Prime Rooney and Benzema both are out and out strikers both have played as lone number 9s in some of the biggest matches in their careers.
I've been watching AC Milan since the late 80s. That team was the best I've ever seen in my whole life. Inzaghi was very much involved in AC Milan and is considered a legend at the club. He was central in that team which gave us a spanking back in 2007. You're talking here about a man who scored 126 goals in 300 matches for AC Milan and is their joint international topscorer with 43 goals. A guy who won CLs, Serie A titles and a world cup. He's not Chicarito.
No he scored 126 goals in 300 games. Yes he was a great striker but he was never the main striker for club or country which I am sure you will agree is true. One of the best poachers of all time but it shows that even the best poacher would be unable to be the number one striker for a top club that wins titles.
My apologies I mixed up the stats
Jesus wept.
The truth ad I have sad many times no team will have a poacher as their main striker for the full season and be successful. It just doesn't happen.
Yup. He's capable of it, but he doesn't "know" how to do it. It's like sometimes it happens accidentally where he uses his body properly. That one chance where the spurs defender bounced off him and he had the volley saved, he didn't even notice the defender as he was acting on pure instinct. But in terms of putting his body about and using it to his advantage knowingly, that never happens and it could well be because he was always bigger so never had to think about it.
Said it before but being that freakishly big at a young age has not helped him at all, as he never had to fight to hold the ball up as a kid and therefore didn't naturally develop the instinct and the core strength to hold the ball up in competitive tough situations.
Going to share another anecdote which is whilst he was at the Albion, I was tutoring a class of kids at the Hawthorns corporate suite and Lukaku was doing individual training on the pitch below - midweek )they don't normally train on pitch).
Think you might also have to go back and rewatch how easy it was for Son, Alli and Eriksen to play off of Kane. Kane only needs 3 touches to bring others onto play. He isn't exactly a passenger in the build up just preying off of the hardwork of his attackers
What? Just compare how each player dealt with any long ball or pass into feet. Kane held off defenders. Kane used his skill and touch to keep the ball and bring others into play time and time again. OK, Kane's finishing was off, but still our defenders couldn't handle him in the air or on the ground, because Kane knows how to use his body and is talented. Nothing to do with the service into him, as he still fecked up his chances. But the random balls that you want to stick to your striker in that system, stuck to Kane. When we did it to Lukaku, he got outmuscled constantly, his touch was loose, he picked the wrong decision, he couldn't win in the air, and whatever else. So is has nothing to do with service into him. Martial showed this the one game he played as a striker. He's capable of linking up play and holding on to the ball as he actually knows how to use his body along with being talented enough to do little turns away to get a yard of space and keep hold of the ball. Lukaku is bigger then pretty much any other striker in the league but is one of the worst at actually using his body properly.
fecks sake that is grim. Pretty sure I saw it written somewhere that in collective big games this season, he has something like 55% pass completion. That's brutal.'.How many of those passes are him flicking on the ball and no one being there to collect it?What? Just compare how each player dealt with any long ball or pass into feet. Kane held off defenders. Kane used his skill and touch to keep the ball and bring others into play time and time again. OK, Kane's finishing was off, but still our defenders couldn't handle him in the air or on the ground, because Kane knows how to use his body and is talented. Nothing to do with the service into him, as he still fecked up his chances. But the random balls that you want to stick to your striker in that system, stuck to Kane. When we did it to Lukaku, he got outmuscled constantly, his touch was loose, he picked the wrong decision, he couldn't win in the air, and whatever else. So is has nothing to do with service into him. Martial showed this the one game he played as a striker. He's capable of linking up play and holding on to the ball as he actually knows how to use his body along with being talented enough to do little turns away to get a yard of space and keep hold of the ball. Lukaku is bigger then pretty much any other striker in the league but is one of the worst at actually using his body properly.
Actually just checked the stats - he had 48% pass completion
Why the feck would you flick on the ball to nobody though? It's called positional awareness. Know where you are and who is around you. He just flicks them on because he can't actually hold on to the ball. In no circumstance should a players pass completion be in the 50's (and Lukaku's wasn't even that), unless he's a goalkeeper. Even then you question it.
The thread would've been filled with laughs the second he signed for any of them for 75m tbf, because everyone knew what he was and he's been in the league for a while now. None of this is a surprise or him not being able to adapt. This is just what he is and it was naive to think he'd suddenly transform as a player just because he's coming to United.Performances in big games usially give confirmation of how good a player is. KDB, Salah and Kane have all drawn high praise this season for doing the business against the big teams.
I'v watched Lukaku closely for the last 3 seasons and his performances in big games always leave you feeling underwhelmed.
I understand he's our player which is why many of you support him but lets be honest if our rivals signed him for £75m off the back of what he did and delivered the same level of performances his thread would be filled with '
Yeah, I'm not sure what people are talking about here. Kane has become an excellent outlet who uses his body brilliantly, wins headers and has a really good sense of where his teammates are and plays lovely layoffs.
Agree. It's such a simplistic view of the term service. For example, In 2010 when Rooney and Valencia struck up a lethal partnership, it was Rooney holding the ball up and subsequently bringing Valencia into play for the brilliant crosses Rooney benefitted from him.
Kane made it sooo easy for them? That literally gives a free pass to how poor our CMs and defenders were. Like our opening goal? That was all Kane's brilliance? Huh...not dissimilar from Lukakus assist in the reverse fixture except there Martial had to actually finish versus yesterday when our lumps bundled into each other dumbstruck first as Dele Alli fluffed his shot and second as Erikson waltzed in to collect. Not all Kane's brilliance.
Stats are misleading. See below.What? Just compare how each player dealt with any long ball or pass into feet. Kane held off defenders. Kane used his skill and touch to keep the ball and bring others into play time and time again. OK, Kane's finishing was off, but still our defenders couldn't handle him in the air or on the ground, because Kane knows how to use his body and is talented. Nothing to do with the service into him, as he still fecked up his chances. But the random balls that you want to stick to your striker in that system, stuck to Kane. When we did it to Lukaku, he got outmuscled constantly, his touch was loose, he picked the wrong decision, he couldn't win in the air, and whatever else. So is has nothing to do with service into him. Martial showed this the one game he played as a striker. He's capable of linking up play and holding on to the ball as he actually knows how to use his body along with being talented enough to do little turns away to get a yard of space and keep hold of the ball. Lukaku is bigger then pretty much any other striker in the league but is one of the worst at actually using his body properly.
Actually just checked the stats - he had 48% pass completion
This . In fact Martial was the culprit on several occasions for going the wrong way when a pass was played to him. The cohesion of the front players was way off . In my opinion it was due to the players behind them .
This post reads like Lukaku wrote it himself. It's always someone else's fault for not reading his mind and getting on the end of his random flicks. If yesterday was anything to go on, his flick for Martial's goal at OT might even have been a fluke. He kept spaming the same flick yesterday into no man's land despite knowing he was the lone striker. Don't think even he knows where the ball will land
Stats can be misleading. But when someone has a pass completion of that low, then you can't look further then the player himself. The excuses people make are crazy. He had 48% pass completion - and that's the number being rounded up. That's woeful. His average in big away games has been like 55% or something. That's inexcusable.
Very reasonably put. I think it's a agree to disagree stance here - I am with you that Lukaku is not this fine all round striker. But I don't think he's as average and I certainly don't think the thread title is fair. If we want to look at it from the perspective of what is holding the team back from winning the league then I am adamant that Lukaku is not it. Perhaps it's harder with him than say, Harry Kane as he is now. But putting a striker of that all round quality as Kane doesn't preempt the other team needs. Spurs haven't won the league yet and thats the prime example.
Just to take him off our hands?
