Shame he can’t use that strength/power more effectively.
He was already huge when he joined United; most of the bulking up must have happened while he was at Everton. Still, he’s been at United well over a year now and has continued to get bigger, so presumably someone at the club is happy with it. Unlike Shaw under LvG!
I am completely sure that Mourinho has wanted him to work on his target game and part of that might have been to bulk up a bit. Muscle, not fat. Anyone in this thread that calls him fat is delusional btw...
Zlatan did the same when at Inter. You could easily have a before and after photo with Zlatan as well at the same ages and it would be even worse. Zlatan was a scrawny dude at Ajax tbf.
The difference is that Zlatan was able to carry with him his technique into a much bigger frame. Lukaku has not; or you can argue that he didnt have the technique to begin with, I guess.
I rate Lukaku as a player, but he will never be a #9 in a defensively oriented system like Mourinhos. His game is not playing with his back to the opponents goal and it will never be even if he puts on 10 kgs muscle more.
I am all for to keeping him around under a new more offensively oriented manager, but if we are going to play with a higher line and press he needs to slim down a bit or he will not have the stamina for it. Zlatan didnt make it at Barca under Guardiola just because of this and it will be the same for Lukaku under a new manager.