I'm impressed with your optimism. He can definitely destroy most teams but the part of his game that's been under scrutiny I think is something you should already possess by the time you're 24. What do I know though, maybe developing a first touch is still possible 8 years into a career. I hope so.
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I'm impressed with your optimism. He can definitely destroy most teams but the part of his game that's been under scrutiny I think is something you should already possess by the time you're 24. What do I know though, maybe developing a first touch is still possible 8 years into a career. I hope so.
I just want to ask a question and expect a sincere answer
Who here thinks Lukaku will be good enough to take us to where we want to be competing with the best teams in Europe?
Who here thinks Lukaku will be good enough to take us to where we want to be competing with the best teams in Europe?
If this is sarcasm, its a pretty senseless post.
Leading 5-2 away from home after 80mins, having won the league and celebrated it already at OT. It was also the last game of the season, it doesn't get more dead rubber than that.
However you feel about him, he should not be in the 18 yard box defending set pieces or corners.
Roms size and pace make him a handful against moderate opposition but he looks a complete tit against top level sides. His basic technique is that of a walrus in wellies, his lack of composure wildly hacking at the ball for the winner and charging down the wing in the second half never in control inevitably losing the ball is a huge part of him.
Mostly effective over a season but a bit shit.
Mostly effective over a season but a bit shit.
Why not?
Ronaldo comes back to defend set pieces, Zlatan did it last year for Utd, every tall striker in the history of football has come back to defend but Lukaku shouldn't have to do it?
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What an incredible statement. Of course he should be.
Concerning that martial has significant better hold up play as a striker than him.
Glenn Murray has the same goals per minutes as him this season in a side that's scored 22 less goals than us...
Bingo for missing the context? Everton were 15 points ahead of Southampton, so if you add Kane to Everton and take out his goals, still there won't be any difference in their league position.
As it is, it's a crap way to judging, we have already seen how 4-2 became 4-4 in few mins against Everton instead of Evra's goal which would have made the scoreline 5-2 and won us the league.
Anyways, since we are already following this, for comparison Kane and Aguero won 13 points, Lukaku won 9 points. So yeah, adding Kane goals wouldn't have made difference to Everton's position.
Diego Costa - 15 points
Kane, Aguero, Llorente - 13 points
Zlatan - 12 points
Sacnhez - 11 points
I've heard this one before, where do people get such ideas from? It's beyond absurd.
Because he's a significantly better footballer and a much better striker IMHO.
I'd be in favour of Lukaku not being in our area "defending" set pieces because he's a fecking liability.
Almost scored an own goal at Arsenal and then set up both of City's goals on Sunday.
Almost scored an own goal at Arsenal and then set up both of City's goals on Sunday.
I thought he might have taken a step up here but this seems so accurate. I actually have managed to hate watching him play already, especially in the big games.
I'd be happy with it if he managed to get 20 league goals, but he can't hit a barn door just now. Hopefully gets a couple tomorrow to boost his confidence, because he fecking needs it.
As expected, he's been ineffective the past month having facēd top teams. The next 10 matches is his best chance to grab a few until the next set of big games arrive.
We're stuck with him now but I really regret this signing. He'll be gone within 3 years unless he seriously improves, which I'm not sure he can. Hope I'm massively wrong.
Had a shit game due to key moments but also had no support and United played woefully.
I've been critical of him but even in his goal drought, he's been effective at times if not particularly great to watch. Assists against Spurs, Huddersfield, Watford, and also had a major part in Young's first v Watford, Pogba's v Newcastle and both of Lingard's vs Arsenal.
Problem with him is he often has moments where he looks particularly donkey-ish which are highlighted and then it's easy to marginalize his impact on a game, whereas he's actually been pretty effective at times in terms of significantly contributing to goals in a team that hasn't exactly been potent going forward since about mid-October other than maybe 2 games.
I'm still not convinced he's right for United stylistically, but let's at least not write-him off completely given his overall contribution to your season or extend to hyperbole like 'he's a useless target man and Calvert-Lewin is better than him'.
Clearly low on confidence in front goal still, let's hope for your sake Mourinho can pull him out of this rut and that he doesn't read this forum...
I've been critical of him but even in his goal drought, he's been effective at times if not particularly great to watch. Assists against Spurs, Huddersfield, Watford, and also had a major part in Young's first v Watford, Pogba's v Newcastle and both of Lingard's vs Arsenal.
Problem with him is he often has moments where he looks particularly donkey-ish which are highlighted and then it's easy to marginalize his impact on a game, whereas he's actually been pretty effective at times in terms of significantly contributing to goals in a team that hasn't exactly been potent going forward since about mid-October other than maybe 2 games.
I'm still not convinced he's right for United stylistically, but let's at least not write-him off completely given his overall contribution to your season or extend to hyperbole like 'he's a useless target man and Calvert-Lewin is better than him'.
Clearly low on confidence in front goal still, let's hope for your sake Mourinho can pull him out of this rut and that he doesn't read this forum...
He’ll get a few tomorrow.
I’m fairly sure he’ll be better for us next season against the bigger teams. Our team isn’t complete yet and the service to him isn’t great. His technique is lacking though. I wish we’d gone for a more complete player but it’s what Jose wants. What I really don’t want is for Jose to head off next season having achieved nothing apart from improving the team a few league places, having spent another fortune and then the next manager comes in and doesn’t want to work with a striker like Rom etc. It’s worrying. He kind of only suits one style of football. For another 30/40 we’d have been in a serious conversation about Kane who from what I can see does everything a striker should do better than lukaku. Also his form has went to crap since the fans were told to stop singing that song...
I’m fairly sure he’ll be better for us next season against the bigger teams. Our team isn’t complete yet and the service to him isn’t great. His technique is lacking though. I wish we’d gone for a more complete player but it’s what Jose wants. What I really don’t want is for Jose to head off next season having achieved nothing apart from improving the team a few league places, having spent another fortune and then the next manager comes in and doesn’t want to work with a striker like Rom etc. It’s worrying. He kind of only suits one style of football. For another 30/40 we’d have been in a serious conversation about Kane who from what I can see does everything a striker should do better than lukaku. Also his form has went to crap since the fans were told to stop singing that song...
He has the instinct of a gnats cock. Just stands there flat footed while a duel is being fought for the ball. The ball breaks and our man begins the process of moving towards the action with all the grace of a Walrus with an erection so big it acts analogous to a door stop - preventing any movement (or falling out of the bed he seems to be tucked up in). Meanwhile the opposition player around him has sniffed the possibility of the ball breaking in their general direction, remained alert to it, gambled, and been vindicated when he clears it or takes possession gratefully.
Lukaku however, is still having his breakfast because he's a bit dim to the recurring pattern of such play and therefore hasn't evolved his senses beyond that of a frying pan.
Lukaku however, is still having his breakfast because he's a bit dim to the recurring pattern of such play and therefore hasn't evolved his senses beyond that of a frying pan.
It's so easy to kick him when he's not in form or scoring but.. I really don't know how to endure him miscontrolling a pass when we're under pressure and the ball coming right back at us... longterm.
People on here talk about goals and how everything will be okay once he finds his scoring boots again but.. for a lot of fans, the contribution a forward makes to how the team plays is just as important, and I feel like it's always going to be an issue with him.
Really want Rashford or someone to beat him out to the no.9 position longterm.
People on here talk about goals and how everything will be okay once he finds his scoring boots again but.. for a lot of fans, the contribution a forward makes to how the team plays is just as important, and I feel like it's always going to be an issue with him.
Really want Rashford or someone to beat him out to the no.9 position longterm.
People are just reactionary. I remember when he scored 11 in 10 games he was being called the next thing sliced bread. If people had a choice they would have sold lindelof after the Huddersfield game yet now turns out he is actually a good defender.
It just proves that us fans are morons and just reactionary buffoons.
It just proves that us fans are morons and just reactionary buffoons.
It was SAFs last game. Dead or rubber or not, we would have gone out to win.
More concerning that for most people this has not been even remotely surprising. His hold-up play is perhaps his weakest area (closely won from his first touch and composure)
Comical when you think about it, eh? You leave players up the pitch who would be able to take a clearance and launch a rapid counter (needs a good first touch therefore or winning the header) OR who could be the guy receiving the second ball (needs the same). Since Lukaku can't be this person, he needs to defend. BUT, he can't defend either. Hobson's choice defined!
Great attackers show the glimpses early. Later on, they improve positional sense for poaching and in some cases, the ability to drop deeper and pick out passes too. This comes with maturity. I don't however know of any strikers who have suddenly improved first touch, hold-up play and composure after the ages of 22-24.
To me, that's the difference between great players and merely decent ones. Great players don't look like donkeys "often". They may make the odd mistake and have the odd howler, but those stand out clearly as exceptions. With Lukaku, these are accepted as "normal". To cite the odd pass in build-up is meaningless as I'd expect that of any player. Being in a position where his defence consists of having made a few good passes (all short and simple to be brutally frank) shows how little is expected of him.
Now, I'm all for a player whose "only" contribution is scoring for fun. The issue is, if you're that limited in what you offer, you should be absolutely deadly. No fannying around and needing ~7 chances to score (that's his current conversion rate even after excluding instances where he can't even shoot because he's miscontrolled).
The evolution of Marcus and Martial was far more clean with an aging Zlatan.
Lakaku will need to be rotated more next season if he is not banging them in every week by then.
Lakaku will need to be rotated more next season if he is not banging them in every week by then.
Don’t ever be tempted by a career in comedy...
It took a season and half of lethargically not giving a shit for Jose to finally grow tired of Mkhitaryan, God only knows how long it would take to move on from Lukaku if this level of shit continues.
For those who compare him to Drogba, this is a major difference between them. Drogba was one of the best defensive headers of the ball.
Two out of his three recent defensive cock-ups involved using his feet, rather than his head.
As usual, people are drawing long term conclusions from short term evidence. Happens all the time on here. See also Lindelof thread. It’s highly likely that Lukaku’s panicky defending is part of his general recent slump whereby he’s snatching at the ball, at both ends of the pitch. I certainly don’t remember anyone suggesting he be banned from our box when he was playing better, earlier in the season.
That's not completely exclusive is it? Drogba was so good because he had the same free role on set piece defending as Lukaku is given by Jose and he used to attack the ball with conviction, winning the duel very often. Zlatan does the same thing as well. I often get a feeling that when Lukaku gets the ball under pressure he often doesn't know where it is going himself.
Your attempts at humor? Not good.
See above. Lukaku’s not attacking the ball with conviction anywhere on the pitch. If he gets back to his best this won’t be an issue. If he gets back to his best...
I cringed the whole way through that, don't think I've ever seen so many attempts at a joke in one post before and it end up so painfully unfunny.There's plenty of long term evidence to demonstrate that he's utterly useless against top sides. Unfortunately for him, he was partly brought in to make the difference against lesser teams - something we struggled to do in the last couple of seasons (without Zlatan) - and he can't even do that of late (1 goal in 8 games against smaller sides). He might be forgiven for that if his overall contribution is good, but that's terrible too - no wonder people are questioning him.
No there isn’t. That’s the tired old stat about him scoring much less frequently against top teams than against crap teams. Newsflash: all strikers score much more often against crap teams. Put it another way, can you name four PL strikers with a better record than him in terms of scoring rate against top 6 sides?
As an aside, the bold bit in my post you quoted had nothing to do with goal-scoring.
I don't see why you're surprised. That's really not where his strengths lie anyway IMO.
Since we were forced to stop singing about his massive dick, he's been shit...
That graph is confusing as feck but at least someone’s posting something vaguely relevant. I’ve been asking for these stats for ages. Of course, what really stands out is that all the other strikers mentioned are either playing for a Top 6 team (or title-winning team - Vardy) So, again, no big surprises. Turns out West Brom and Everton’s strikers don’t score frequently against the best teams in the league. Who’d have thunk it?
Also there was no fixed top 6. Liverpool, Chelsea and ManUtd have finished outside 6, so not sure why those games are counted. For example Leicester and Southampton finished in top 6, so in that season those games should be included.
This reads like beastality porn. Why are there multiple references to penises?
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