one that decides this rubbish.
Then again it easily sounds like a cover-up.
I think he's so full of himself thinking his WC performance is "great".Lukaku said:
If he's already satisfied with that performance, then he's in no way going to improve his game and abilities, sounding like an oblivious guy not wanting to see his flaws, thinking he's already at the top of his game.
Then again, except the recent Fulham game, he sort of does playing like he's the star ego of the team -- lazy ass not enough effort in work rate, pointing others to press while he's just there jogging/standing around, and blaming teammates not making the 'right' runs meeting his shit passes/crosses.
Is he lacking in the self-awareness department or something.. wouldn't surprise me if he disagree his first touches are shit.
George Elakobi had muscle, he's clearly in denial as the weight he's carrying isn't muscle, but fat.
Also Elakobi had a better first touch too.
Compare Lukaku with this...
Also Elakobi had a better first touch too.
Compare Lukaku with this...
I can see the note Mourinho handed to Woodward: I want a top grade international striker who’s strengths are compatible with our goal of playing static, slow and simple football. Is Jan Koller still playing?