Selling Lukaku...

roseguy64

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That's just insane. I remember when he was here, reading all kinds of stats about how he's the fastest player to reach X number of goals and etc. So glad we sold this guy!
The stats were true, up to the end of his first season with us. He and Kane were among the fastest/youngest to 100 goals or something similar. Then it fell apart after the WC and he lost it for us. Let's not reinvent history. He's a good goalscorer but didn't want to stay with us and so he was rightly sold. Just didn't fit despite his scoring talent.
 

ThatsGreat

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I strongly disagree. A team will never be a contender for the league in PL with Lukaku being the main man on top. He ain’t good enough. At all.
France won the world cup with Giroud up top.
 

Nr.7

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Failed to control simple passes, getting outmuscled with ease.

Watching Lukaku play is one of my worst experiences as a Man United fan.

Good riddance.
 

ThatsGreat

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World Cup has less games though.
No that team was built to maximize the return of griezmann, mbappe. Just as Liverpool is optimised for mane, salah. A 25 goal a season striker can lead a team to the title. That's not Utd, but it isn't as if that can't be done.
 

Class of 93

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Selling Lukaku to me has strong parallels to selling RVN in terms of the overall team context (not in talent though as I love and rate RVN) for those who remember the summers of 2005-2006. In both cases you had pure strikers, that became the focal point of our play, and prevented us from implementing a fluid front 3 with more goals from the wings. Their numbers looked great, but the team suffered overall.

The difference is when we brought in the replacement player for the system: we brought in Saha before we sold RVN, while Bruno came 6 months later. I strongly believe that if we had Bruno since the start of the season, this would be a open-and-shut case of a big name leaving to strengthen the team overall. Similar to Coutinho, unlocking a different style of play for Liverpool making them a better team. Obviously, injuries haven't helped either for us.

Nothing against Lukaku; he was a decent striker who did well but was always one notch below an elite striker in his overall game. Also doesn't need to be repeated, but his record against big teams is atrocious. Not what you expect from you elite striker; I remember Berba getting a ton of stick on his big game performances and he was much better than Lukaku on that front.
 

Reddevildans

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Selling lukaku was a strong signal of intent that the way we were playing just didnt suit us and wasnt in our DNA. This was blatantly obvious when chasing games especially during Jose's time here where we hopelessly launched balls into the box hoping for that perfect Stoke goal. He also had a terrible record against the big teams and wasnt really a game raiser. Since Ferguson we generally held our own against the likes of City and Liverpool but he never really contributed.
Ofcourse Lukaku scores goals wherever he goes but united and lukaku was a poisonous match from the go.
 

Robbie Boy

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Think I put the Lukaku thread on ignore when all the drama queens early season were making out like we sold peak Ronaldo after he started decent for Inter.

I wanted him at the time we signed him and found myself constantly defending him that summer. But my god, he was a total failure here, all things considered and we simply couldn't play Ole's desired fulid front 3 with him in the side.
 

Lj82

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Saying we’d have been better off not selling him? Semantics really
No, I'm responding to a specific claim that after we have our front three outscoring the Liverpool front three, people still wants him back as our striker. I don't think that represents the view that was being discussed in this thread.

I think it is clear that most (all?) posters here are saying it was the right decision to sell him, but some posters think it was wrong not to replace him with another striker, and a few(1?) posters think that without adequately replacing him, it might have been better to keep him. I don't agree with this last viewpoint at all, but I don't think it is the same as what the poster was insinuating. Anyway I'll just end this discussion here. Pointless to go in circles about it. I don't think people here wants to see Lukaku playing for us again.
 

cyril C

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One of the things that kept annoying me was the people saying that we sold Lukaku and replaced him with 17yo Greenwood. In reality we replaced Lukaku with Martial as it was him who took Lukaku's role in the team. Greenwood then took over Martial's old role. Both of them have proceeded to suit the role well and the team as a whole was strengthened because of it.

It was good work by Ole. He was open to buying the right player if they were available (Dybala and Haaland) but was also quite comfortable with what we had. Seems to have been proven correct.
And Inghalo for his aerial threat.
 

Robbo 7

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Think I put the Lukaku thread on ignore when all the drama queens early season were making out like we sold peak Ronaldo after he started decent for Inter.

I wanted him at the time we signed him and found myself constantly defending him that summer. But my god, he was a total failure here, all things considered and we simply couldn't play Ole's desired fulid front 3 with him in the side.
This.

Lukaku will always score goals wherever he goes, but his overall contribution and ability is not suited to United. His link up play and first touch would seriously hamper our style of play and Ole's vision for the team. Ole took a big gamble selling him and backing Martial and Rashford, and Greenwood to a lesser extent. All of them have delivered this season. Rashford and Martial have 20 goals each and have missed a couple of months each due to injury. And I don't think anyone could've thought the Greenwood would already be on 15, especially considering he has been used mainly as a backup.
 

VeevaVee

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It was great business.

I still see people saying he’s a good striker but I’m still wondering what he’s good at, aside from crossing. He gets a decent tally but at what cost?
 

RedWat

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It was great business.

I still see people saying he’s a good striker but I’m still wondering what he’s good at, aside from crossing. He gets a decent tally but at what cost?
Yes he indeed has a decent tally, looking at stats alone he is one of a very few strikers currently playing who has scored over 100 league goals and also scored over 50 international goals, he is also the record goalscorer of the world ranked number one team. But of course when you look deeper under the surface you will see that his scoring rate against the very top teams or in matches that really matters (critical international games or domestic games ) is very poor. Nearly 50% of his international goals have come from friendlies which is pretty high. The only game I can recall him scoring for us in a critical game is the PSG match. I remember being angry at the time when Hazard said that Lukaku goes missing in some Belgium matches but of course he was correct.

Yes VeevaVee it was great business selling Lukaku (if we purchased Bruno with the Lukaku money in the summer it makes you wonder where we would be in the league right now)

Indeed Romulu Lukaku is the ultimate flat track bully.
 

romufc

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It was brilliant business for us, we all knew Lukaku will score goals.

Watching him last season when the ball kept bouncing off him was difficult to watch.

We have made long term decisions for the club, yes we endured some pain watching United earlier but expect for the injuries, it is exactly how Ole would have imagined the season going.

He handles Greenwood really well, gave Lingard, Perreira a chance to show what they are capable of.

He has given Fred, McTominay, Matic, Williams, Shaw Rahsford, Martial all chances to show their skills.

Unfortunately, Lingard and Perreira failed.
 

Glorio

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We would have been higher up with Lukaku rather than no signing at all and waiting for Greenwood or other youth would come good.
Then if Lukaku would have moaned on the bench we could have sold him and bought a new attacker.
You do appreciate that one of Ole's biggest achievements is the cultural reboot? What tells you we would be higher in the table if the dressing room is still led by folks with mentalities that are not right for the club? This isn't FIFA. It could actually have been worse.

When rebuilding, if you have a toxic influence, better to get rid (not saying Lukaku was, but it sure seems like Ole wanted to get rid quickly). If not you're actually delaying the rebuild and risk poisoning more of the squad.

What was that Ole said again, better to have holes in the squad than .....
 

always_hoping

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He was a square peg in round hole at United. A typical Mourinho signing to suit his boring style of play. Lukaku was one of the most frustrating and unprofessional players to ever play for United and I shudder to think if he was still here and watching him unable to control perfect passes from Bruno and the rest of the attack having to slow down to accommodate him. He probably would have held back the much more talented Greenwood also which isn't worth thinking about.

Correct decision to get rid of him and the slower serie A league suits him much better. He also seems to have shed some of his excess weight, not easy in Italy in place full of pizza and ice cream.
 

ICHM

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Absolutely the right decision to sell him. We was a rotten apple in the pack and as people have said a flat track bully, unable to affect the big matches.

To get £70+M for him was great business on many levels. We still need to sign an experienced striker to replace Ighalo when he leaves.

Lukaku for such a big bloke is really a bit of a wuss on the pitch, I would expect the Alan Shearer type elbows and backing into people at his size.
 

PaulScores

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People still feel the same about this? Scored 9 European games in a row for Inter :houllier:. Excellent game in the Nations League as well...
 

RashyForPM

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Tbf, he clearly became a disruptive influence, so had to go. I do like him as a fantastic goalscorer though, and believe that the double standards we are showing by offering Pogba a new deal despite his attitude is totally misguided and wrong. Let's be honest, Lukaku contributed more to United in two seasons than Pogba in four and the start of a fifth.

If he had a better attitude, I would definitely have advocated keeping him. He's a better striker than Martial, and I said so when he was here. I never called for Mourinho to drop him even after his City debacle.
 

meamth

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It's not that he couldn't score, it's the aesthetics before he can score the goals.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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People still feel the same about this? Scored 9 European games in a row for Inter :houllier:. Excellent game in the Nations League as well...
He wasn't great for us in his last season. Although Martial and Cavani do not feel like replacing him.
They are a level under Lukaku for sure.
The money was used to buy Maguire first of all who I like, but is not worth 80 million.

Still before Lukaku performs in the biggest game and win something big he will never be seen as one of the best.
 

Lay

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I don’t think it’s that hard to understand why we sold him. He’s a good goal scorer and on some days is unplayable. But his style of play didn’t suit us and nor did it suit him.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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I don’t think it’s that hard to understand why we sold him. He’s a good goal scorer and on some days is unplayable. But his style of play didn’t suit us and nor did it suit him.
Not sure our style under OGS suits us either though. We are midtable at the moment.
 

Adam-Utd

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He's just a lot fitter and way more committed at Inter. Clearly wasn't happy here so it was best to let him go.

I imagine Pogba having a similar renaissance elswhere unfortunately.
 

bsCallout

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People still feel the same about this? Scored 9 European games in a row for Inter :houllier:. Excellent game in the Nations League as well...
Absolutely. The only question is whether we spent the funds well enough and with the fee for Maguire, I don't think we did.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Everybody is midtable form at the moment.
Hehe not really. Although the gap is not big since we have only played 7 games and most others 8.
Thus we could bounce back.
A Lukaku in our side and our chances to win things would be higher.
 

R'hllor

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People still feel the same about this? Scored 9 European games in a row for Inter :houllier:. Excellent game in the Nations League as well...
He could score 20 in a row, wouldnt change my mind, you cant play football with concrete wall upfront. He was here and we all saw it, nobody ever claimed that he is not able to score.
 

bsCallout

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Hehe not really. Although the gap is not big since we have only played 7 games and most others 8.
Thus we could bounce back.
A Lukaku in our side and our chances to win things would be higher.
No we wouldn't because we don't create the sort of chances for the type goals that Lukaku scores.
 

Ali Dia

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We still need someone in the box moving defenders around. We haven’t replaced that. It still feels like we have wingers trying to play striker for us who would be happiest trying to walk it in. Lukaku would probably give the likes of Bruno a bit more space to operate in. Who knows really. He was hard to watch while he was here but his numbers are great. I think everything has changed since Bruno got here. Players who might not have fit before might fit better now. We are a better team.
 

Smores

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I liked Lukaku but we had no choice we had to move him on really, he only had himself to blame too.

It's disappointing to see fans still talk absolute bollocks to slag him off though i thought they'd have got over the bitchiness by now.
 

AltiUn

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Hehe not really. Although the gap is not big since we have only played 7 games and most others 8.
Thus we could bounce back.
A Lukaku in our side and our chances to win things would be higher.
Lukaku hasn't won a trophy since 2011, unless you mean a prolific striker then yes, that'd be good, but not Lukaku.