We will never win the league with Lukaku up front

Ondrej

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Same could be said about half of our team to be honest.
 

All 3 United

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I agree with the OP. He can’t influence games and we really need that from such a critical position.

He's so far behind the best forwards in the world. If we’re going to put it into financial terms does anyone think Spurs would take £100m plus Lukaku for Kane?
 

Rozay

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Dunno if we will or we won’t, but I’ve maintained that he isn’t good enough in my opinion.
 

Zoo

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Yes we can, he’s having a good first season, showing more to his game then most thought and he’ll continue to improve. Alright he’s not on Harry Kane’s level but very few in the world are.
 

Neilwij

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It wasnt Lukaku's fault tonight that we lost. We were awful all over the park. This is just a knee jerk reaction. I mean would things be any different if we had bought the other option Morata?
 

el3mel

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That thread title..

And Lukaku is the least of our worries tonight.
 

sullydnl

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Last year Chelsea won the league with Diego Costa up front. The year before Leicester managed it with Jamie Vardy. The year before that Chelsea won it with (again) Diego Costa.

Your striker doesn't need to be good enough for Real/Barca in order for you to win the PL. We can of course win a title with Lukaku as our main striker.
 

Hugh Jass

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I think Lukaku is the least of our problems. He's been involved in 24 goals this season. I mean, what more could you want?

Of course, there is room for improvement, but I think that will come. I think he'll get better.
I agree. 100%.
 

Drainy

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He needs a 'David Beckham' supplying him. He'd benefit from more passing/crossing ability from deep. Currently it's only really Pogba who is at that level to do it.

He currently lacks synergy with the rest of the attacking players, who prefer to play to feet and dribble/play through balls. His runs aren't clever enough for it, and we need to be more direct to compensate.
 

Hoof the ball

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I will say this. Comparing Kane's hold up ability to Lukaku's tonight was a little unfair since the positions in field were completely different.

Lukaku received inaccurate, rushed, long balls to him roughly around the halfway line with his teammates camped in their own half and no where close for support.
Kane received accurate, deliberate, long passes to him roughly to his feet mostly in the opposition half and final third with supporting players around him.

Context is everything.
 

Neilwij

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It wasnt Lukaku's fault tonight that we lost. We were awful all over the park. This is just a knee jerk reaction thread. I mean would things be any different if we had bought the other option Morata?
 

Skills

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Last year Chelsea won the league with Diego Costa up front. The year before Leicester managed it with Jamie Vardy. The year before that Chelsea won it with (again) Diego Costa.

Your striker doesn't need to be good enough for Real/Barca in order for you to win the PL. We can of course win a title with Lukaku as our main striker.
Costas a poor example to use. He's a great striker, who led Atletico to a CL final and a La Liga title.
 

MacabbiUnited

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Lukaku isnt our problem. Theres only souch a strijer can do when the entire midfield is standing still and doing nothing.

He wont create his own goals. He needs the midfield working. In a day where Pogba looks like sh*t, Lingard does nothing, Martial and Sanchez are invisible, what can he do? I dont he was given one good pass after the second goal.

Our problem is team spirit. We lost games with prime Rooney and Vanistelroy upfront, but at least we tried to win them. Today we gave ul at the 30th minute. Thats up to the coach. And Im not one to vriticise Mou usually.
 

Sylar

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Dont think we win the league with Smalling as a starting CB playing a good number of games (especially the big ones), or Young as LB, or basically some of the other odd decisions we make (mostly players out of position).
 

Dirty Schwein

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Tonight everyone looked dejected and lacklustre. Of course Lukaku should be criticised but so should the rest of the team. We were horrible all around.
True. Just weren't up for the fight. Phil Jones saw the inevitable and thought he'd grab himself a goal.
 

Castia

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You could have Neymar or Ronaldo upfront tonight and they would have done the same....feck all because the team performance was nowhere near good enough. We aren’t creating chances he can’t work miracles.
 

arthurka

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I've been criticizing him this season a lot but I feel sorry for him.. He gets no service what so ever.. Get some decent balls in the box and he will score goals.. Our setup and play for him is terrible. He is the least of the problem we have.. Lacking characters, leadership and game changers is..
 

NJM78

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I actually don’t think we will either unless we balance the team with an actual right sided winger/playmaker and have Pogba playing the most advanced of a midfield 3. We continue down the same road and don’t invest in some excellent players in the summer I can honestly say we won’t win league with Lukaku upfront. I think City could because they create a hell of a lot of chances each game and have better passing and creativity in general. We are still very much far from winning the league again imo, I could easily see us go another four or five years without a title unless we get better players and balance throughout the squad.
 

James Peril

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Doesn't score enough goals, doesn't create enough chances, doesn't try hard enough, doesn't sniff out new positions if the first ball never comes in, slow on the turn.... the list is long of things he doesn't really do well. People on here carry him higher every time he does something positive, and protect him when he's crap, but this will change over time if his form continues.

With Lukaku what you see is what you get. He scores against poor teams and offers nothing against the best teams, he does very, very little for our best players. They play for him, he doesn't play for them. 4 goals in his last 16 league games and counting. Worse ratio than Nacho fecking Monreal.
 

Cheesy

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He just needs to work harder IMO. Gives centre backs a free pass.
I don't get the impression he's a particularly hard-working player though. Give him a chance and he's generally clinical but he's not the most intelligent player insofar as he's not going to make things more difficult for defenders except when provided with scoring opportunities.
 

Nytram Shakes

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I would also say we will never win the league playing tactics that doesn’t suit our main striker.

Look at when he was deadly for Everton, the ball was played into his feet and he would use his power and speed to beat defenders pretty much every ball played to him is high an long.

Is he good enough to lead the line for a team wanting to challenge for the title? I’ve no idea and no one ale does, and never will until we actually start even vaguely playing to the players strengths.
 

Vilev

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I maintain, that even if Jose had Kane, some calls him like the greatest striker currently in football, Jose will find a way to ruin him as well. Ibra was exceptionally technically gifted and how did he went on last year? In Prem i mean. A lot of games where he was even worse than Lukaku.

The main point is absence of attacking game. Kane was good today, because Ali, Eriksen, Son all knew their maneuvers, all understood each other moves, etc. Because they are training these things. I don;t see any evidence that United trains anything to do with attack. It seems to me that all our attacking moves and simple stuff, like kick the ball forward and ten fight for it, get it to the wing and cross. Or pure improvisation from our players. Ultimately we lack any design in attack.
 

Rozay

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The reality is, we needed a centre forward in the summer in a poor market for centre forwards. I don’t think many of us really wanted Manchester United to buy either Lukaku or Morata per se. We would have had our preferences once the options became clear, but neither were standout options we would have been asking for in March or April. That said, they were the only two about and I think we picked the better one.
 

Andersons Dietician

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I think it’s more someone just needs to ring up Jose and inform him of two simple things he seems oblivious of.
1. Pogba is better in a 3
2. Lukaku is not a point forward and prefers the ball in front of him to come on to.

It’s actually that simple, there are more adjustments that could be made but Jose seems stuck in this slow build up, deep play and 4231.
 

TehRed

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It's not his fault, we're not providing the supply into him and we certainly aren't playing to his strengths. He's done well with what he's been given so far. I fear we're in danger of making him into a flat track bully though, because our lack of quality service into him is far more apparent in the bigger games. He's good enough to still grab a goal against the weaker teams in spite of the garbage we are drip-feeding him.
 

IronCroos37

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I don't like him at all, not my kind of striker. I just, see him as a better version of Benteke, one of the better midtable strikers, perfect for 5th place battle.

Front 4 of Pogba, lingard, Martial and Sanchez is the best we got, while playing a midfield 3 of Matic and somebody else with Martial up-front.
 

leontas

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It’s not Lukaku’s fault if he’s not getting any service. We have other issues to solve, namely tactically. We can’t keep playing Pogba in a midfield two. We keep making the same mistake over and over again that it’s getting insane.
 

Pennywise

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Better is required to elevate this team. We need better than Lukaku, better full backs, a centre half alongside Bailly and at least 2 central midfielders. The team needs major surgery to compete for the top prizes