Not really? Icardi and Lukaku play nothing alike and Inter play and attack nothing alike last season
Not really, he's generally very involved in the build up.
For every poor touch there's a good one. The way this place zeroed in on that and started making it up as if everytime he got the ball outside the box was a turnover makes no sense to me
Yeah that's what I thought and confused when I read that post. Icardi is barely involved in the build up and he was more box player doing damage off the ball, Lukaku is more involved and runs the channel well, takes on defenders and beats them with his pace.
True. We played him in the wrong system but annoyingly it's not like we've done better since he left — our system is generally a mess so it's hard to say we've bettered ourselves by getting rid just yet.This place
What happened to all the posts saying what a donkey he is? He's scoring and seems to be enjoying his football, good luck to the guy.
He wasn't what we needed and it was clear that he wanted to leave even though he was played often by Ole, scored against fodder like Palace and Southampton but had a poor record against the top teams.
Is it a stick to beat him with? Shouldn't be as we knew what we were buying. Now he's doing well it seems to be polarising opinions on here.
He played due to injury, it was clear he was second choice.
There's surely zero doubt now that we should have said no to Lukaku, made him happy and promised a move next Summer. We'd be in a much better state now with him in-form in this side.
Yes, but who knows if Inter would have been back in for him this season? £75m is a good fee to get of him.
Similar as in neither of them are much use outside the box. Lukaku has two areas in which he is effective; using his strength to hold an attacker off in the box, or running with the ball down the channels. Icardi was much the same, he was great in the box and would hold the ball up down the channels. It's not a style that works in the PL anymore, you need strikers like Firmino and Kane who are everywhere and involved in everything.
I won't have it, our main problems lie in not replacing him not in keeping him. Rashford was well on his way to smashing Lukaku’s United league goals for a single season.
I don't know, I think we really did shoot ourselves in the foot. We knew he was leaving and a buyer was obviously always Inter and we did nothing with that time and knowledge to find a replacement. The thing is without this season being a success building long term will be hard? What quality player will want to join struggling team?
How do you build something without getting rid first? Lukaku left once the transfer window in England had closed, I am sure if a deal was done early, we would have got someone in.
The league was always going to be out of reach, but top 4 is not looking likely and neither does a piece silverware which would have constituted a successful season. Liverpool and City attracted players because they have Pep and Klopp at the helm and not a random PE teacher. The way things are going we are on course for consecutive seasons out of CL which will damage our ability to sign players in the summer window. You can build without gutting the squad which is what the manager did, it's not just about Lukaku but Herrera and Fellaini were also sent packing, all 3 walk into our current team and Ole thought he could make do without them. Really naive.
And that's just plain wrong. Watch inter games, see how much they rely on Lukaku in the build up
Inter were a crossing team with Icardi, because that's the best way to set him up. They cross considerably less this season because that's not a good way to set up Lukaku. Icardi is great in the box in a way Lukaku is not, and barely useful outside the box, unlike Lukaku
Works just fine for Aguero
No, his poor touches still lead nowhere. He simply doesn't always have a poor touch, contrary to popular caf belief. Neither did he in England
I agree with your points but If we are not going to compete for the title, I dont mind us if we plan correctly suffering this season.
What are you not having? That we'd be quite few points better off with a fit and happy Lukaku in this side?
That's helped by having Lautaro next to him
He wanted out because the club made him unwanted. Besides this is a Euro year, he would have sulked a little at first but probably would have gotten on with things. Lukaku wouldn't have been the first player who wanted out but that a club didn't sell.
It really frustrates me that people use this as an excuse to why Ole let our only real striker leave in the Summer, as you say, Ole made him feel unwelcome instantly, it'd be like blaming Smalling if he retired from England rather than Southgate. Of course Lukaku wanted to leave.
I work in Milan, i watch nearly every game. They set up to accommodate him but he is still very unpredictable in the build up. Lautaro is far more critical to that part of their game. Lukaku is doing well in Italy but this narrative that he has become a better player is not true, he is largely the same as before, but in Serie A he is not exposed as much.
Like I said in my post it was definitely the correct decision to sell. And also as I said it was a bad decision to not get a striker or a goal scoring right winger. Looking at Anderson, then Rooney and Shaws Manchester united history can you positively say we would have a fit Lukaku?
Good post.
Some beautiful future we are building now.
Yes, Lukaku was part of a beautiful present last season?
No but I thought getting rid of him was setting us in the right direction. We are clearly worse, we have Odion Ighalo coming from the Chinese league. I'm not a Lukaku fan but getting rid of him without replacing him was stupid, better to have just kept him
Aren't you condraticting yourself here?
Ighalo is a 6 month loan hardly a signing for the future.
We played our best football without him.
Ighalo should never be at our club, that's my point. That's how clueless the whole club has become, getting rid of certain players without replacing them is crazy for me. No wonder we are fecking shite, the direction we are taking by getting rid of players who don't wanna stay leaves us with many other ones who are fecking shite but do wanna stay. Wanting to stay doesn't guarantee any quality performance just like wanting out doesn't mean the player won't perform.
Spot on
Yeah I feel Oles man management is very poor. Not just for motivation making them feel confident about themselfes etc. He is not giving them enough individual coaching either to improve their game and work better with his tactics. I guess his assistants should help with that, but our coaching staff as a unit do not do that well.
Not really we finished 6th last year with Lukaku only scoring 15 goals. Martial already has 12 despite being injured for months early in the season.
