We will never win the league with Lukaku up front

[El Jefe]

Could have told you this the day we signed him. He’s as naturally talented a security guard as he is a footballer. I compared his football ability to Chris Smalling’s when he came, and I stand by that.

I think you're the only poster who dislikes Lukaku's footballing ability more than I do.

I do understand your frustration though. I've never liked him and he was always wank against us other that the 5-5 at The Hawthornes where we basically stopped playing. I've seen soft players such as Blind and Mcnair mark him totally out of the game with complete ease.

I had confirmation of his terrible ability in the 2016/17 season. He had a good first half of the season and was clearly the top scorer in Feb and was a shoe in to win the golden boot. It was at this point I decided to watch him objectively to see if he would prove me wrong but of course he didn't. Everton had games against Spurs, Chelsea, United and Arsenal and Lukaku was fecking woeful in all these games. He was nullified in all these games in a way no top striker should ever be. To make things worse he still lost the golden boot to Kane despite his lead and playing 8 more games.

As I've said many times, he's Mario Gomez with less goals.

 

[Judas]

I'd like to see what a proper attacking coach can do with him, but I've got major doubts he's good enough for us long term. He's shown signs of improvement at times.

 

[AshRK]

Hatred for him amuses me a lot. He may not be a henry or RVN but he has performed far better and been consistent than both martial and rashford.

 

[Rozay]

Based on goals vs Championship defenders? Lukaku has over a 100 PL goals.

Based on watching both play football. I’m aware of how many PL goals Lukaku has scored. At the risk of repetition - Lukaku is more suited to the PL than Rhodes because the ONLY thing Rhodes does better is finish. The entire point is that it requires more than that to be a top level striker. Therefore, a simple claim of ‘give Lukaku proper service and he will waltz his way to 25-35 goals a season’ is also applicable to Jordan Rhodes, as it removes any responsibility from a striker other than putting the ball in the net.

If Jordan Rhodes, or Romelu Lukaku, require a steady stream of presentable sitters - neither will be scoring 25-35 goals at the very top level. If you look at the players that do that with any regularity and watch their goals, you will see the fault here is with Lukaku.

I grew up watching strikers regularly saying strikers should be in around the 6 yard box as you will get 5-10 goals a season in there. Lukaku seems to want 30 in there. Again, Jordan Rhodes would get 30 in there with enough chances, as the fact that the rest of his game is below PL level would not matter. In reality, it does matter, just as it’s mattering for Lukaku. The fact that Lukaku is also a worse finisher than Rhodes is why he’s also missing a large portion of the sitters he does actually get.

 

[Rozay]

I think you're the only poster who dislikes Lukaku's footballing ability more than I do.

I do understand your frustration though. I've never liked him and he was always wank against us other that the 5-5 at The Hawthornes where we basically stopped playing. I've seen soft players such as Blind and Mcnair mark him totally out of the game with complete ease.

I had confirmation of his terrible ability in the 2016/17 season. He had a good first half of the season and was clearly the top scorer in Feb and was a shoe in to win the golden boot. It was at this point I decided to watch him objectively to see if he would prove me wrong but of course he didn't. Everton had games against Spurs, Chelsea, United and Arsenal and Lukaku was fecking woeful in all these games. He was nullified in all these games in a way no top striker should ever be. To make things worse he still lost the golden boot to Kane despite his lead and playing 8 more games.

As I've said many times, he's Mario Gomez with less goals.

I remember that season. He went on an amazing run in December where he nearly caught the record Vardy just set a month or so before. Think he scored in about 8 in a row.

To be fair, Kane is a bit Ronaldo-like and clearly obsessed over numbers and personal glory, so the end of the season just became a mission to get him the Golden Boot. Still, he should have never achieved it.

 

[Moby]

Based on watching both play football. I’m aware of how many PL goals Lukaku has scored. At the risk of repetition - Lukaku is more suited to the PL than Rhodes because the ONLY thing Rhodes does better is finish. The entire point is that it requires more than that to be a top level striker. Therefore, a simple claim of ‘give Lukaku proper service and he will waltz his way to 25-35 goals a season’ is also applicable to Jordan Rhodes, as it removes any responsibility from a striker other than putting the ball in the net.

If Jordan Rhodes, or Romelu Lukaku, require a steady stream of presentable sitters - neither will be scoring 25-35 goals at the very top level. If you look at the players that do that with any regularity and watch their goals, you will see the fault here is with Lukaku.

I grew up watching strikers regularly saying strikers should be in around the 6 yard box as you will get 5-10 goals a season in there. Lukaku seems to want 30 in there. Again, Jordan Rhodes would get 30 in there with enough chances, as the fact that the rest of his game is below PL level would not matter. In reality, it does matter, just as it’s mattering for Lukaku. The fact that Lukaku is also a worse finisher than Rhodes is why he’s also missing a large portion of the sitters he does actually get.

You've completely ignored the basic premise of scoring against PL defenses as opposed to scoring against Championship defenses. I obviously am not going to bother in highlighting the difference in skill required there.

 

[KM]

Someone is actually comparing Jordan Rhodes and Lukaku

Christ.

 

[golden_blunder]

Someone is actually comparing Jordan Rhodes and Lukaku

Christ.

I know, Jesus

 

[noodlehair]

It seems pretty cheap to have a pop at an individual player for not playing well, when if you wanted you could count the players who aren't playing badly while still only sticking the two fingers up at Mourinho.

He was our best outfield player last season and that's despite the second half of the season where he was effectively having to pass himself through on goal two thirds of the time.

You have players who've been consistently bad both this and for half or more of last season. If there is a reason we are not doing welll enough I would wager that has more to do with it than the person who since basically Christmas has seemed to score or set up about 90% of our goals

 

[Offsideagain]

Lukaku is having a barren spell as most strikers do. He needs the others to play to their top form and he will score. OK, he’s missed several glorious chances recently but he is one of the top strikers in the PL. Who would you swap him for that’s available?

 

[Needham]

De Gea
Semedo
Pique
Lenglet
Alba
Rakitic
Busquets
Arthur
Messi
Suarez
Lukaku
We'd certainly be challenging.

 

[Offsideagain]

De Gea
Semedo
Pique
Lenglet
Alba
Rakitic
Busquets
Arthur
Messi
Suarez
Lukaku
We'd certainly be challenging.

But we’re not Barca

 

[Needham]

But we’re not Barca

Oh, right. Back to the drawing board.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Was watching this video and I’d seen a few people mention the amount of size he has put on and looking at his time at Everton compared to now you really see it. Suppose being bigger helps with how Jose wants him to play but also you look at all those goals and how unisolated he is compared to how we play him when often it just seems like we punt a bal to him and expect him to perform a miracle.
Basically our whole team just doesn’t function as it should and I do think he can easily lead us to a title when he has shown previously he can compete with Harry Kane even when he wasn’t Everton’s main penalty taker. Add in he was doing it for Everton.

 

[Bastian]

I'd like to see what a proper attacking coach can do with him, but I've got major doubts he's good enough for us long term. He's shown signs of improvement at times.

Apparently Martinez wanted him wider right for Everton and not to play with his back to goal because he identified that he isn’t a target man. Shame Jose hasn’t seen that too.

 

[ForestRGoinUp]

Thread title should be changed to '...Lukaku up front, Lingard in behind, Sanchez running wildly, Matic holding(the ball too long), Fellaini catching punts on his chest, Valencia shinning crosses, Smalling tripping over his giraffe feet and Lindelof shying away from headers as a central defender'

or something along those lines. Squad is a mess.

 

[Pace Abuser]

I think it's hard to gauge without first trying him up front. I think he's wasted at right back atm.

 

[VorZakone]

He should be used in the 2011 Pedro-role. As in, not being involved too much in build-up but making off the ball movements and provide statistical output from wide, and stretch teams.

 

[TheRedHearted]

Perisic and a nice young right winger will feed him well. If only Mou wanted to sign Perisic, oh wait-he did. That was the board who though that Manchester United were too poor to buy a winger, or even more so that we should try to make a statement on a transfer target when we hadn't signed a true winger since Di Maria since Sanchez had a clause in his contract that said that he would sign for us but no longer belieev in himself.

Since Mou has spent just as much as Pep, oh wait- he hasn't. The board deciding to cheap out and consequently, we can't compete if we don't adapt is why we aren't competing for the league. We need width and also Harry from Leicester would have made us a more dynamic team. But then again, it's Mourinho's fault that Woodward appointed him, right? It's also Mourinho's fault hat Woodward appointed Moyes, Van Gaal, and that Gill left the same year as Ferguson. If Gill was around at least a year or two for Moyes things would be different.


But yeah, the idea that our problems are Lukaku and Mourinho's fault is a darn joke.

 

[Rozay]

You've completely ignored the basic premise of scoring against PL defenses as opposed to scoring against Championship defenses. I obviously am not going to bother in highlighting the difference in skill required there.

Someone is actually comparing Jordan Rhodes and Lukaku

Christ.

It’s actually me who should give up, as you guys are seemingly struggling to read.

Jordan Rhodes CANNOT (a-fecking-gain) score 25 goals in the PL as he does NOT have enough to his game. AGAIN.

However. He CAN score 25 goals if he were presented with a number of perfect chances, because he can finish very well. That said, it is NOT enough, which is why it does not matter. The point is, if you are saying Lukaku can score 35 goals if he had perfect service, that won’t happen either. IF you could guarantee perfect service for a striker, the game would be so simple that EVEN Jordan Rhodes could score 25 goals, as all you would need a striker to do is finish.

The point is, being able to score plenty goals if given perfect service is not good enough at the top level. You need to do more. Hence Rhodes not playing in the PL, and hence Lukaku playing in the PL but not scoring this amount of goals either. The service argument is not valid, basically.

 

[WR10]

When he’s in form and all the stars are aligned - he’s a beast. When he’s not, he has 0 natural talent and looks like someone you only invite to the Sunday game because he’s one of the lads but you really would rather he didn’t show up. The most unathletic, absurd and clown like step over/ball control I’ve ever seen from a premier league player

 

[BringNaniBack]

What about this thread https://www.redcafe.net/threads/the-flat-earth-theory-and-nasa.428951/

Another thread of mine that will eventually be shown to be true.

 

[simplyared]

Nobody was happier than me when we got him after seeing what he achieved at Everton. I honestly thought we'd got one of the best strikers in Europe and after Kane, the best in the PL. Even when he went through his first goalless spell with us I still had faith in the guy. However I've now come to the point where I've lost belief in the player. He is not what we want and he never will be. We cannot have Lukaku as our main striker, in such a key position, and compete at the highest level. He's been given more than enough opportunities. Time to say goodbye!

 

[b20times]

He looks like he's carrying a bit of timber if I'm honest, strong as an ox but his game has gone backwards as of late.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Nobody was happier than me when we got him after seeing what he achieved at Everton. I honestly thought we'd got one of the best strikers in Europe and after Kane, the best in the PL. Even when he went through his first goalless spell with us I still had faith in the guy. However I've now come to the point where I've lost belief in the player. He is not what we want and he never will be. We cannot have Lukaku as our main striker, in such a key position, and compete at the highest level. He's been given more than enough opportunities. Time to say goodbye!

Did you not like the way he played for Belgium in the World Cup?

It's the team and setup. The player is young, willing to learn and improve and hungry.

 

[AlecHDR]

So the probability of winning is 0? Or 0.00001?

If it is the latter, would it maybe go up to 0.001 if we buy Messi, play him a bit deeper and keep Lukaku upfront? Would it go to 0.1 maybe if we also buy Verrati in midfield and Hazard for the left wing? Maybe we can bring it up to 0.5 if we have Alaba at left back and Godin+Jimenez at CB? All that while keeping Lukaku upfront.

Sorry the word "never" in the title is really bothering me.

 

[gerdm07]

Silly discussion. With the right players around him and manager we could win a title with Lukaku.

 

[Mickson]

His performances for Belgium this summer beg to differ.

We all know he isn't going to waltz past 10 players and score but give him proper service and he will walk his way to 25-30 goal season. His positioning and anticipation is usually spot on, and needs more confidence and a stable team to get going instead of missing open goals. Can't expect him to win us games singlehandedly when the rest around him can't keep the ball for 2 seconds.

What performances, his goals against Tunisia and Panama? And his goalless matches against France, England, Brazil and Japan?

 

[PepsiCola]

Anyone who's seen Belgium play will disagree with that.

I'm talking about his United performances though. What he does for Belgium doesn't concern me.

He's been atrocious, so far. I really hope he picks up form.

 

[Aloysius's Back 3]

Lukaku's performances for Belgium are overrated. They would be a much better team themselves if they have a less bulky striker.

That was proved towards the end where Martinez instead played de bryune in a false 9 & shifted Lukaku to the right. That game was the best I had seen Belgium play for a long time with magnificent link up play.

What happened the next match when Lukaku played centrally upfront? Nothing but disappointment & knocked out.

The guy is better off to the right side playing to try and utilise his speed & his left foot.

If he is played centrally - the skills that he uses like his height & strength used can be problematic for the defence to handle for a whole match. He will never be consistent doing that because the outcome of that is dependent on the CB's ability to handle his strength & height rather than anything particularly consistent of his own nature. Blind would handle Lukaku all day because that type of football doesn't get the best out of him.

Now If Lukaku is played on the right - his problem is that he is playing a role that utilises his natural skills suci as pace, power & good finishing - but I don't think he would be better than Rashford playing as a RF nor Sanchez due to the technical ability.

Same with Belgium - put him centrally & he is inconsistent; play him as a RF then maybe just play Hazard on the LW & Nertens on the other side instead.

 

[Foxbatt]

It's not only his misses that's the problem. It's his lack of movement off the ball.
There is no way to pass to him when he is so static.
He then wants the ball played to his feet but his first touch is so bad there is no point in playing the ball to his feet.
He is a midtable team striker and now we are a mid table team.
If we are to win trophies we need a much better striker than Lukaku for sure.
I don't dislike the guy as it's the manager who picks him.
I hate Jose now for what he is doing to this club though.

 

[Ace of Spades]

I had big doubts about him before we signed him, and this looks another costly mistake. I would rather try to develop Rashford and Martial, than see this lazy fecker stroll around. He just looks so limited right now, it is very worrying.

 

[Handré1990]

Unfortunately not the player I was hoping for. I don’think he’ll ever be. Scoring goals has become such a chore for this team, I think ever since Moyes lost the dressing room. It’s like a sickness, and nobody is busting a gut to get them either.

Why do several posters bring up his WC? I thought he was pretty bad. Maybe 6. or 7. best Belgium player for me, and in the knock-outs it looked like, Hazard, De Bruyne and Witsel were actively trying to avoid passing to him, why was that, exactly?

 

[Moby]

What he does for Belgium doesn't concern me.

Well, it should. If the same player is playing differently and in case better, then it clearly says something both about his ability and the management and why are they not able to make him perform to at least that level if not more.

 

[Mike Oxard]

We could put Messi, Pele or Maradona up front and we still wouldn’t win the league with this team against what now opposes us.

 

[RikRuud]

He needs a partner up front. None of our other forwards compliment lukaku

 

[LoneStar]

I have finally accepted that he will never be a top striker.

He doesn't have the strength (doesn't use it) or the hold up play like Drogba, doesn't have aggressiveness like Costa, not deadly in the box like Aguero.

Very poor technically. Poor movement. No amount of coaching can improve this.

It is shocking that a player of his size can't win a single fecking header in an entire game. Misjudges the ball every single time.

I was laughing at the stepover attempt he was trying in the last match. That sums up his ablilities nicely.

 

[AdamAdams]

Did you not like the way he played for Belgium in the World Cup?

It's the team and setup. The player is young, willing to learn and improve and hungry.

definitely hungry, looks at least a stone over weight

 

[Fluctuation0161]

I have finally accepted that he will never be a top striker.

He doesn't have the strength (doesn't use it) or the hold up play like Drogba, doesn't have aggressiveness like Costa, not deadly in the box like Aguero.

Very poor technically. Poor movement. No amount of coaching can improve this.

It is shocking that a player of his size can't win a single fecking header in an entire game. Misjudges the ball every single time.

I was laughing at the stepover attempt he was trying in the last match. That sums up his ablilities nicely.

Agreed. Sad but true.

 

[Litch]

Never be a top striker....he's already a top striker. The thing I like about his stats are they don't lie. There's lots of opinions on here about his ability, not being able to score against 4 teams in the league but in the history of the prem, who's got a better goalscoring record when you also consider his goals where for Everton and West Brom? You can only be a top striker to do that year on year in this league that is a graveyard for so called top strikers. If it was that easy, why are there only an handful of players that have scored 100 goals in 200ish games? Any that's laced up a pair of boots, knows scoring goals is the hardest thing in football and that's why strikers cost the most money. There's someone called Morata, technical better......how many goals but I'm sure some of you are more impressed by his stepovers....I'll just stick with putting the ball in the net.