Read Everton fan and lack of quality....and I didn't feel the need to read anymore. They should be lucky they had him as without his goals, they would have been relegation fodder....
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Really? And I remember your post when we bought him about being "happy/excited...".
Revisionism is a beautiful thing.
I’d rather play any of , Sanchez, Rashford or Tony up front and just drop Lukaku, what has he done this season to warrant a guaranteed starting place ?
I knew he had his flaws but deep down I thought 'he's still young, let's give him a chance to see if he can improve at a big club'. It's not happened.
See for you it’s incomprehensible how some people can change their opinions based on the showing and not try and defend something you have said ages ago. In fact, that’s what smart people do and forum would be much healthier place right now if some simply could stand back and revise their opinions.
Let me take a wild guess - you’re still Jose in?
Let's not throw him under the Jose bus as yet. I'm sure many of us were happy we signed him watching him at the WC. Let's not forget either the bloke playing in blue that many on here wanted us to sign instead....
Just after watching the game again. Lukaku looked pretty good in the second half, weirdly his touch, passing, dribbling and movement went up a few notches. When we play attacking, in your face football, all of our players play better. When we play hoof ball to Lukaku without any players for 30 yards, they play poorly... I wonder why that is?
I’d play Jessi as a false 9. Martial and Rashford either side. Lukaku can compete for a spot beside Smalling. Or go and become a bouncer or something.
Brilliant
If only Zlatan had a smaller knee injury at the time, taking him out for three months or so... I reckon we would've looked at a Chicharito type of option for a quarter of the price to combine with a recovering Zlatan and Rashford for last season.
Out of the available strikers that summer Lukaku was probably the best pick, and with guys like Cavani and Higuain getting older and older there's no way a goals guaranteed type of player like him isn't worth a lot of money. But despite scoring 1 in 2 for us he's among the most uninspiring #9's I've ever seen. Seems like a nice fella with a good attitude but when this guy is in poor form it's genuinely gruesome.
Out of the available strikers that summer Lukaku was probably the best pick, and with guys like Cavani and Higuain getting older and older there's no way a goals guaranteed type of player like him isn't worth a lot of money. But despite scoring 1 in 2 for us he's among the most uninspiring #9's I've ever seen. Seems like a nice fella with a good attitude but when this guy is in poor form it's genuinely gruesome.
I still have faith in Lukaku but he can't be undroppable irrespective of form ,ideally we should bring in two wingers in summer and let Martial compete with him for striker position it could really be making of both of them at United.
If that person is saying that we absolutely didn't need a striker that summer, but was happy and excited when we bought him then it's appropriate to call him out. Based on the showing? It's not like he played in feckin China, he was like this in Everton and even had a solid/good first season with us, but it was evident that he has problems in his general play.
And it's not like I was being right or anything as I wanted Morata, so we would be even more screwed. But, the truth is that we needed a striker or at least the majority of people wanted one after Zlatan left. But nope, let's scrap everything because Martial had a great game yesterday and just pretend he was an obvious solution all along. That's not changing of opinions that smart people do, it's reactionary bollocks pretty consistent around here.
Your guess is wrong. Both of these groups, including the one in which you are, can bore off.
He does not deserve the hate he is getting here. It is tearful.
The problem is, he gets minutes regardless. Sometimes, being taken away from the limelight helps and gives you some of the drive back.
resting him against Juve or the next game (and putting Sanchez up top) could do a world of good for him and others.
resting him against Juve or the next game (and putting Sanchez up top) could do a world of good for him and others.
People are going overboard with their criticism. He's not rubbish. He's not merely a lump. He's obviously a very good goalscorer as his record proves. However the rest of his game is just mediocre and that sticks out like a sore thumb at a giant club like Manchester United. At his best, he finishes well and is otherwise adequate. When not at his best, he doesn't finish well and is otherwise terrible. I don't think that's good enough for a team with serious ambitions.
Top 4-8 team striker for me. Not a title winning/challenging one. Players like this contribute to the lack fluidity we all bemoan. If we aspire to be among the likes of Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern, we cannot field a main striker whose technical ability is so low IMO.
Top 4-8 team striker for me. Not a title winning/challenging one. Players like this contribute to the lack fluidity we all bemoan. If we aspire to be among the likes of Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern, we cannot field a main striker whose technical ability is so low IMO.
My thoughts too.
If a team is exceptionally creative, then it can win the title with Lukaku up front. That's not the case here.
Hit the nail on the head, we would need more creative players to succeed with a striker like him. (Look at Belgium NT for example)
But we dont
Nah, he’s a poor footballer. If you took away his name and just wrote a list of his strengths and weaknesses, it would honestly be hard to discern if you were talking about Romelu Lukaku or Chris Smalling.
He might get you some goals but overall his play is poor, no decent control, no creativity, needs everything on a plate, first touch is atrocious and for 80million, we got well and truly shafted, no doubt about that.
Considering his size he's pretty useless at holding up the ball and bringing others into play, I think I would rather have Glenn Murray playing up front, a much more intelligent player..
Considering his size he's pretty useless at holding up the ball and bringing others into play, I think I would rather have Glenn Murray playing up front, a much more intelligent player..
He is our Mario Gomez, fairly productive in his individual totals, but limiting to what the attack is capable of.
It might just be the shirt, but he looks heavier than would be ideal.
Pretty much, it was my issue when we were linked with him, he is obviously a good player but it's not the type of player that a team aiming for the PL or the CL wants to have. As a second or third option, he would be great for us, someone that starts maximum 20 games in all competitions every year and contributes to a dozens of goals.
People keep talking about his record so he must be good. Darren Bent had a good record but scored lots of goals against cannon fodder opposition. Is Lukaku really that much better?
This makes no sense. If the team is exceptionally creative, Lukaku would ruin everything that happens behind him and would be tossed out of the team. Would City win the league with Lukaku? Probably, who knows, but we’ll never know because Pep would never buy such a limited footballer. We are not the most creative team, but we would also be more creative with a better player up top, it goes very much hand in hand.
Siggy cost us £40 and Richarllison was a steal at £35m we don't pay over the top prices that is why £45m is most Rom will fetch, man utd vastly overpaid.
Adriano?
How much would Icardi have cost us when we bought this lump?
Lukaku looks really heavy more than usually.
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Lukaku is a good goalscorer. If the team manages to create chances for him, he will score loads. Guardilola wouldn't want him because he wants his striker to press and be very dynamic but Lukaku would socre many goals for that City side. He could give them another dimension against defensive teams as he is good in the air.
He is absolutely terrible. I don't know why we keep pursuing with him. Jose just feels the need to play him because he cost 90 mil.
But strikers are part of the creation part because their own movements and touches contribute to it.
If it’s manifesting itself as hate then that’s not on, but he absolutely deserves to be criticised for his performances this season. Not even close to good enough for a team with silverware aspirations.
Not that it's really relevant, but he's shite in FM19 too. Needs about 20 easy chances to score one. They've nailed the realism this year
I think Jose has demonstrated several times that he isn’t afraid to make big decisions in terms of dropping someone. Rooney and Sanchez were both earning significantly more than lukaku and he had no problems benching them.
With lukaku, he obviously feels that he is the only one who can bring what he wants of the #9 role and having been proved right on a few occasions he would rather trust lukaku to get it right again than put someone else up top.
True, this is why I said "an exceptionally creative team", like City. Lukaku might reduce to an extent their creativity but they can put fantastic crosses to him and Lukaku's limited movement wouldn't be such a problem.
But an exceptionally creative team is exceptionally creative because of everyone. A simple player can make them not exceptionally creative anymore.
Let's not paint it in white and black. In some teams the striker is crucial for the creativity of the team, in others he is more of a pure finisher. I think that City would win the league with Lukaku, he would'nt stop them from scoring many goals. Even if they score fewer goals, the reduction won't be from 100 to 70 or something. People are going overboard with Lukaku's limitations. I was talking about them when people were content with him. Now I defend him because people go to the other extreme.
I hope he scores 20+ goals this season so that we can tempt Inter into exchanging him for Icardi.
He deserves criticism for some poor performances of course, but most of the posts on this thread are actually belittling him rather than criticizing him. We are generally a poor side on both ends and he's usually the furthest man forward, so it should really be understandable to everyone that he's the one that suffers most. Watch him for Belgium and watch him for United, the contrast is clear. He is underperforming the same way the whole team is. The man is the quarter of the problem, but people try to make him out as average and never being good enough.
Yes City would win the league with Lukaku but not with him in the starting lineup, Guardiola would rather player Sterling up front and win the league. I don't think Lukaku is capable of playing those intricate one-twos.
I can't even imagine Icardi in a team that is not designed to create chances for him.
People were saying that City would be fecked if they lost KDB. Well, they have done pretty well without him. They played 2 away league games without both D. Silva and KDB and won them 2:0 and 5:0. They are not that dependent on a single player, having Lukaku wouldn't ruin their attack. Remember that Lukaku scored 26 league goals for a dire non-creative Everton side.
It’s due to his tactics. Jose doesn’t want to train our defenders to pass out from the back and play under pressure but instead to hoof it forward bypassing the opposition midfield to lukaku. The problem with this is that lukaku is a terrible targetman. For a big guy he isn’t aggressive in the air and hardly lays it off to any of our players when given the chance.
I believe this is the sole reason lukaku will never be dropped. If our tactics were to somewhat change lukaku wouldn’t really be needed in the team.
People also asking for Sanchez to play the number 9 will encounter the same problem and start to blame him for being ineffective. Because alas we will see de gea hoofing it to a 5’6 player expecting good results in the air. Still happy to try it though because lukaku right now is sort of a mess and needs a good resting.
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