Lukaku is defo an enigma. General play ability is pretty poor for a pro and then scores two good goals. He’s huge, dwarfed their centre backs but doesn’t use his presence to bully people. He’s like a skinny boy gone big, and his mind hasn’t adjusted. He has bursts of energy and then looks seriously exhausted. He can make great passes but the ball pings off him to start opponents counter-attacks. Indeed oppos play off him, he doesn’t play on them. Against sides like Palace he is simply lethal but against better sides he looks unsettled. I guess he’s a bit of a manger’s, nightmare certainly is for me.
Sanchez tried hard again but he looks spent. In over a year he’s done nothing to justify his salary or even show glimpses of what he was, looks like Arsenal turned off the light when he left. There was no surprise he was subbed for Rashford who has recovered from an injury that ruined his game but 3 days before. That reflects badly on Sanchez. Fred is a mystery. At one point Shaw was telling him where to be positionally, very strange.
I would restore Young as a winger while he can still kill defenders for speed. McT was excellent yesterday, even bullying our overrated reject into getting a card. Young had a good game except for his lapse, but then every member of the defence had one lapse in that game. The defence made mistakes but Palace could not exploit them. Even with the passengers our sense of superiority was only ruffled once. Hodgson and his assistant were visibly distraught at how to counter us. This was perhaps a more telling victory of Ole-Phelan’s ability than any game thus far. They dealt with the injuries, deployed youth but without unbalancing the squad, and they shifted tactics almost like changing gears through the game.
Outstanding performance.