Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea

EtH

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He turned 28 in May. He was with Conte for his age 26 and 27 seasons. Dismissing two years of his prime as "he's pushing 30" is either disingenuous or idiotic.

Suppose it's just unreasonable to say that Ronaldo ascended to a level in his age 25 season. Or that Ramos went up a level around that age. Benzama improved when he was 27 and then again when he was 30. Players hit their prime around age 25-26 - this is very well documented. Your position that no one can improve going into their prime has no basis whatsoever.
Hurls insults and then compares Lukaku to Benzema, Ramos and Ronaldo.

Good day to you, sir.
 

WeePat

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General performance. Whenever I have seen him in a big game he normally goes completely awol. I mean in just in the last five months (at a time where he has meant to have developed his game) he had zero impact in the games against City, Juventus and Liverpool for Chelsea and against Italy for Belgium.
We were down to 10 men at Anfield and we were forced into parking the bus against City. Hardly his fault that Chelsea couldn't get out of our own half against those teams, but even in those games, he wasn't useless. Admittedly he could have done better against Juventus. He played really well against Arsenal and Spurs. I suppose what I'm objecting to is the hyperbole. Well I thought it was hyperbole, but it seems people really mean it when they say he's totally useless.
 

TheMagicFoolBus

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Hurls insults and then compares Lukaku to Benzema, Ramos and Ronaldo.

Good day to you, sir.
You're the one who said it's unreasonable for players to get better around the age Lukaku did! It's got nowt to do with their quality relative to each other; again more willful misinterpretation on your part.
 

EtH

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You're the one who said it's unreasonable for players to get better around the age Lukaku did! It's got nowt to do with their quality relative to each other; again more willful misinterpretation on your part.
Ronaldo won a Ballon d’Or at age 23. Ramos was in between RB and CB until around that age. Benzema was always a top player but took a backseat to Ronaldo as Rooney did. Never mind that they’re all levels above Lukaku. So who is the fan of willful misinterpretation ?
 
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TheMagicFoolBus

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Ronaldo won a Ballon d’Or at age 23. Ramos was in between RB and CB until around that age. Benzema was always a top player but took a backseat to Ronaldo as Rooney did. Never mind that they’re all levels above Lukaku. So who is the fan of willful misrepresentation ?
So what? They all improved around ages 25-26, did they not? I didn't realise what you meant was "it's unreasonable to expect players to improve at that age unless there are mitigating factors".

And again, I'm not arguing Lukaku is better than or on the same level as any of them. The point is, they all improved around the same age Lukaku did - it's patently ludicrous to say that players can't get better.
 

EtH

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So what? They all improved around ages 25-26, did they not? I didn't realise what you meant was "it's unreasonable to expect players to improve at that age unless there are mitigating factors".

And again, I'm not arguing Lukaku is better than or on the same level as any of them. The point is, they all improved around the same age Lukaku did - it's patently ludicrous to say that players can't get better.
No. They didn’t. Good day to you, sir.
 

WeePat

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I'll give spoilers to his possible posts.

Scenario 1: Lukaku misses a chance and Belgium lose...
"Luckakoo miss :lol: :lol: "

Scenario 2: Lukaku scores and Belgium win...
.

.

.

.

.





Come on, we know scenario two is wrong. He'll find a funny looking cross or control in the 59th min and caption it ' :lol: :lol: '
 

Dave Smith

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We were down to 10 men at Anfield and we were forced into parking the bus against City. Hardly his fault that Chelsea couldn't get out of our own half against those teams, but even in those games, he wasn't useless. Admittedly he could have done better against Juventus. He played really well against Arsenal and Spurs. I suppose what I'm objecting to is the hyperbole. Well I thought it was hyperbole, but it seems people really mean it when they say he's totally useless.
I understand what you mean by hyperbole. I think it depends on what you want from someone that cost £97.5m and £350k+ a week. In my opinion, when you get to that sort of figure you should be getting a player who is both able to impact the biggest games and drag the his team past any difficulties i.e. going down to ten men and/or when the team are having an off day.

In my experience of watching Lukaku he does neither and I cannot really remember many times he has done it in his career (I do remember a cup game against Chelsea for Everton and SAF's final game for WBA, but whilst those where good games, they weren't exactly six pointers/where silverware is on the line for his team.)

For me however all the evidence points to him being both a flat track bully and technically limited footballer. This at least is what I have seen throughout his career and I haven't been provided with any real evidence to counter it.

Now don't get me wrong there is value in having a flat track bully as he is handy in making sure those annoying 0-0's/1-1's against the likes of Burnley when they pitch in do not happen as frequently; I mean this season he probably got you 2pts against Zenit as that game would've probably been a draw; although equally is it any different to what the kind of thing Giroud is capable off the bench?

This said, when I watch Chelsea this year, I actually think their attacking play is worse than last season. I say this as whilst he is a better finisher than the others', his technical deficiencies mean that you're front line not as fluid as last season and not creating as many chances (although I do appreciate that Mount is very important to Chelsea as he is very good at harassing the opposition and dropping between the lines to offer the CM's an out ball to the forward line; so some of the issues going forward may be partly due to him being injured/looking fairly fatigued.)

Thus, for me at least, it is not so much that I think he is god awful, it is more that he really isn't a player that should be commanding such fees or even be playing for the likes of Chelsea and Utd as there CF1. Rather he is the type of player that is just a cut below and should really either be there CF2 and/or playing for the likes of Everton or in a league that isn't as demanding.
 

Harry190

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Genuinely think there was no defensive mistake on that goal. He just showed too much quality. The defender set him up in a tight angle and on his wrong foot, the keeper had covered the space and he still scored.
 

Zoo

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Great from Lukaku but am still looking at Lloris there.
 

WeePat

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Skins Lucas Hernandez. Gorgeous finish.

 

Zaphod2319

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Haters gonna hate. A semi against France, you got to give him his due when he shows up.
 

WeePat

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I understand what you mean by hyperbole. I think it depends on what you want from someone that cost £97.5m and £350k+ a week. In my opinion, when you get to that sort of figure you should be getting a player who is both able to impact the biggest games and drag the his team past any difficulties i.e. going down to ten men and/or when the team are having an off day.

In my experience of watching Lukaku he does neither and I cannot really remember many times he has done it in his career (I do remember a cup game against Chelsea for Everton and SAF's final game for WBA, but whilst those where good games, they weren't exactly six pointers/where silverware is on the line for his team.)

For me however all the evidence points to him being both a flat track bully and technically limited footballer. This at least is what I have seen throughout his career and I haven't been provided with any real evidence to counter it.

Now don't get me wrong there is value in having a flat track bully as he is handy in making sure those annoying 0-0's/1-1's against the likes of Burnley when they pitch in do not happen as frequently; I mean this season he probably got you 2pts against Zenit as that game would've probably been a draw; although equally is it any different to what the kind of thing Giroud is capable off the bench?

This said, when I watch Chelsea this year, I actually think their attacking play is worse than last season. I say this as whilst he is a better finisher than the others', his technical deficiencies mean that you're front line not as fluid as last season and not creating as many chances (although I do appreciate that Mount is very important to Chelsea as he is very good at harassing the opposition and dropping between the lines to offer the CM's an out ball to the forward line; so some of the issues going forward may be partly due to him being injured/looking fairly fatigued.)

Thus, for me at least, it is not so much that I think he is god awful, it is more that he really isn't a player that should be commanding such fees or even be playing for the likes of Chelsea and Utd as there CF1. Rather he is the type of player that is just a cut below and should really either be there CF2 and/or playing for the likes of Everton or in a league that isn't as demanding.
It's not really his fault clubs keep paying huge fees for him. He is what he is. A very good striker with a very good scoring rate throughout his career.

I have no problems with people not rating him highly. It is what it is. In fact I agree with a lot of the criticisms of his game, but the post from another poster I responded to that started our discussion to was pure hyperbole.
 

cyberman

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Yet again he’s unable to hold the ball up when the team is under pressure.
Lukaku improving his back to goal game in Italy surely has to be a meme at this point
 
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Paul_Scholes18

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He was much better than last few Chelsea games and scored a great goal.

Looked a bit tired though at times as he do not run a lot.

Similar to his United days his pressing is pretty poor.
 

432JuanMata

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Yet again he’s unable to hold the ball up when the team is under pressure.
Lukaku improving his back to goal game in Italy surely has to be a meme at this point
This is what annoys the hell out of me about commentary. Even tonight sky where saying they can knock it long as Lukaku is great at holding it up.
It’s a myth and I think it’s just based on his size.
He has improved and while he could of done more in the 2nd half he was isolated and even for the offside goal he took it well.