Lukaku - transfer speculation | Gone

[Manny]

Yeah watching Rashford shooting from 30m out every time he gets the ball will be lovely.

Thats fair but at least it's a shot. Lukaku needs 30m just for that first touch!

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Have to agree. So many posters saying good business, great business, etc.

This is a striker heading into his potentially prime years with a phenomenal goal scoring record. Say what you want about the rest of his game, but for every nice touch and fancy bit of skill Rashford and Martial has, Lukaku has a goal!

He doesn’t have a phenomenal scoring record
- far from it, least have a look...

• 1 goal in 23 appearances against the top 6
• Zero goals against the top 10 PL teams last season
• He scored 25% of all of his goals at Utd in the first 8 weeks.

He may be potentially reaching his ‘prime’, but far more likely his downward trajectory of fitness, determination and application will continue.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

His record in big games was absolutely appalling.

He was a 75m striker who would go missing every time we played a rival in the league.

 

[Litch]

Be careful what you wish for.....

 

[RobinLFC]

He may be potentially reaching his ‘prime’, but far more likely his downward trajectory of fitness, determination and application will continue.

He's neither on a downward nor upward trajectory - otherwise, how would you explain his record of 25 goals in his last 21 games for Belgium?

He's just what he always was - he scores against smaller teams and mostly doesn't against the big ones. The fact that United hasn't been at its best in the last few years was always going to lead to this situation. Could never be a success (and now I can also brag I said as much in the "Lukaku signs" thread at the time and got ridiculed for being bitter).

 

[Treble]

Moyes and Mourinho also know football better than all of us, it doesn't make some of their choices any less weird.

One top manager may make a mistake which the average fan on here can spot and criticise. Football is a pretty complex game which exceeds sometimes the competence of even the best managers and, statistically seen, sometimes fans may be right and managers wrong. But how big is the probablity that 3 of the top 10 managers in the world (and also all Belgium managers) rate a given player much higher than the average caftard and the caftard is right? Infinitely small.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

His record in big games was absolutely appalling.

He was a 75m striker who would go missing every time we played a rival in the league.

This./

We’ll ‘miss’ him against the teams 8-20 if Martial/Rashford don’t step up but in the big games he was often anonymous & for £75mil you can’t be that.

That being said, we’ve sold a £75mil attacking player & haven’t replaced him. For whatever reason we are in a position where this fee has funded a centre back purchase. We are a shambolic club currently.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

One top manager may make a mistake which the average fan on here can spot and criticise. Football is a pretty complex game which exceeds sometimes the competence of even the best managers and, statistically seen, sometimes fans may be right and managers wrong. But how big is the probablity that 3 of the top 10 managers in the world (and also all Belgium managers) rate a given player much higher than the average caftard and the caftard is right? Infinitely small.

Jose is nowhere near a top 10 manager in the world currently.

Belgium don't have a better striker.

Conte told Diego Costa he can leave and replaced him with Morata(even Lukaku is a downgrade).

They can get it wrong often.

 

[Treble]

Jose is nowhere near a top 10 manager in the world currently.

Belgium don't have a better striker.

Conte told Diego Costa he can leave and replaced him with Morata(even Lukaku is a downgrade).

They can get it wrong often.

You don't really answer my question. For it is not about one manager getting it wrong but about the probablity that 4-5 top/good managers being wrong about a given player and the average caftard being right. Probablity is very small.

 

[kouroux]

One top manager may make a mistake which the average fan on here can spot and criticise. Football is a pretty complex game which exceeds sometimes the competence of even the best managers and, statistically seen, sometimes fans may be right and managers wrong. But how big is the probablity that 3 of the top 10 managers in the world (and also all Belgium managers) rate a given player much higher than the average caftard and the caftard is right? Infinitely small.

Fellaini was rated by Moyes, Mourinho and his various national team coaches. I'm not saying he's a terrible player, he's clearly decent. However a manager rating a player doesn't mean the player is right for the club. Lukaku is a perfect example of that, him being loved by some managers, doesn't mean he was the right player for us.
They're not immune from rating players who just won't be efficient in a certain setup or context. Otherwise managers would never get it wrong when buying players and playing them. Nobody is perfect.

 

[Ramos]

He's neither on a downward nor upward trajectory - otherwise, how would you explain his record of 25 goals in his last 21 games for Belgium?

He's just what he always was - he scores against smaller teams and mostly doesn't against the big ones. The fact that United hasn't been at its best in the last few years was always going to lead to this situation. Could never be a success (and now I can also brag I said as much in the "Lukaku signs" thread at the time and got ridiculed for being bitter).

True. He's actually much better now for the national team then when he was 22-23. Would get criticized all the time, people where calling for Benteke, Batshuayi and even Origi. I remember that opening game against Italy at the Euro's in particular, critics were very harsh. Same with the Wales game. People would have laughed out loud if you predicted his future performance against Brazil back then.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

You don't really answer my question. For it is not about one manager getting it wrong but about the probablity that 4-5 top/good managers being wrong about a given player and the average caftard being right. Probablity is very small.

I mean I don't think anyone thinks he's actually terrible.

But he certainly isn't a world beater nor someone great. For the level we aspire to, he's nowhere near good enough.

 

[Treble]

Fellaini was rated by Moyes, Mourinho and his various national team coaches. I'm not saying he's a terrible player, he's clearly decent. However a manager rating a player doesn't mean the player is right for the club. Lukaku is a perfect example of that, him being loved by some managers, doesn't mean he was the right player for us.

Let's hope we will replace him with the right player then. Naturally, top teams win most of their points against midtable and poor teams and Lukaku was good against such teams. I reckon he will be missed. People drawing conclusions from friendlies that youngster X and youngster Y are ready are being naive.

 

[Siorac]

He's neither on a downward nor upward trajectory - otherwise, how would you explain his record of 25 goals in his last 21 games for Belgium?

His last 25 goals came against: Gibraltar, Greece, Cyprus, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Panama, Tunisia, Scotland, Iceland, Switzerland, and Kazakhstan.

Even in decline, you'd expect a striker supplied by De Bruyne and Hazard to score against most of these teams. In the Premier League, however, he was getting visibly worse. His goalscoring declined, he seems to struggle with stamina, seems to have lost some pace (and threw his toys out of the pram over it) - it's not just that we are shite though that is certainly true.

 

[2cents]

When given space in the box he can be insanely clinical when he’s on one of his hot streaks. He can also be devastating when given space to run into in wide areas. However when he comes up against better quality opposition which deny him that space, he’s unable to create it for himself and becomes pretty useless and in some ways a hindrance. And when he’s on one of his regular barren streaks, then it doesn’t even really matter how much space he’s given.

 

[RobinLFC]

His last 25 goals came against: Gibraltar, Greece, Cyprus, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Panama, Tunisia, Scotland, Iceland, Switzerland, and Kazakhstan.

Even in decline, you'd expect a striker supplied by De Bruyne and Hazard to score against most of these teams. In the Premier League, however, he was getting visibly worse. His goalscoring declined, he seems to struggle with stamina, seems to have lost some pace (and threw his toys out of the pram over it) - it's not just that we are shite though that is certainly true.

Yeah definitely agree that our opponents aren't anything to brag about, but nevertheless I think it's a quite impressive international record for him.

I think he could've easily stayed a 20-goal a season striker at Everton though, or another (midtable) club if he hadn't gone to United, and I think he'll be a 20-goal a season striker at Inter again. Just can't stand the cnut so happy to see the back of him in the Premier League. Can't comment on the stamina and pace since I didn't really notice it before but could be true!

 

[Adnan]

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[devilish]

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that's the kind of information that will brighten my day. I couldn't sleep an night thinking that the Glazers might not make enough money out of him

 

[Ole’s Wheel]

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I feel bad for them...they really don’t know what they’re in for, I remember being excited when we got him too...

 

[UnitedObsession99]

He doesn’t have a phenomenal scoring record
- far from it, least have a look...

• 1 goal in 23 appearances against the top 6
• Zero goals against the top 10 PL teams last season
• He scored 25% of all of his goals at Utd in the first 8 weeks.

He may be potentially reaching his ‘prime’, but far more likely his downward trajectory of fitness, determination and application will continue.

He isn't suited to us...that doesn't mean he is suddenly crap. He needs natural wingers, we literally have none!

 

[UnitedObsession99]

that's the kind of information that will brighten my day. I couldn't sleep an night thinking that the Glazers might not make enough money out of him

Nice...lets hope he scores 50 goals and gets snapped up by another club for £150m!

 

[R'hllor]

If i was Inter fan, i would cheer more for the fact that my manager wont go berserk and bomb whole season, because he missed to sign his striker target.

 

[Adnan]

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[kouroux]

Let's hope we will replace him with the right player then. Naturally, top teams win most of their points against midtable and poor teams and Lukaku was good against such teams. I reckon he will be missed. People drawing conclusions from friendlies that youngster X and youngster Y are ready are being naive.

I think his goals will be missed too if we don't add another attacker. However the man wanted to leave and went as far as training with another team, went to take cheap shots at his teammates and will probably criticize the club once given the opportunity. I'm glad we got rid of him. His attitude started to really stink.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

He isn't suited to us...that doesn't mean he is suddenly crap. He needs natural wingers, we literally have none!

He’s not a player to build a side around, or to rely on - unless you are mid table, ala Everton, and that’s his level.

He’s certaintly not a top striker, and his goal scoring record only stands up against if you ignore the fact he can’t against a decent side. Even then, it’s far from phenomenal!

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

To an extent I can buy the 'not a bad player, just the wrong player for us' and there were some good spells and some good goals but as he went on he seemed to lose his hunger, professionalism and basic skillset, which I found shocking for a highly-rated young striker.

I'm seemingly in a minority in thinking he was still pretty good in his barren spell in his first season. He held it up ok, worked for the team and did well drifting onto the right when he wasn't getting joy in the middle, so he proved he could be an effective focal point even without goals and there was a foundation to build on. However he turned in some real useless performances last season, and what alarmed and disappointed me wasn't that he didn't have the ability to do better but he'd lost the motivation to get himself fit and into the zone.

He'll go down as a flop of a signing; one that we're happy to be rid of and more or less recoup our losses on, which I didn't expect two years ago.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

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Well done Gary Neville. Lukuku ate all the pies!

Getting rid of this guy, who didn’t give a crap about his teammates has been long overdue.

 

[sullydnl]

Promising first season, terrible second season and he burnt his bridges here over the last week.

Good though it is that he is gone, he was still the best goalscorer we had at the club. Even if he wasn't scoring as much as he should have been or against tougher opponents, his goals will still need to be replaced.

 

[Neil_1982]

I’m gonna use one of my 3 posts per day (noob even though I’ve supported united for over 30 years) to say good riddance to the overweight lump of lard

 

[Shaw Mee Tah Mané]

His 45 goals over 2 seasons will be missed if he isn't replaced by a competent goalscorer. Not a player who could lead the attack at Liverpool and City but good enough for a top 4 contender. Both Sarri and Conte want him and they know football better than the posters on here. Bitterness makes people stupid.

40 goals against weak opponents.

09/17-2017 Man Utd 4-0 Everton (1 goal)
11/18-2017 Man Utd 4-1 Newcastle (1 goal)
02/25-2018 Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea (1 goal)

Thats his only 3 PL-goals against teams ending on the upper half of the table. They ended up 5th, 8th and 10th. Then you have the 2 goals against PSG. Should be possible for Rashford/Martial/Greenwood to deliver something similar or better during the next 2 seasons.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

40 goals against weak opponents.

09/17-2017 Man Utd 4-0 Everton (1 goal)
11/18-2017 Man Utd 4-1 Newcastle (1 goal)
02/25-2018 Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea (1 goal)

Thats his only 3 PL-goals against teams ending on the upper half of the table. They ended up 5th, 8th and 10th. Then you have the 2 goals against PSG. Should be possible for Rashford/Martial/Greenwood to deliver something similar or better during the next 2 seasons.

In 2 seasons, that really is pathetic.

 

[Treble]

40 goals against weak opponents.

09/17-2017 Man Utd 4-0 Everton (1 goal)
11/18-2017 Man Utd 4-1 Newcastle (1 goal)
02/25-2018 Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea (1 goal)

Thats his only 3 PL-goals against teams ending on the upper half of the table. They ended up 5th, 8th and 10th. Then you have the 2 goals against PSG. Should be possible for Rashford/Martial/Greenwood to deliver something similar or better during the next 2 seasons.

Taken together they will. Taken individually, I doubt it. There are many games to be played and injuries might seriously expose the lack of depth. Lukaku should be replaced by another striker.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

Stroppy lard arsed delusional diva. Dont let the door hit your overly ample ass on the way out fella.

 

[dove]

I always thought Lukaku was very professional but these last few months showed his different side. What a twat. Glad he is finally gone.

 

[Ainu]

Yeah definitely agree that our opponents aren't anything to brag about, but nevertheless I think it's a quite impressive international record for him.

I think he could've easily stayed a 20-goal a season striker at Everton though, or another (midtable) club if he hadn't gone to United, and I think he'll be a 20-goal a season striker at Inter again. Just can't stand the cnut so happy to see the back of him in the Premier League. Can't comment on the stamina and pace since I didn't really notice it before but could be true!

Why? Even if he plays for Belgium? I wasn't a fan around the 2014 world cup and 2016 euros as he consistently underwhelmed at the big tournament. The last few years have been great though, I was happy for him when he played so well at the world cup, especially against Brazil. Just a shame he didn't really kick on from there. We have to hope he picks up some form again though, if we want to do anything of significance at euro 2020 (I don't expect us to but hey).

 

[Mercurial]

He’s not a player to build a side around, or to rely on - unless you are mid table, ala Everton, and that’s his level.

He’s certaintly not a top striker, and his goal scoring record only stands up against if you ignore the fact he can’t against a decent side. Even then, it’s far from phenomenal!

The current iteration of Inter is roughly or slightly above Everton level though. It's a good match for them, and probably he will score with their wing play style. Any word or details on the sell on clause?

 

[RobinLFC]

Why? Even if he plays for Belgium? I wasn't a fan around the 2014 world cup and 2016 euros as he consistently underwhelmed at the big tournament. The last few years have been great though, I was happy for him when he played so well at the world cup, especially against Brazil. Just a shame he didn't really kick on from there. We have to hope he picks up some form again though, if we want to do anything of significance at euro 2020 (I don't expect us to but hey).

Dunno really, it's been like that since his Anderlecht and "School van Lukaku" days a decade ago and it hasn't gotten better with the documentaries that the likes of De Vlieger did with him. How he talks, acts, behaves on and off the pitch, I just really dislike him. I can easily warm to the likes of Vertonghen, Hazard, KDB, even though they play for rivals in the Premier League, but it doesn't happen with Lukaku. I'm obviously happy if he scores because it's good for Belgium, but I wouldn't mind in the slightest if his dip in form stays like that and we start with Batshuayi up front in the Euros (whom I love, admittedly), or even Mertens.

 

[Ainu]

Dunno really, it's been like that since his Anderlecht and "School van Lukaku" days a decade ago and it hasn't gotten better with the documentaries that the likes of De Vlieger did with him. How he talks, acts, behaves on and off the pitch, I just really dislike him. I can easily warm to the likes of Vertonghen, Hazard, KDB, even though they play for rivals in the Premier League, but it doesn't happen with Lukaku. I'm obviously happy if he scores because it's good for Belgium, but I wouldn't mind in the slightest if his dip in form stays like that and we start with Batshuayi up front in the Euros (whom I love, admittedly), or even Mertens.

Yeah he was getting completely hyped up over here when he was 16-17 but I don't think that's on him. I can see why he rubs you the wrong way though, he talks too much for my liking but still, he built up a lot of credit at the WC. I think we're a better team with him in top form compared to Bats or Mertens up front. By a large margin actually.

 

[Pexbo]

I always thought Lukaku was very professional but these last few months showed his different side. What a twat. Glad he is finally gone.

He’s shown his different side to the public.

It’s not a stretch to think he was difficult to work with.

 

[Nitewolf]

His 45 goals over 2 seasons will be missed if he isn't replaced by a competent goalscorer. Not a player who could lead the attack at Liverpool and City but good enough for a top 4 contender. Both Sarri and Conte want him and they know football better than the posters on here. Bitterness makes people stupid.

You can't possibly lead a team to top 4 if you can't score against top 4.

For God's sake, that game against City he was a bigger threat to our goals than to city goal, De Gea had to save to own goals from Lukaku. What the hell are you talking about?

However, Lukaku being bad doesn't mean we don't need to replace him. We need more players in many places. That's a completely different argument.

The argument that somebody who knows football want a player is also not correct, how many shity player did SAF sign?