I'd prefer Morata to Lukaku, but I'd be fine if we get Lukaku and Morata stays ate Madrid. However if Chelsea get him, I'd be really pissed off.
Álvaro Morata | Chelsea player
- Thread starter Zoo
- Start date
- Status
Felix Diaz of Marca:
I despise Real almost as much as Liverpool. feck them.
Real Madrid and their bullshit politics are nauseating. Hope we never deal with them again.
If we're just looking at European Cup finalists we have...
Torres for Benfica in '63
Milani for Inter in '64
Kidd for United in '68
Boninsegna for Inter in '72
Anastasi for Juve in '73
Gárate for Atlético in 74
Santillana for Real in '81
Hrubesch for Hamburg in '83
Salinas for Barcelona in '92
Jancker for Bayern in '99
Carew for Valencia in '01
Elber for Bayern in '01
Mario Gómez for Bayern in '12
Mandžukić for Bayern in '13
Above are some of the greatest and/or most attractive club teams in European Cup history. It's easier to play otherworldly football with Messi there but the simple fact is that Serginho and Guivarc'h were big lumps but they didn't prevent their teams from producing some of the best football ever seen on the international stage. Even Fernando Torres had a terribly unreliable first touch.
And that's ignoring the likes of Vialli, Inzaghi, Neuville etc. who played in almost exactly the same way Lukaku did - thrived in space on the counter, weren't particularly useful on the ball and were all about goals. The only difference is he's bigger so it's more approriate to call him an oaf but the net contribution is the same.
Inevitably what you're going to do is try and pick holes in the list through further narrowing of the paremeters to fit the narrative you want to tell, but the facts speak for themselves. What you said simply isn't true. Lukaku's far from my first choice but there's no need for the hyperbole.
Would be nice to have both. Maybe the press know nothing and Morata is comfortable with what his next move is? Could be Chelsea, could be fighting it out for his place, after all he was quoted about a month ago saying it would be crazy to want to leave Real Madrid.
I'd like him as I rate him very highly, but suspect we are going to strengthen a different area next and I genuinely think Griezmann is going to sign next summer. Won't make sense to pay what Perez wants only for him to become a squad player next summer.
I'd like him as I rate him very highly, but suspect we are going to strengthen a different area next and I genuinely think Griezmann is going to sign next summer. Won't make sense to pay what Perez wants only for him to become a squad player next summer.
Lukaku is fine. He is powerful, quick and he puts the ball in the net a lot and that's even without playing with elite players every week. I think football fans tend to be fixated on if he doesn't play identically to at least one of Messi, Neymar or Ronaldo he's an ugly player or an average one.
Feck madrid in the biggest way. Disapointed for morata but lukaku's a terrific player and should fit in nicely. Morata must be seriously frustrated with perez right now.
So they still want 90 million either way it seems. I don't think we should pay that.
It's probably for the best, I wouldn't want to get close to the deadline then they pull out and we're striker-less.
It's probably for the best, I wouldn't want to get close to the deadline then they pull out and we're striker-less.
No, I'm not, you've listed a bunch of teams that played before either of us were born, commenting on them like you know anything about them or watched them regularly to form an opinion would be disingeuous at best, and you talk about me bending narratives, at least stick to teams you can actually have watched with regularity and give your own personal opinion on, not one informed by someone else's views, you also have to factor in how much the game has altered over the decades.
As for those more recent teams you list, well with the exception of the Heynckes Bayern side and the Carew Valencia side I wouldn't have said the others were that attractive to watch. The Barca inclusion is similar to the Brazil '82 useage earlier, sure, if we buy Dybala, Verratti, Hazard and Kroos to go in our team with Lukaku we'll be fine like Barca was, a bit different when Rashford, Herrera and Mkhitaryan are the accompaniments.
Nothing against player but my stance was always feck Madrid and funding their refresh buys,they ask some crazy shit amounts for players they dont want and for players who in majority cases dont wanna leave,or their wifes same shit.
Have we trolled them? Like a fax machine re-run?
I really hope we haven't used Morata, that would awful from us. Even if football players are spoilt etc, they're still human beings.
Completely unnecessary to brief that nonsense (if we have).
Hate this briefing culture that's arisen after SAF.
Completely unnecessary to brief that nonsense (if we have).
Hate this briefing culture that's arisen after SAF.
They can try and get that from Chelsea. If Chelsea won't bite for the full 90 and Morata still wants to go, then they'll just have to change that stance and let him go to Italy or wherever he pleases.
Yeah I hate this aspect, if we've really messed the lad around, it doesn't put us in a good light at all. Doesn't make us much better than other teams we mock for similar antics.
Was excited to see him in a United shirt but it feels even better that we told Real to feck off!
There have been some Everton callers on Talksport. Basically said as United don't play much football Lukaku will suit us.
Its not like we messed Morata around needlessly. He was our backup. It would be madness to pursue one deal and have no other options in the pipeline as well, especially when we were up against Chelsea also vying for his signature. We worked on (at least) two deals, one of them came off so the other one collapsed. That's football.
And Morata will be fine. Chances are he'll get a move somewhere, and if he stays he may well still get a lot of games, who knows maybe he'll force his way into the starting line up. At the end of the day if he wanted out that much he could always hand in a formal transfer request.
And Morata will be fine. Chances are he'll get a move somewhere, and if he stays he may well still get a lot of games, who knows maybe he'll force his way into the starting line up. At the end of the day if he wanted out that much he could always hand in a formal transfer request.
As with journos, just because you say something as a fact it doesn't mean it is true. I have seen Morata play a number of times and, as said in my OP, he's a good player. A 'far superior actual footballer' he is not.
In simple terms, Mou is looking for an out and out 9 whose job it is to score goals, lots of goals, & hold the ball up in an intensely physical league.
Well the last part can't be true as Lukaku's hold up play is very poor, despite him being big, the fact the ball is never fully under his control makes him easier to dispossess.
Unfortunately true.... Jose is not a creative sort of coach. He's more comfortable with big bullies. It is what it is...
Cheer up DT. I hate us getting Lukaku, but us fans can't do anything about it. If he doesn't work out, we'll sell him for a loss, and take it on the chin.
Do you think that United don't want Morata anymore?.After an agreement and with a difference of 5m between the clubs,but spent a similar amount in Lukaku?.
How often do teams agree terms with a player, get so close to agreeing a fee, only to drop it all and sign another player? Probably happens more often than we realise.
Wait until we're playing CL games. I'm almost sure those top class defenders will be able to handle him. Hell, even our own physically challenged Daley Blind neutralised him using his brain and Lukaku didn't seem to know what to do.
Holding the ball up is easily Lukaku's biggest weakness.
The claims are they're done (as in we won't be going back in for Morata), but no one has any idea what's going on.
What have you heard over there Carvajal?
You don't need to watch Lukaku for more than a couple of games to know his playing style. You won't be able to tell how good he is but you know he's all about pace, power and goals. I've no idea how good Horst Hrubesch is but I've watched him play 90 minutes in both the 1980 Euro final and the 1983 European Cup final. It's very easy to figure out what he was all about.
So...what about Valencia then? Did Carew prevent them from playing football, or did he in fact show you can play good football regardless? One player cannot dictate the way a team plays. Not even someone as good as Messi. Barcelona switched between counter-attacking football and tiki-taka because Neymar and Suarez are better at the former, Xavi is better at the latter, and the two managers had different ideas on how to play. That's true of every great team.
You must be able to see that this is true of Lukaku too. Yes he's limited, yes he has a certain style of play, but no, he cannot be the deciding factor in the style and quality of our football. He'll play a role, his supporting attackers will play a role, Pogba as the star player will play a role, the manager will play a role, and organically the team will begin to develop.
He could be like Carew and Serginho in that he offers something different to the team and provides balance purely through that variety. Or he could allow Pogba to be much more expressive, he could allow Mkhitaryan to strike up a similar relationship to the similarly limited-but-deadly Aubameyang, and play a pivotal role in us becoming a deadly counter-attacking team. The latter will only happen if he's effective. If he isn't, he'll play a limited role and other players will take on more responsibility to play their game. That's how it works.
If we want to play like Brazil '82 then we'll need to invest in the creative and attacking players to do so. Whether we sign Morata or Lukaku will not change that.
It would seem fickle in the extreme, I think, even though the sums don't lend themselves to decisions of a fickle nature. It wouldn't surprise me if we ended up with both players at this rate.
The fact we all saw Blind tuck him up with ease seems to be irrelevant, just look at his shiny stats, feck context and all round game.
Probably not a big one, either, even if he completely fails - he's the sort of player we would not struggle to find buyers for.
It's possible and likely all the stories were lies. Maybe there's interest but maybe the clubs were a million miles apart?
I hope there's truth to it and we can still sign Morata, but think it's madness than it's only not gone through due to $5m.
I'm gutted that this isn't happening,yes Lukaku scores 20 a season but Morata has a more all round game.Good in the air, can run with the ball.Granted he isn't prolific yet but I just feel we've made a mistake here.
I think it's worth taking the Rooney situation into account also. If we have cleared his £30m contract off our accounts by enabling Everton to take him off our hands then it is much better value than Morata.
It's also an important statement to Madrid and others that we will walk away if they take the piss.
I rate Morata's talent higher and think he has a higher ceiling and suspect he would turn out to be a better player, but at the moment Lukaku is more of a sure thing in the Premier League. Having said that I consider Morata almost a sure thing too and hence was my #1 choice. We can't really go wrong with either, would actually love both. Signing one or the other was always going to leave some fans underwhelmed and others buoyant until the season unfolds and we see either one banging them in.
His wages and Ibra's to be fair, unless we end up offering him a rolling contract at some point which may not be off the cards.
At least that's something... still it will be a loss but ok, at least something back.
It's much easier to play quality football when you aren't starting at a defecit with a clod like Lukaku, I am personally only willing to comment on the teams I have seen so the rest are irrelevant, so with the Barca and Valencia teams in mind yes, they played good football even with a limited #9, however I'd argue that the limitations of those players were not as bad as Lukaku's, I've rarely seen a striker with such poor control and first touch at the top end of the PL, it's hard to build a cohesive and attractive attacking unit when one of the central pieces struggles with the basics.
We have a medicore set of attackers, at least with a #9 like Morata we could build a unit that was greater than the sums of it's parts, you can't do that when you are having to cater to a clod that requires the kind of elite level talent that supported the limited #9's in those Barca and Valencia sides.
Last edited:
I have no idea why you think a supporting cast like Valencia's in 2001 is in any way beyond our reach. If we're aiming to win the Champions League then we're going to need to invest in the team and develop the team to that level regardless, and I don't see any reason to doubt that Mourinho has exactly that ambition. Hey-ho. At least you took a step back from the extreme position you started at.
That possibility seems quite real, a bit of competition in the lead, although I would not understand that Morata cries for minutes to go away to fight for them again.
As Pexbo said, I imagine that the possibility of getting rid of Rooney is too tempting.
Maybe now Morata can go to Chelsea, and we talk about another Belgian
Not too much Jazz, just woke up. I read in Marca that might be simply some pressure but on the other hand the media say that is done.
Me too.
You see as fans, I think we should be a bit more patient. I personally don't mind if we achieved the minimum of top four for at least two more seasons, as long as we're building a coherent unit by using talented, technically sound players. This will serve us well in Europe as well. Football has moved on, and with all our money and resources, we don't seem to be evolving.
I can't do anything about it of course, but go on and support my club, but I'm really disappointed to see us going for a lump (sorry Lukaku) who I don't believe adds anything to the attack.
I'm also really interested to see the reaction of the fans, if he puts in his usual up and down performances as he did at Everton.
- Status