Lukaku's first touch

His all-round game has massively improved over the past 3/4 years. I've been a Lukaku fan for a long while and for anyone else that actually bothers to watch him, they would see that his game has improved so much over the years. This rubbish about his first touch is going to become one of these 'Caf myths' that lingers on and becomes 'fact' for some people. I mean, as others have said, a video can be posted for literally any player and make them look good / bad in certain aspects of their game.

And I see now that whole 'he's not a team player' has crept into the equation; again, this is another fallacy. Lukaku has 12 assists over the past 2 seasons and compare him to the 'overall team player' according to some on here, Danny Welbeck, and throughout his time in the PL he has averaged more passes per game and has more 'big chances created'. Go figure. Seems this selfish little prick actually passes to his teammates and tries to set others up too.

I have read some absolute bollox on here about Lukaku since we bid for him and it's already becoming tedious. You just know some are waiting for him to miss a big chance, pick the wrong option etc, so they can berate him and say 'told you so'.
 
ThierryHenry said:
Are you kidding me? People have been saying this about Lukaku for years, go through any old thread about him on here and you'll see the same.

The peak would probably be around Belgium performances in the World Cup and last Euros.
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Nah it's been wildly exaggerated and it's embarrassing. The oppo fans are an utter embarrassment too. You would swear we haven't just signed one of the best 24 year old strikers around. Bitterness eh...
 
Lukaku: 186 PL games, 85 goals and 28 assists. So he's been directly involved in 113 goals in the 186 games he's played in the PL. Yeah he's utter shite. Oh and he's what, 24 years of age. Donkey. Those 28 assists must have been a result of his shite touch rebounding off his shins and luckily going into the path of a teammate.
 
Robbie Boy said:
Nah it's been wildly exaggerated and it's embarrassing. The oppo fans are an utter embarrassment too. You would swear we haven't just signed one of the best 24 year old strikers around. Bitterness eh...
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Haven't seen much of the chat you're talking about, I was just laughing at the claim that there's never been any criticism of Lukaku or his first touch until you signed him. People have said the same whenever he's been brought up for years.

Note that I'm not saying he's not a great goalscorer. He is.
 
Mockney said:
Andy Cole improved virtually every aspect of his game in his time with us, and came here at roughly the same age, as just as raw a 'goalscorer'

I've no idea how Lukaku will turn out, but any notion that his weaknesses can't be corrected is silly business.
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This is 100% my view too been saying it for days. Cole could hardly trap a ball when he arrived and he soon became good at it.

Plus Lukaku has already declared he is ready to work harder than ever and improve - I don't see any reason why he won't.
 
It's worrying but we can hope for one of two things in regards to this: he either improves as he's only young and, like @Mockney said, Cole managed it when he came so it isn't like it's impossible, or he scores so many goals that it masks said problem to an extent. Hopefully though, as @Robbie Boy has been saying, the criticism he's receiving is OTT as I've not watched too much of Lukaku.
 
ThierryHenry said:
Haven't seen much of the chat you're talking about, I was just laughing at the claim that there's never been any criticism of Lukaku or his first touch until you signed him. People have said the same whenever he's been brought up for years.

Note that I'm not saying he's not a great goalscorer. He is.
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Well this thread is slightly dramatic, for a start... A lot of the oppo fans (not you), have from what I've seen, acted like utter prats about him and are making him out to be some fecking donkey.

Obviously his first touch isn't amazing and it's something he can work on, but it's also been blown way out of proportion. I've seen enough improvements in his overall game over the past few years to be confident that it's something he can work on and improve. I mean, a-lot of this chat has stemmed from some poxy Youtube video that was posted on here that has the drama queens out in force clinging to anything they can to have a go at him.
 
Tevez could barely control anything when he was here, but he still did alright with us - and went on to sort it out at other clubs.
 
Android1974 said:
If the offensive can't link up play with him, we'll have to find another way of playing, cause last season a lot went into Zlatan's feet.
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No it didn't. Zlatans hold up was shocking last year. There were 2 or 3 games where it was good but I'm sure he lost the ball more than anyone and saw he had the worst error stats in the squad. We ended up playing lofted balls to him and he had to try and get a flick on, a header anything he could which probably added to the fault stats of him losing possession as it wasn't to feet mostly.
The Mitcher said:
Do we really need him to have an amazing first touch anyway? As long as he can control the ball, who cares?
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Your first touch is you controlling, killing the ball, if you have a good first touch you're more than on your way to being a decent player.

Also has no one noticed the size of the boys feet? No wonder there are some issues with his second touch I'm surprised he can fit those things on the pitch. I'm a 12 and his feet look massive compared to mine so he must be about a 14-16
 
Zoo said:
Those clips are from 2 years ago. I think last season his overall game showed signs of improvement and let's hope it continues.
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His touch seems to be improving all the time. It was absolutely heinous when he was at Chelsea but much less of an issue watching him at Everton last season. At the end of the day, you don't score as many goals as he has in a helter skelter league like this if your touch is a significant problem.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Tevez could barely control anything when he was here, but he still did alright with us - and went on to sort it out at other clubs.
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Yup. I remember @SmashedHombre being the first to point out the emperor had no clothese while most of the rest of us were still giddy about the shiney new signing. The way his touch (and overall game) went up a level once he left us was one of my many infuriating memories of the scar-necked little toad.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Yup. I remember @SmashedHombre being the first to point out the emperor had no clothese while most of the rest of us were still giddy about the shiney new signing. The way his touch (and overall game) went up a level once he left us was one of my many infuriating memories of the scar-necked little toad.
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Don't remind me. :(

Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo were already fantastic for us but the way that all three took their games to another level around 2010ish but weren't playing together for us anymore was infuriating. Imagine those three in their prime together.
 
This thread is a bit like last summers claim that Bailly wasn't great at distribution.

It will look silly.
 
:lol: Usually teenagers do these videos with great highlights and muppet touches

This teenager is dark.
 
As an aside, reading anything into "low-light" videos like the one in the OP is pretty fecking daft. Obviously, high-light reels can also be deceptive but at least they show glimpses of brilliance which show you what a player is capable of. A compendium of sloppy passes or touches is utterly pointless because every player is capable of an occasional poor moment. You could probably build a few seconds of "low-lights" from individual matches to make any player look bad in 7 out of every 10 games they play. But if you're willing to go back through a number of seasons to cherry-pick some loose touches than it's a piece of piss to make anyone look like a donkey.
 
The man is a jackhammer, not a scalpel. We didn't bring him here to pass the ball around like Tony Kroos or Xavi. He's here to overwhelm defenders with his power and score 25+ goals a season. Yeah, he's not going to be best a linking up up play, but I'll take his weaknesses as they are now and hope Mourinho can coach him up some.
 
First touch was one of the key debate points when people discussed Rooney so Lukaku is going to get plenty of criticism here..
 
You watch any highlights video and there's plenty of times where he instantly kills the ball dead. So yeah his touch is a mixed bag, but so was Rooney's for the best part of his time here. Even Zlatan had his moments.

Not concerned.
 
Seriously, in my 20+ years following United I can't remember anything as overrated as Zlatan's linkup play for us. Especially after Christmas. Loads of attacks ended with him misplacing a simple pass or being too slow about it. Overall it was decent, of course, and he was a good goalscorer for us, but it's not like we're going to have to rethink football because Lukaku is in front
 
Whichever striker we signed this summer they would have had to improve massively. At least with Lukaku he has the most important trait and that's clinical finishing. Whereas Morata would have been the opposite, great all round play but not a prolific goalscorer. We have to accept we're not buying the top class guys this summer, the ready made world class but the next level down from that is the ones we're getting. Those who with a little improvement and in the right system can become world class.

It's a bit of a risk but at least we are in the hands of Jose and he's one of the best at this. Hope for the best for the coming seaosn
 
AndersB said:
Seriously, in my 20+ years following United I can't remember anything as overrated as Zlatan's linkup play for us. Especially after Christmas. Loads of attacks ended with him misplacing a simple pass or being too slow about it. Overall it was decent, of course, and he was a good goalscorer for us, but it's not like we're going to have to rethink football because Lukaku is in front
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The problem with our attack was our entire front line. No idea how people don't see this, our ply in the laSt third was generally shite.

I'm glad we won't be just playing the ball in that part of the field through zlatan to be honest, hoping we get a cdm and play it through Pogba instead.
 
We regularly jizzed over Berbatov's first touch but the main issue was that he didn't score enough goals. If Lukaku reverses that, I don't think you'll hear many complaints except from the people who want to complain anyway.
 
Half of those ain't even first touch issues but misplaced first time passes.

Also, you can make this video for just about anyone, including Ronaldo!
 
I noticed this when watching a few individual highlights videos. Definitely a bit concerning but at least it seems to be more of an issue in general play than his first touch letting him down and denying a clear goalscoring chance etc. I didn't think first touch is something that can be easily improved at that sort of age, but hopefully I'm wrong.

Regardless, he's got a fairly damn good first touch when he's smashing it first time into the net. Looking forward next season to some Pogba through balls with Lukaku on the end of them. Could be formidable.
 
AndersB said:
Seriously, in my 20+ years following United I can't remember anything as overrated as Zlatan's linkup play for us. Especially after Christmas. Loads of attacks ended with him misplacing a simple pass or being too slow about it. Overall it was decent, of course, and he was a good goalscorer for us, but it's not like we're going to have to rethink football because Lukaku is in front
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Zlatan's link-up play was my biggest disappointment with him as I felt this was one of the best aspects of his game, but bar a-few games, he never really looked good in that department. The revisionism on here is crazy.
 
Grib said:
I live a sheltered life? That doesn't even make sense. besides you're the one making threads on something that's largely become a thing because some people found it offensive we were buying Lukaku for £75mil

Like wise you know you had the option of ignoring my comment?
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I'm not even bothered about your comment, the wink and tongue smiley should have been a give away that I was joking. And as for making threads, I didn't even know we had actually bought him until 36hrs or so later, never mind reading other threads about him. Chill out and go with the flow. ;)
 
Pogue Mahone said:
As an aside, reading anything into "low-light" videos like the one in the OP is pretty fecking daft. Obviously, high-light reels can also be deceptive but at least they show glimpses of brilliance which show you what a player is capable of. A compendium of sloppy passes or touches is utterly pointless because every player is capable of an occasional poor moment. You could probably build a few seconds of "low-lights" from individual matches to make any player look bad in 7 out of every 10 games they play. But if you're willing to go back through a number of seasons to cherry-pick some loose touches than it's a piece of piss to make anyone look like a donkey.
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My mate an Everton fan raised the issue with me, saying his touch was frustrating for a fan to watch. As I said in the OP I have no experience in watching him, so couldn't make an informed opinion. The vid is all I have seen of him basically and was looking for opinions of others on here.
 
goldenballs said:
My mate an Everton fan raised the issue with me, saying his touch was frustrating for a fan to watch. As I said in the OP I have no experience in watching him, so couldn't make an informed opinion. The vid is all I have seen of him basically and was looking for opinions of others on here.
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Thank God nothing indicates we're going to play tiki-taka football. Long balls, here we come!
 
goldenballs said:
My mate an Everton fan raised the issue with me, saying his touch was frustrating for a fan to watch. As I said in the OP I have no experience in watching him, so couldn't make an informed opinion. The vid is all I have seen of him basically and was looking for opinions of others on here.
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Apologies if that came across as having a go at you, personally. It's something I've heard about too. So definitely worthy of discussion. I do remember it being very noticeable when he was at Chelsea but much less of an issue since he started banging them in for Everton. First touch tends to improve with confidence.
 
I have convinced myself that Lukaku will shine here irrespective of touch and he will make Pogba look better. Note that Pogba looked for Zlatan on nearly every occasion with his through balls. Zlatan missed a lot of great chances that Pogba created for him. Pogba and Lukaku are best buddies. Pogba, logically will look for Lukaku at every opportunity. Lukaku is a more clinical finisher and has also much more pace than Zlatan, meaning he will get on the end of and generate even more opportunities for Pogba to play him in. Pogba will get double digit assists next season. Lukaku will hit at least 20 league goals.
 
hobbers said:
To be fair I could easily find 2 minutes worth of shit Ibrahimovic touches/passes for a video from last season. Double that time for Rooney.
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True for Zlatan. As for Rooney you could make that video from a single game. And in fact someone did last season. It was hilarious.
 
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