Sadly, I agree with pretty much all above. He may score a hat-trick against lesser opposition or when the pressure is off, but we need a cold blooded assassin in front of goal and in big games. He isn't that striker and never has been.
Lukaku cost us tonight
- Thread starter TheReligion
- Start date
I think so too. Not that bothered about him having some missed passes or bad touches, but the missing of big chances is a problem.
Great attitude today (and always) though, he's by far our best option as #9 just not as good as we need at times.
If we're winning the PL with him as #9, our wingers must be very efficient the whole season. Combined with Lingard it's a calamity
Great attitude today (and always) though, he's by far our best option as #9 just not as good as we need at times.
If we're winning the PL with him as #9, our wingers must be very efficient the whole season. Combined with Lingard it's a calamity
Ole was a better finisher. One of the things that I appreciated most about Cole looking back is that he taught me that judging strikers purely by goals totals is foolish, initial disappointment over his erratic finishing and Eric hating him but once he came back from the broken legs and Cantona retired he really came into his own. Missed a ton of chances but his movement and sharpness around the box was fantastic, kept creating more opportunities, stretching defenders. Can remember him absolutely torturing a close to prime Marcel Desailly on multiple occasions, one of the best CB's in the last 30 years.
Was never a great fan of RVN at Utd either, great striker, but those type of forwards tend to make the team rather one dimensional, much prefer more variation in attack.
Im surprised some people are surprised. Bar Falcao who was a crock he is the worst first choice striker we have had in a very long time. Wont win major trophies with Lukaku as when he isnt bang on it he isnt even average. It cost Belgium in the world cup latter stages and it has cost us in countless games with him either losing the ball or missing opportunities that top class strikers dont miss.
Tonight was just another prime example when he went round the keeper can you imagine RVP, Rooney, Ruud. Yorke, Cole, Larsson, Chicharito, Owen, Berbatov would have missed it? Maybe I am being harsh but this team isnt creating near enough opportunities so we cant afford someone who would miss them when he isnt on form. That goes in when we are playing well it could well have been a different game just as Belgium could well have been in the world cup final if he had taken some of the ver good chances he had in the latter stages. Add to that is hold up play and I really think I am missing something, has a good goal record but there is absolutely no way he is anywhere close to a £90m striker or whatever he cost. Tat was such a bad summer window for us last year, an over rated striker we paid twice as much as he was worth, a centre back was never going to be good enough (what on earth were the scouts thinking?), Matic at elast was a decent signing
Tonight was just another prime example when he went round the keeper can you imagine RVP, Rooney, Ruud. Yorke, Cole, Larsson, Chicharito, Owen, Berbatov would have missed it? Maybe I am being harsh but this team isnt creating near enough opportunities so we cant afford someone who would miss them when he isnt on form. That goes in when we are playing well it could well have been a different game just as Belgium could well have been in the world cup final if he had taken some of the ver good chances he had in the latter stages. Add to that is hold up play and I really think I am missing something, has a good goal record but there is absolutely no way he is anywhere close to a £90m striker or whatever he cost. Tat was such a bad summer window for us last year, an over rated striker we paid twice as much as he was worth, a centre back was never going to be good enough (what on earth were the scouts thinking?), Matic at elast was a decent signing
He didn’t even look up to see where the goal is. How many times are you told as a youngster to look up whilst playing football? Not the sign of a top quality player.
He missed an open goal tonight that is unacceptable. Period. It doesn't matter if he's knackered in the 40th minute or not. He shouldn't be missing those and cannot be missing those types of chances if he's to lead the line.
It was a terrible miss, and it did cost us. Goals change games. If he puts that ball into the wide open net, the result could very well have been different.
Quite frankly, I thought he should have done better with his other chance in the first half as well, on the ball from Shaw.
I’m not writing Lukaku off just yet - he’ll find some form - but I do wish we had a reliable back up striker. Neither Martial nor Rashford perform consistently either. We simply don’t have a decent alternative to Lukaku at the moment. It’s one of the many flaws in the squad.
Quite frankly, I thought he should have done better with his other chance in the first half as well, on the ball from Shaw.
I’m not writing Lukaku off just yet - he’ll find some form - but I do wish we had a reliable back up striker. Neither Martial nor Rashford perform consistently either. We simply don’t have a decent alternative to Lukaku at the moment. It’s one of the many flaws in the squad.
Not a TOP TOP player. Never was.
Larsson - how I wish we'd signed him at his peak. He was an outstanding striker. Mind you we were never short a good striker under Fergie.
Not sure how this is a new thread.... he needs several chances to score (or not) but that was the case last season.
Also, terrible touch.
Also, terrible touch.
I think Andy Cole was actually a good but not great striker, he struggled with Cantona who often looked frustrated with him. However COle with Yorke was world class.....still, he was better than Lukaku though.
I think amongst the myriad of problems we have, one of them is a total lack of partnerships, we have no centre back pairing whatsoever, nor an attacking one or in central midfieled...tho this of course is a bit different in a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 to establish this bar the defence which ironically is where it is most missing.
I do miss The likes of Sheringham, Solskjaer, Yorke, Cole, Ruud, RVP and to some extent Berbatov and Hernandez. Just one of those players who if they get a chance in the box they score. Other examples though not united players are Kevin Phillips, Aguero and Denis Bergkamp.
I Love Lukakus all round game but would like to see him up top with a box player who is a bit more clinical, because he does miss some to be honest.
I Love Lukakus all round game but would like to see him up top with a box player who is a bit more clinical, because he does miss some to be honest.
As others have mentioned, when you compare Lukaku to the likes of RVN or RVP, he is miles behind what an elite striker should be. He works hard, makes a nuisance of himself, holds the ball up well. But he seems to score the easy goals, that most strikers should bag. Usually from inside the box and dead center in front of goal. He will never score a volley from outside the box, or take a ball on the halfway line and beat 4 defenders before chipping the goalie. We saw glimpses of that with Rashford in his break-through season, and with Martial, but they have both tailed off and their performances against Brighton were woeful. Sometimes you look at this team and think that they need better quality throughout! It's a worrying time, but you have take the bad times on the chin, because they just make the good times even sweeter.
Yes same with Ibrahimovic, not surprised we never built on Mourinhos decent first season looking at the ins and outs, primarily losing Ibrahimovic to injury and Lukaku being the replacement. We lost both a quality striker for one that only is 20% of the season and we also importantly lost a leader too
We have to mention his record against the top 6 again because this is yet another game in one of those fixtures without a goal
Cole's first touch was pretty damn good too (e.g THAT goal vs Spurs in 99) but he always seemed a confidence player. Lukaku has different strengths. I thought I saw an improvement in his overall play last year but he's still so frustrating at times. Would like to see him with a proper strike partner or under a different manager.
I think hes missed sitters in each of our three games this season.
Crap, he let Belgium down at the WC too.
Would agree with pretty much all you both say apart from the "all round game I love" and "hold the ball up well" parts as, I would say they are both absolutely dreadful, far worse than his finishing. I think his workrate and runnnng with power down the channels are where he is good but 90% of the time his hold up and link up is very often where we lose the ball as his first touch is generally so poor. It pains me to see Lindelof, Fellaini and Lukaku wearing our shirt 10x more than it did seeing (as he alluded to himself the other night) and absolute shell of a prime Michael Owen wearing our number 7 shirt....and those three cost us £150m odd, just think about that......wow
Strikers miss chances, it happens. The problem is we build our entire system around him and marginalize other players to suit his game, so if he's missing chances we're screwed.
Just not reliable. There was a period where he went over two months without a PL goal last season too remember and he's already costing us big time this season.
Is anyone really confident when you see him through on goal? Aguero, Salah, Kane against a keeper and I think "Goal" Lukaku and it's "Please don't miss."
Is anyone really confident when you see him through on goal? Aguero, Salah, Kane against a keeper and I think "Goal" Lukaku and it's "Please don't miss."
Not first, not last time. Good striker, not an elite one.
At 25 years of age, a player can’t improve his first touch. For this reason alone he will never be a top bracket player.
He’s also a big lump who doesn’t he use his physical presence at all...this guy is sadly a fraud at the top level. I quite like him, seems humble and all that but he’s a not good enough for us leading the line if we want to be successful again.
He’s also a big lump who doesn’t he use his physical presence at all...this guy is sadly a fraud at the top level. I quite like him, seems humble and all that but he’s a not good enough for us leading the line if we want to be successful again.
Neither Martial nor Rashford ever gets a start up front unless it's an emergency. Mourinho should give them a go.
One chance cost us losing 3-0 at home.....?
Wow
Wow
If it were Salah or Aguero against Brighton and Spurs, with the game at 0-0, we would be 3 wins out of 3 at this point.
We hear a lot about him being a student of the game, watching a lot of football and videos to learn from his mistakes. But none of that has helped him prevent the ball bouncing off him.
One has to ask the question, will a player like him ever play for Real or Barca? I really like Lukaku, his touching life story, his personality. But lets be honest, he will never be an elite level player, he doesnt have the technique or skill to reach that level .
We should aspire to a better no. 9 than Lukaku. He should be our second choice striker and should be used for specific games and situations.
We hear a lot about him being a student of the game, watching a lot of football and videos to learn from his mistakes. But none of that has helped him prevent the ball bouncing off him.
One has to ask the question, will a player like him ever play for Real or Barca? I really like Lukaku, his touching life story, his personality. But lets be honest, he will never be an elite level player, he doesnt have the technique or skill to reach that level .
We should aspire to a better no. 9 than Lukaku. He should be our second choice striker and should be used for specific games and situations.
Yeah, didn't want him when we signed him - has never been a united forward. I've actually grown to like him; his willingness to improve, his backstory etc but he will never reach the standard of a united forward. Having him upfront informs how we attack and it's not the style an elite club should be attacking. Too clumsy, not clinical enough.
Unlike top strikers ( I will use the likes of Law and Greaves ) as an example but there are certainly more recent strikers I could refer to, Lukaku will never be a top striker, because he does not anticipate where the ball will arrive, but reacts only when the ball reaches him so everything becomes rushed, his first touch, moment, balance and the final shot / header.
Top strikers anticipate the arrival of the ball and have already worked out what they will do with it, thus nothing is rushed, body angle and balance is right to receive the ball thus everything is fluid so they only have to concentrate on striking the ball correctly. Hence they normally score or at least make the keeper work and of cause make it look so easy.
This part of the game you cannot coach, you either have that ability which makes you a stand out striker or you do not. Unfortunately Lukaku in my opinion does not.
Top strikers anticipate the arrival of the ball and have already worked out what they will do with it, thus nothing is rushed, body angle and balance is right to receive the ball thus everything is fluid so they only have to concentrate on striking the ball correctly. Hence they normally score or at least make the keeper work and of cause make it look so easy.
This part of the game you cannot coach, you either have that ability which makes you a stand out striker or you do not. Unfortunately Lukaku in my opinion does not.
People will continue to slate him, but he's essentially been asked to be the entire attack by himself. He doesn't get anywhere near the amount of support the likes of Salah and Aguero get. If you put Mane and Firmino alongside him, he'd look miles better. Same with Sterling, De Bruyne, etc. Tonight he had four central midfielders and two fullbacks who can't cross very well in support. He can't do it all on his own and I think his failures against bigger sides come from the rest of the team' ineptitude in supporting him (which is at least in part a problem with our tactics).
He sums up the laughing stock we have become under Ed ! We are now a bang average team and the sooner we all relax and realise Ed doesn't really give one if we win a league or not the better . He's happy top 4 and do his commercial deals. We are miles behind the others and imo Lukaku sums it up he is truely shocking
The simple reality is that Fergie's great teams of 1999 to 2003, 2007 to 2009 and even the slightly above average side of 2011 to 2013 all had centre forward options and width, either through Full backs or Wingers.
Compare Sheringham, Ole, Cole and York's or Saha, Tevez, Rooney, Ruud and Ronaldo even Berbatov, Owen, Van Persie, Rooney, Chiquarito to Rashford, Lukaku, Sanchez and Martial. Lukaku wouldn't be 4th or 5th option in any of Fergie's teams, Sanchez, Martial would be wingers or Number 10's and Marcus would have been the only player to have developed into maybe 3rd best option as a no 9.
Lukaku is a poor finisher but has physical merits, however he's shattered from a World Cup campaign plus Jose is responsible for making him feel he is undroppable! Lukaku should be competing with at least another 1 or 2 elite level strikers. Its a complete derelict of juty that a club of our size currently has 1 serious no 9 target man as an option when our wage bill is £289M, probably more than Spurs total turnover.
We need to appoint, right now, a DOF and need to clear out the deadweight who just don't deserve to be wearing the shirt. Its not a knee jerk comment we have been having the same conversation for the last 4 seasons over certain players who have either not developed or never had the ability to play for the biggest club in the UK. Yes we were ok in the first 30 minutes, Lukaku missed 2 sitters, but the same defenders and same midfield players make the same mistakes, season in season out that continue to break the hearts of loyal fans.
Had we kept Wilfred Zaha, Chiquarito, D Wellbeck, M Keane, J Evans, Raphiel, D Blind, - All sold for pittance of about £50M and not bought M Darmian, M Rojo, V Linderlof, E Bailly, J Mata, Angel Di Maria, Falcao, M Schnederlain, B Schweinsteiger, M Feillani -265M (None of which improved the club!)
We would have £215M more available, a much younger squad, and the funds to buy 2 Elite Centre Backs, 1 more Elite Centre forward so we would have options and some genuine wide quality. We are a blunt instrument, predictable in our setup, predictable in our substitutes, predictable in our formation. Players need to earn the shirt or jog on, Woodward needs to lay the law down, after all he gave Pogba, Lukaku and Sanchez a combined salary of over 1 million pounds per week, currently not to turn up.
The 'Theatre of Dreams' is about unpredictability, swashbuckling attacking football and wining trophies and this club now needs to be unpredictable in it's next two vital appointments of Director of Football and New Head Coach to ensure that we get back to what made us so revered around the World.
Compare Sheringham, Ole, Cole and York's or Saha, Tevez, Rooney, Ruud and Ronaldo even Berbatov, Owen, Van Persie, Rooney, Chiquarito to Rashford, Lukaku, Sanchez and Martial. Lukaku wouldn't be 4th or 5th option in any of Fergie's teams, Sanchez, Martial would be wingers or Number 10's and Marcus would have been the only player to have developed into maybe 3rd best option as a no 9.
Lukaku is a poor finisher but has physical merits, however he's shattered from a World Cup campaign plus Jose is responsible for making him feel he is undroppable! Lukaku should be competing with at least another 1 or 2 elite level strikers. Its a complete derelict of juty that a club of our size currently has 1 serious no 9 target man as an option when our wage bill is £289M, probably more than Spurs total turnover.
We need to appoint, right now, a DOF and need to clear out the deadweight who just don't deserve to be wearing the shirt. Its not a knee jerk comment we have been having the same conversation for the last 4 seasons over certain players who have either not developed or never had the ability to play for the biggest club in the UK. Yes we were ok in the first 30 minutes, Lukaku missed 2 sitters, but the same defenders and same midfield players make the same mistakes, season in season out that continue to break the hearts of loyal fans.
Had we kept Wilfred Zaha, Chiquarito, D Wellbeck, M Keane, J Evans, Raphiel, D Blind, - All sold for pittance of about £50M and not bought M Darmian, M Rojo, V Linderlof, E Bailly, J Mata, Angel Di Maria, Falcao, M Schnederlain, B Schweinsteiger, M Feillani -265M (None of which improved the club!)
We would have £215M more available, a much younger squad, and the funds to buy 2 Elite Centre Backs, 1 more Elite Centre forward so we would have options and some genuine wide quality. We are a blunt instrument, predictable in our setup, predictable in our substitutes, predictable in our formation. Players need to earn the shirt or jog on, Woodward needs to lay the law down, after all he gave Pogba, Lukaku and Sanchez a combined salary of over 1 million pounds per week, currently not to turn up.
The 'Theatre of Dreams' is about unpredictability, swashbuckling attacking football and wining trophies and this club now needs to be unpredictable in it's next two vital appointments of Director of Football and New Head Coach to ensure that we get back to what made us so revered around the World.
The form he's in right now, Firmino and Mane would never see the ball because it never sticks upfront.
He's in the worst form he's been in since he's been here but I'm sure he'll come good soon enough. Not a pressing concern right now.
Jesus Christ, he signed and played Alan fecking Smith. Get ahold of yourself.
All spot on. That second list of players is painful to look at. Mata the only one fit to pull the shirt on, and even he's not been great.
World Cup sums up Lukaku perfectly. Scored 4 goals against Panama and Tunisia and then became invisible in all games in knockout phase .
Still doesn't exclude him from missing against Brighton and today. The attempt against Brighton was woeful, didn't even hit the post/target. Tonight it was an even clearer attempt at goal with the angle not as sharp as some might say and he still didn't hit the post/target.
Th chances he missed are on him. When the game is 0-0 I expect my expensive striker to bang the goal in the open net that doesn't have a GK.
He played as many games at the World Cup as anyone and then Mourinho asked him to cut short his vacation and come back early. It was a terrible idea and the lack of sharpness we're seeing to start the season is proof of that.
very poor again tonight. i think he's a pretty good player but he is costing us and jose, his biggest supporter here, big time so far!