[DannyCAFC]

As mentioned, strange game. His link-up play early on was impressive, then he had a period where he was quiet and hardly involved though (though was came down largely to the service).

Idiocy on that offside with Herrera, you'd think as a ST he would have instinctive left that to Herrera anyway and wanted to get in the box for the square ball to score.

Then a horrible miss, followed up by a fairly simple goal but one he had to be alive to the rebound on.

 

[AdNani]

That's the joke

Haha, apologies, missed the humour

 

[Sylar]

The miss didnt bother me as much as it should have. More so because of how fast it came to him and he had to react with his wrong foot. I was happier that it didnt feck him up and he scored straight away after that which is what we want to see.
I dont think the service to him was as good as it should have been, but his hold up play at times was good.

The brainfart though. Our team in general had quite a few today ...

 

[Bestie07]

Except finish from point blank range you mean?

Look at the time it was posted!

 

[NoPace]

Scored a goal, missed a sitter, his touch was inconsistent and he was largely isolated.

As expected. He'll score goals, probably a good amount of goals, but he'll not help us close the gap to Europe's best. Might be enough to win the league if other steps up though.

We won the league and got a CL final with Chicharito up top. I could see this being the same thing, except Mourinho would have benched Chicharito in the CL final and played Rooney alone up top.

So, it's true that Lukaku isn't going to help us close the gap in that he's not good enough to start for the best 3 teams, but if he scores 25 goals in 30ish starts in the Prem on rebounds and counters and such and is sometimes dropped for Rashford as the lone striker in Europe or big prem games away over the next 3-4 years then we could still win a lot with him here.

 

[Theonas]

We won the league and got a CL final with Chicharito up top. I could see this being the same thing, except Mourinho would have benched Chicharito in the CL final and played Rooney alone up top.

So, it's true that Lukaku isn't going to help us close the gap in that he's not good enough to start for the best 3 teams, but if he scores 25 goals in 30ish starts in the Prem on rebounds and counters and such and is sometimes dropped for Rashford as the lone striker in Europe or big prem games away over the next 3-4 years then we could still win a lot with him here.

That's a fair point. You can say the same about Mourinho as well really. Definitely capable of winning but difficult to see any of this leading to producing one of the absolute best teams in Europe. The question is what do we aim for though? For a club our size, the aim is usually to be the best and be considered in the same breath as the Reals and Bayerns of this world. The argument I guess is that it is one step at a time but I have my reservations about that as in my view, for that to apply, we need to be actively working towards it in our playing style and personnel. As it stands, it doesn't look like we are aiming that high for it to qualify as the first step towards being one of the best.

 

[NoPace]

That's a fair point. You can say the same about Mourinho as well really. Definitely capable of winning but difficult to see any of this leading to producing one of the absolute best teams in Europe. The question is what do we aim for though? For a club our size, the aim is usually to be the best and be considered in the same breath as the Reals and Bayerns of this world. The argument I guess is that it is one step at a time but I have my reservations about that as in my view, for that to apply, we need to be actively working towards it in our playing style and personnel. As it stands, it doesn't look like we are aiming that high for it to qualify as the first step towards being one of the best.

If the club wanted us to be Bayern or Real, the move would probably have been to pay a huge amount and steal away a younger, more attacking manager like Pochettino, buy some midfielders and defenders and let Rashford and Martial develop by playing every week and be happy with incremental progress for a few years. But we're too panicky and rash post-Ferguson for that sort of thing.

Instead, we've gone with a win now type manager in Mourinho who is trying to develop youth and buy a mix of young players who can play right away (Lindelof, Bailly, Lukaku) and older players he trusts or rates (Matic, Mkhitaryan and we tried for Perisic).

 

[Mr Smith]

Am I the only one that thought his hold-up play was quite good against Madrid? I thought if anything we didn't play it into his feet often enough.

 

[Sultan]

Am I the only one that thought his hold-up play was quite good against Madrid? I thought if anything we didn't play it into his feet often enough.

I thought his hold up play was not existent last night. Fellaini did much better in that aspect.

 

[Mr Smith]

I thought his hold up play was not existent last night. Fellaini did much better in that aspect.

Only loses the ball once when played into his feet. Every other time he controls it and lays it off, usually bringing another teammate into play.

Edit: probably could have done better with headed flick-ons though.

 

[Suedesi]

Not going to be harsh on the lad, given it's his first game and tried hard. Missed a bad chance and had a brainfart running into the Herrera intercepted ball, but he did okay today. Would like to see a little bit more movement off the ball, I felt he was kinda waiting for the ball instead of trying to run and drag Ramos/Varane all over the place.

Overall solid debut. Just no more foul throws and brainfarts Romelu

 

[Red_toad]

Didn't look out of place, playing against the best team in the world. Bar the miss a very good competitive debut.

 

[ash_86]

Had a good debut, took the goal well after the horror miss. His hold up play is far better than what's being taunted here. His contributions are going to be massive for us.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Btw how do people expect him to be involved when our midfield goes awol?

 

[MDFC Manager]

I think he'll score 30 goals over all competitions, one way or the other.

He needs to as well, given the lack of goals from elsewhere.

 

[Mr.Ridiculous__]

Good signing

 

[psychdelicblues]

Apart from the miss, he played well given the poor service. Regarding that brainfart , maybe from the angle he was at, he thought the ball played to him was via a poor backpass.

 

[FCBarca]

The state of the match thread concerning Lukaku, many of you should bury your heads in shame. Lukaku over Morata might be the best thing United do for years

 

[el3mel]

Interestingly, the main complain about him was him not scoring against big clubs. I don't think there's bigger than Madrid to score against.

 

[Sammyjunn]

A few very clumsy moments, the off side, throw in, missed chance. Weird player.

 

[K2K]

It's a measure of the man to not go into hiding after that missed chance.

I really have a positive feeling about him.

 

[K2K]

Am I the only one that thought his hold-up play was quite good against Madrid? I thought if anything we didn't play it into his feet often enough.

I thought it was quite good too. Even his first touch wasn't a pass as they claimed it would be.

 

[JJ12]

When he gets the service he's going to be a beast. People saying he's not good enough to win in Europe after this performance is a joke.

The team will grow throughout the season and last night was a good learning curve for all.

 

[Cro]

Thought he had a mixed performance last night, but I won't hold that against him. Playing isolated against Ramos/Varane isn't an easy thing to do und he did well at times with the ball at his feet, bringing others into play. But he HAS to score that opportunity and I'm sure he would admit that himself. Pleased for him that he put that second one away, otherwise the papers would be ripping him apart.

 

[Seveneric]

We won the league and got a CL final with Chicharito up top. I could see this being the same thing, except Mourinho would have benched Chicharito in the CL final and played Rooney alone up top.

So, it's true that Lukaku isn't going to help us close the gap in that he's not good enough to start for the best 3 teams, but if he scores 25 goals in 30ish starts in the Prem on rebounds and counters and such and is sometimes dropped for Rashford as the lone striker in Europe or big prem games away over the next 3-4 years then we could still win a lot with him here.

That was with a manager who could win the league with a team cobbled together, making them play better than they actually are. Not Mourinho who seems to need the perfect player in every position before United can apparently start expecting consistent results.

 

[roonster09]

The state of the match thread concerning Lukaku, many of you should bury your heads in shame. Lukaku over Morata might be the best thing United do for years

You should educate your Barca friend @serghei who thinks he is like Benteke.

Yeah Match thread was awful for all players, people are too excited and quick to crap on every player.

Re Lukaku, he is a goal scorer and will score plenty. His overall game is very underrated imo.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Apart from the miss, he played well given the poor service. Regarding that brainfart , maybe from the angle he was at, he thought the ball played to him was via a poor backpass.

That would be the only possible excuse. I wonder why Hererra didn't roar him out of it?

 

[Serendib]

He looked a tiny bit off the pace yesterday but he showed great strength in the first half. Not sure what he was thinking with the throw in and offside, bit of naivity there.

Should have buried the first rebound, but good to see him learn from his mistake and place the second one.

I think he'll benefit immensely with pace on the wings, playing inside forwards won't help his overall game if I'm honest. I think he'll bag between 20-30 per season, which would suit us perfectly.

One thing I'd like to see him do more is stretch the defence or make the run in behind - most of the time he'd come short and the last 1/3rd of the pitch looked congested.

Anyway, yesterday's game was a glorified friendly, and I'm happy with the way we acquitted ourselves. We weren't overawed and created plenty of good chances.

 

[Escobar]

I like him. Let's hope we manage to give him regular and decent service!

 

[The Cat]

Only a couple of weeks ago it seemed the most popular topic of conversation was how poor his first touch is.

Overall it looked plenty good enough last night I've not seen anyone bashing him for it the way they did when he signed.

Ok he missed a great chance but all strikers do that from time to time and he kept going and got his goal.

I can see him getting the golden boot this season - and comfortably too. He's only going to get better and better I'm delighted we signed him.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Ok he missed a great chance but all strikers do that from time to time and he kept going and got his goal.

Get with the program! Zlatan is the only top striker who ever misses big chances.

 

[barmyarmy]

He looked a tiny bit off the pace yesterday but he showed great strength in the first half. Not sure what he was thinking with the throw in and offside, bit of naivity there.

Should have buried the first rebound, but good to see him learn from his mistake and place the second one.

I think he'll benefit immensely with pace on the wings, playing inside forwards won't help his overall game if I'm honest. I think he'll bag between 20-30 per season, which would suit us perfectly.

One thing I'd like to see him do more is stretch the defence or make the run in behind - most of the time he'd come short and the last 1/3rd of the pitch looked congested.

Anyway, yesterday's game was a glorified friendly, and I'm happy with the way we acquitted ourselves. We weren't overawed and created plenty of good chances.

Agreed with the bolded part with his pace & power he can easily beat even the best of defenders which he showed last night on couple of occasions

 

[The Cat]

Get with the program! Zlatan is the only top striker who ever misses big chances.

My apologies

Would still like to see Zlatan back as an option later in the season - he carried us at times last season and the criticism is too harsh.

 

[Danny Roberts]

OK, so we're agreed he's gonna score a lot of goals? I wouldn't be surprised if he got 35-40 in all competitions if he stays fit (which he tends to). 25 league goals last term when he missed plenty of chances and played for a worse side.

 

[barmyarmy]

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[chb23]

Wish he would do more runs.

This team lacks off the ball movement. Would be worth it if we paid $50M for someone and all he does is make runs all game

 

[Eire Red United]

That would be the only possible excuse. I wonder why Hererra didn't roar him out of it?

Would you if you were Herrera?

 

[Mr Smith]

The state of the match thread concerning Lukaku, many of you should bury your heads in shame. Lukaku over Morata might be the best thing United do for years

The match day threads are an orgy of knee-jerk reactions and toxic crowd mentality these days; I almost always avoid them. I concur that Lukaku will be a huge player for us in the coming seasons.

 

[Offside]

Good for him to get a goal early on. Was funny when he forgot the offside rule.

 

[lem8sh]

Will not take us to the next level.