[James Peril]

There's no doubt at all. He's still world class. Our midfield should wake up and help him.

Dude, Lukaku is not even close to being world class. He is a good goalscorer and header of the ball, but he has so many limitations. Weak passing and link-up, slow on the press, invisible when he does not have corridors to run in. With the ball in his feet like in the first half on the right side, we saw just far behind he is compared to Lewandowski, Ronaldo, Kane and the others. He «passed» the ball to a throw-in on the other side, he just didn’t really know what to do with the ball.

I really like Lukaku as a player, but he surely isn’t what you describe him as. A world class striker does not just score goals, unless we’re talking 40 league goals, he also contributes with clever passing and tricky «solutions» for other players. Lukaku is nothing like that unfortunately. Let’s say Real were replacing Ronaldo with a new striker next season and were offered Lukaku - would they take him? Never. Not smart enough, wouldn’t match the level of the other players, passing and technical level not high enough

 

[Home&Away]

Lukaku should have come off for rAshford & let martial play forward with him.

Lukaku doesn't miss those chances normally where he smacked it straight at mignolet whilst being relatively unchallenged.

If I was José, having seen that - I would have subbed him off for rAshford.

 

[whatwha]

For 75/90m gbp he's not prolific enough and not good enough at all round play. Should have signed Morata.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Shoulld have buried his chance in the corner than at the centre of the goal for him to save. You dont get much chances in tight games.

He has been shooting straight at the keeper since preseason. this time he dint get the second chance.

Well observed. I've noticed that too. He lacks a bit of variance/composure in his shooting placement when balls are centre on the penalty box.

 

[GimmeThatBall_M8_NL]

For 75/90m gbp he's not prolific enough and not good enough at all round play. Should have signed Morata.

Are you out of your mind lad? Didnt score today and now you brand him as not good enough.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Are you out of your mind lad? Didnt score today and now you brand him as not good enough.

Standard caf. You're only as good as your last game, so Lukaku is a carthorse until he nets a brace again. Then he'll be back to being a bargain.

 

[whatwha]

Standard caf. You're only as good as your last game, so Lukaku is a carthorse until he nets a brace again. Then he'll be back to being a bargain.

No, I've been regretting the choice of Lukaku over Morata since the day Lukaku was announced.

 

[prtk0811]

No, I've been regretting the choice of Lukaku over Morata since the day Lukaku was announced.

Any one can miss one chance even aguero's and morata's. lets not read too much into that. We we created more lukaku could haave buried one.

 

[poacher]

Lukaku is good but he's not top notch. If Kane plays instead of Lukaku we beat Stoke and Liverpool and top the table. He's decent but not clinical enough to be world class. I can't believe that some United fans rate Lukaku as better than Kane.

 

[December_16]

Jesus fecking titty Christ. One game where he had one chance and didnt score and all the knives are out for him. Not clinical enough? After having one of the best starts of a United career in recent memory? Give me a damn break.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Lukaku is good but he's not top notch. If Kane plays instead of Lukaku we beat Stoke and Liverpool and top the table. He's decent but not clinical enough to be world class. I can't believe that some United fans rate Lukaku as better than Kane.

I'm sorry but I don't even think Kane would do better than this. That's not to say he's better than Kane but your criticism of Lukaku is seriously harsh. He's been almost perfect thus far.

 

[poacher]

I'm sorry but I don't even think Kane would do better than this. That's not to say he's better than Kane but your criticism of Lukaku is seriously harsh. He's been almost perfect thus far.

Yes he has scored a lot of goals this season, however, most of them he's been set up by other players rather than him making something out of nothing. He missed a sitter late against Stoke which cost us the win and today he was put through with the goalie to beat and he drills it at the goalie. Kane would probably bury both chances. I am not saying he's a bad striker just that he's not in the elite bracket.

 

[Mike09]

Lukaku is good but he's not top notch. If Kane plays instead of Lukaku we beat Stoke and Liverpool and top the table. He's decent but not clinical enough to be world class. I can't believe that some United fans rate Lukaku as better than Kane.

Neither Kane & Lukaku are world class imo not yet. Lukaku showed it today he missed that chance which could have been a match winner. A world class is a winner like DDG today, his save was a match point. The same thing with Kane last season, he couldn't even save Spurs season in european comp last season and always bottled it when they could win the league & Kane never stepped up when they need him. But I must say Kane is slightly ahead of Lukaku in term of being world class or top notch player.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Lukaku is good but he's not top notch. If Kane plays instead of Lukaku we beat Stoke and Liverpool and top the table. He's decent but not clinical enough to be world class. I can't believe that some United fans rate Lukaku as better than Kane.

What was Kane doing in August? fecking up chances and looking like a bellend left right and centre.

If you prefer Kane to Lukaku, fair play to you, but let's not pretend Kane shits golden eggs. How could we beat Liverpool today with Kane when everyone behind the striker was doing feck all?

 

[el3mel]

You're as good as your last game.

Wednesday can't come faster, please.

 

[Sammyjunn]

The complaints about his all round performance, for me, are akin to hearing that De Gea isn’t creative enough and doesn’t have good enough all round play.

He’s an all out striker who we employ to score goals. Simple as that.

If that truly is what Lukaku is, I wish we sell him asap. We will not become an elite team with a striker who's only game is to score goals and doesnt have sublime movement, good link and hold up play, the ability to create for himself. All the elite strikers have that, and every elite team has an elite striker.

So no, I hope Lukaku is capable of more.

 

[Terminator]

Yes he has scored a lot of goals this season, however, most of them he's been set up by other players rather than him making something out of nothing. He missed a sitter late against Stoke which cost us the win and today he was put through with the goalie to beat and he drills it at the goalie. Kane would probably bury both chances. I am not saying he's a bad striker just that he's not in the elite bracket.

Hardly a 'sitter' against Stoke. Get a grip ffs.

 

[Varun]

Where can we buy these mythical strikers that never miss a chance and bury every strike in the bottom corner?

 

[yfoFC]

Where can we buy these mythical strikers that never miss a chance and bury every strike in the bottom corner?

Bring Pele out of retirement and voila!

 

[Acole9]

Frustrating day for him, what's his record normally like at Anfield?

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Yes he has scored a lot of goals this season, however, most of them he's been set up by other players rather than him making something out of nothing. He missed a sitter late against Stoke which cost us the win and today he was put through with the goalie to beat and he drills it at the goalie. Kane would probably bury both chances. I am not saying he's a bad striker just that he's not in the elite bracket.

Where was Kane in the first month of the season?

 

[James Peril]

Where was Kane in the first month of the season?

Childlish argument, why even bother posting it. Kane was pretty good in most games, got to chances and hit the post several times. Every goalscorer can go on miserable runs (even Ronaldo and Messi), but they always return. Kane’s link-up and general awareness and anticipation is miles ahead of Lukaku, not even a contest. If Kane has the ball on the side with players running forward, he will hit a good pass and bring the ball into play for orhers to score - Lukaku would either run straight into the corridor/into a wall of defenders, or hit a poor pass slowing down the attack.

Lukaku’s problem is not scoring goals, he will get plenty of those this season. But playing as a lone striker is not only about scoring the goals, even Kevin Phillips, Mark Viduka and Dion Dublin could do that in the Premier League. As a clinical goalscorer and target man Lukaku is very good, when it comes to passing, smartness, decisions, technique and general play, he is average. So that leaves us with goals, missed sitters and frustrating decisions and/or invisible performances like yesterday.

I too would have likes to see him subbed yesterday for Rashford. Rashford is much better at chasing long balls and doing something about it in tight spaces.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

Childlish argument, why even bother posting it. Kane was pretty good in most games, got to chances and hit the post several times. Every goalscorer can go on miserable runs (even Ronaldo and Messi), but they always return. Kane’s link-up and general awareness and anticipation is miles ahead of Lukaku, not even a contest. If Kane has the ball on the side with players running forward, he will hit a good pass and bring the ball into play for orhers to score - Lukaku would either run straight into the corridor/into a wall of defenders, or hit a poor pass slowing down the attack.

Lukaku’s problem is not scoring goals, he will get plenty of those this season. But playing as a lone striker is not only about scoring the goals, even Kevin Phillips, Mark Viduka and Dion Dublin could do that in the Premier League. As a clinical goalscorer and target man Lukaku is very good, when it comes to passing, smartness, decisions, technique and general play, he is average. So that leaves us with goals, missed sitters and frustrating decisions and/or invisible performances like yesterday.

I too would have likes to see him subbed yesterday for Rashford. Rashford is much better at chasing long balls and doing something about it in tight spaces.

The post I quoted states that Lukaku has missed several chances yet all strikers do. It doesn't really form the base for criticism against any particular forward. Lukaku has scored in all but two games for us this season. You can't really ask for much more.

In fact, had we won yesterday, it would have been our best start to any PL campaign. Can we really ask for much more from our team (in terms of results)?

 

[Red_toad]

Doesn't score in 1 game, when he's probably carrying a knock and not helped by the teams tactic and the wolves are out for blood.
He's going to win us a lot of games this season, fans should really get behind him and look at what he brings to the team, rather than what x player can bring instead. He's our main striker for a long time to come, get used to it and stop wasting time dreaming of players that simply aren't going to join United anytime soon.

 

[el3mel]

To add to the previous sitters the deadliest strikers previously missed, I just watched this video. According to some posters' logic here, Ronaldo isn't clinical enough.

 

[Leftback99]

Yes he has scored a lot of goals this season, however, most of them he's been set up by other players rather than him making something out of nothing. He missed a sitter late against Stoke which cost us the win and today he was put through with the goalie to beat and he drills it at the goalie. Kane would probably bury both chances. I am not saying he's a bad striker just that he's not in the elite bracket.

Kane missed easier chances yesterday against Bournemouth.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Frustrating day for him, what's his record normally like at Anfield?

Ive heard he barley records a shot on goal.

 

[yfoFC]

Kane missed easier chances yesterday against Bournemouth.

We mostly watch highlights of other teams so we just assume our rivals' strikers bury every chance that come their way..

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Yes he has scored a lot of goals this season, however, most of them he's been set up by other players rather than him making something out of nothing. He missed a sitter late against Stoke which cost us the win and today he was put through with the goalie to beat and he drills it at the goalie. Kane would probably bury both chances. I am not saying he's a bad striker just that he's not in the elite bracket.

God this again, was the same with Zlatan last season.

Strikers, even elite ones (hell even fecking Messi last night) miss chances! Kane hasn’t scored at Wembley yet in the PL right? And trust me, he’s had chances.

 

[Utdstar01]

Tbh he didn't look match fit yesterday. Shouldn't have gone on international duty to play meaningless games for Belgium if he was carrying a knock.

we should've taken Lukaku off instead of Martial, played Martial/Rashford up top or on the left, both can interchange between those positions. I get that we kept Lukaku on as a focal point to win headers and hold the ball up etc. But he was struggling all game.

 

[Damien]

Lukaku is good but he's not top notch. If Kane plays instead of Lukaku we beat Stoke and Liverpool and top the table. He's decent but not clinical enough to be world class. I can't believe that some United fans rate Lukaku as better than Kane.

Not saying that Lukaku is better, but this season Kane hasn't been as clinical as he was last season so no guarantee we would beat Stoke and Liverpool... especially as he has never been on the winning side vs Liverpool in 5 games.

 

[Leftback99]

We mostly watch highlights of other teams so we just assume our rivals' strikers bury every chance that come their way..

Chances created from perfect crosses that our rivals full backs put in every time.

 

[poacher]

Not saying that Lukaku is better, but this season Kane hasn't been as clinical as he was last season so no guarantee we would beat Stoke and Liverpool... especially as he has never been on the winning side vs Liverpool in 5 games.

The problem is statistics don't convey the whole story because it doesn't show the difficulty of the chances. A striker could have a great conversion ratio because the support players are setting him up with sitters whereas another striker is taking speculative shots from a long way out. I would not criticise a striker for missing low percentage shots. The two shots I criticised Lukaku for were regulation shots that most quality strikers would have converted. An example of a clinical striker would be Ruud van Nistelrooy. RVN used to bury regulation chances with no fuss. Terry Henry when analyzing Lukaku performances against Stoke and Liverpool said that he should have finished off the chances as they weren't difficult. Again no one is expecting 100% conversion ratio I just expect that regulation chances or sitters are taken most of the time especially in situations where we don't create many chances and are hoping for an undeserved victory. It is like in cricket no one can blame a fielder for dropping a super difficult half chance but people get cross if they drop a sitter especially in critical situations.

 

[breakout67]

The problem is statistics don't convey the whole story because it doesn't show the difficulty of the chances. A striker could have a great conversion ratio because the support players are setting him up with sitters whereas another striker is taking speculative shots from a long way out. I would not criticise a striker for missing low percentage shots. The two shots I criticised Lukaku for were regulation shots that most quality strikers would have converted. An example of a clinical striker would be Ruud van Nistelrooy. RVN used to bury regulation chances with no fuss. Terry Henry when analyzing Lukaku performances against Stoke and Liverpool said that he should have finished off the chances as they weren't difficult. Again no one is expecting 100% conversion ratio I just expect that regulation chances or sitters are taken most of the time especially in situations where we don't create many chances and are hoping for an undeserved victory. It is like in cricket no one can blame a fielder for dropping a super difficult half chance but people get cross if they drop a sitter especially in critical situations.

Kane would have buried that chance.

 

[James Peril]

Don't see the point in criticizing Lukaku's pure stats - he obviously scores enough goals, or at least he will do when the season is reviewed. I don't buy into this "doesn't deliver against the top teams"-thing yet, he has only played one match against a good team for us. And he managed to find that big chance, which is all we can ask for - the worst strikers don't even get any chances. The thing people are rightly criticizing is his inability to do more than just scoring goals. In fact, with the ball in his feet he is extremely average. Technique, passing, link-up, is not even close to the best players in Europe.

I am not unhappy with him, but just imagine when he goes 4-5 games without a goal in the Premier League - then I hope he avoids reading this place. Not a god-given right for us to have a world class striker though, they are expensive as hell.

 

[Hojoon]

I missed the first half, and based on the second half the only way he would have done anything was if he was a combination of Drogba and Messi, and I don't think any player in the history has ever been a combination of Drogba and Messi. The chance he missed was far from easy, two players converging on him meant that he had to get his shot away quickly and Mignolet did well to read the situation and positioned himself excellently.

 

[The Mitcher]

Yes he has scored a lot of goals this season, however, most of them he's been set up by other players rather than him making something out of nothing. He missed a sitter late against Stoke which cost us the win and today he was put through with the goalie to beat and he drills it at the goalie. Kane would probably bury both chances. I am not saying he's a bad striker just that he's not in the elite bracket.

What a ridiculous point, most strikers get fed by other players. Kane is not that type of player either, he's not messi or ronaldo who do that on a weekly basis. Also how do you know Kane would bury both chances? Football is not a clear cut as that and you know it. Also we had several chances in that stoke game and if it were not for BAD DEFENDING on out part, we would have won 2 nil. Your agenda posting is ridiculous.

 

[NinjaZombie]

I'm not gonna knock him for the missed chance because he'll get that right and he's proven he can score goals. What I'm concerned about him is his hold up play ability. We needed him to hold the ball up properly against Liverpool and he failed miserably at it.

Daley Blind used to have an adverse effect on his holding up play when we faced Everton in the past. It's something he really should be looking to improve on.

 

[Raees]

Chance missing is not a huge issue especially when there was barely any chances all game to score. What is more concerning was his complete lack of hold up play, his movement off the ball was poor and technically he looked a tier below against the first good side we faced compared to someone like Firminho who was lively, showed better first touch and link up play.

This is where Lukaku takes a good hard look at himself and realises he needs to up his game in the big matches because IMO I don't think Morata or Kane would look as technically limited even in a poor game against a big side.

Come on Rom, keep training hard and refining your game. Been so impressive so far - so would be a shame if he can't take this next step in his career.

 

[LoneStar]

Where can we buy these mythical strikers that never miss a chance and bury every strike in the bottom corner?

In Fifa. Buy Ronaldo, and play in Amateur mode. Think that's where most people seem to base strikers on these days.