He literally had negative support during the game. The interplay with Martial for the missed chance, along with his assists this season, show that he can bring others into play. Hard to judge an attacker based on this match.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 51
- Goals
- 27
- Assists
- 10
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
While I can agree with other stuff to an extend, the bolder part I don't disagree. He is not lacking in moving to make angle to receive different kind of passes. It's the behind players few to get to him most of the time. He is not supposed to drop really deep which would invite L'pool to pin us back even more. He's supposed to stay on shoulder ball over the top of L'pool defense line and challenge them with his pace. Our support almost failed everything.
Agree that he needs to improve so he can win more battle in holding up against the CBs. There is a fine line between imposing oneself as no 9 with being undisciplined like Rooney often did playing no 9.
Agreed. Not drop deep but move across the pitch more, really run those channels and get on the ball and get the team up the pitch. He looked very lethargic to me and that one time he tried to run at players he looked very cumbersome. He's a big lad but I think shifting a few pounds just to get that extra sharpness for the big games is probably what he needs to do or be rested before big games.
Funny you should say that. Because my impression of the game was this: if Lukaku and Firmino swapped sides for this game Liverpool would have won hands down. What Liverpool lacked for mine was a smart spearhead who can hustle. Liverpool made some enterprising breaks courtesy of Salah & Coutinho, but they lacked a #9 that could get on the same page as them.
Fecking Martinez had to call him up for the international duty where he was out most of the due to his injury and just to stay out to get few minutes. Would have been good for us if he was allowed to focus on recover and rest without that stupid call up.
I agree Lukaku in L'pool set up this game would tip the balance. I don't agree with your take about Lukaku being more hustle than Firmino. Lukaku is more imposing in the box which would occupy our defenders more which leave more space for other L'pool attackers to exploit. Smalling and Jones were still too free to cover. Lukaku would make them busy enough. Also L'pool had almost no aerial threat from open play (beside Can rare late run into our box). L'pool were forced to cross to nobody or cut inside just to be repelled by our defensive organization.
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Hmm true although you could argue when they had someone like Benteke, their style of football just didn't work and it was incompatible. Of course Lukaku is better than Benteke but stylistically Firminho is key component in that free flowing fluid style of football Liverpool have.
Personally think Firminho up front for us in that particular game would have allowed us to counter more effectively as he isn't as easy to pin down and can take players on himself and create opportunities for himself.
I get where you're coming from though.
Lukaku is nothing like Benteke.
To be honest you're contradicting yourself
Really difficult game for him. Except for the one chance, we did nothing in his favour.
Dread the thought of him being here for 10 years, he's not conducive to a team who wants to play free flowing football.
I feel like we've been playing more free flowing stuff with him than when Zlatan was involved. If we have more of that around him we'll look better and he'll still be banging plenty in. A world class number 10 and RW will improve us massively.
I don't want to have a go at him after one game, as you say, but I think its worth noting...
1. My view is that (even before this last game) he's been scoring nearly every game whilst actually not looking that good overall - there have bee a few games where he has looked pretty anonymous and then scored a goal out of nothing (obviously not a bad thing for a striker!) but it feels like he has not yet had one of those streaks of real form like he had at Everton where he looked like scoring 2/3 goals a game
2. The main criticism of him at Everton was that he didn't perform / went missing in the games against the top clubs and, again, this has continued in this last game for United. Yes, he didn't get many chances or that much of the ball - but even the interactions he did have against Liverpool he didn't seem to make the most of - he wasn't doing his main job (in that type of game) of holding the ball up whilst others joined the attack - the ball seemed to be bouncing off and away from him. Contrast this with Troy Deeney who came on for Watford against Arsenal and impacted the game significantly despite playing for a worse team (but against a team with a similarly fragile defence) and with less natural ability than Lukaku - it can be done
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Yes it has been slightly better but it didn't take much to improve on the play around old, immobile Zlatan.
Criticism he's getting here is baffling. It's always something.
He scores - he's scoring the goals he should normally or he's scoring the chances someone else has made
He misses - a mountain is made out of it and like last year with Ibra we would have surely won those games and he would have scored the goals he did score anyway.
His all round play has been good thus far but one bad game together with the rest of the team and suddenly it's again crap.
Oh and of course the big games .
He scores - he's scoring the goals he should normally or he's scoring the chances someone else has made
He misses - a mountain is made out of it and like last year with Ibra we would have surely won those games and he would have scored the goals he did score anyway.
His all round play has been good thus far but one bad game together with the rest of the team and suddenly it's again crap.
Oh and of course the big games .
Good signing who will score loads of goals - world class...no
Disagree. We still aren't great at unlocking compact defenses, much better at that when we had Zlatan, he would just miss the sitter he had a part in creating. With Lukaku we only really score from fast transitions, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just most teams aren't going to give us that opportunity. Fortunately we've scored a few set pieces to unlock the door initially, then the avalanche comes in the last ten.
I know what you're saying. Zlatan was definitely more creative, but I feel like our speed of play has increased this season, as has the amount of runs Lukaku makes (into space in the box, rather than laboured passing until an obvious shot...remember all those 'why do keepers keep having worldies against us?' posts?).
Agreed that we aren't good at getting through packed defences still though. But I don't think that's on Lukaku as much as it is the number 10 (which Zlatan would drop into sometimes) and the wingers.
Agreed. Its similar to what Thierry Henry said about him early in the season. At the moment hes content to sit and wait for the game to come to him. He needs to be making those runs to take defenders away and cause midfielders to drop and fill the space.
Our midfield weren't good on Saturday but I'm sure if he had made a few of those runs they would have played at least some passes to him there. Even if he makes the runs and doesn't get the pass, at the very least the midfield would have had a bit more space and not lose the ball so often.
Personally the only thing I can really criticise him for about Saturday's game, was hitting that shot straight at Mignolet. He should have at least aimed for a corner and made the keeper work for the save.
Otherwise, he was too isolated most of the times to be of any threat or to be able to link up with the other forwards. And the midfield couldn't even complete basic passes, never mind find him in space or play him behind the defence.
Otherwise, he was too isolated most of the times to be of any threat or to be able to link up with the other forwards. And the midfield couldn't even complete basic passes, never mind find him in space or play him behind the defence.
Given how we set up Mou should have just rested Lukaku IMO. He's not good enough to hold the ball up alone (few players are given how little support he had) and he's not actually that dominant in the air - Lovren had the beating of him all game so it's no surprise he didn't really see the ball and when he did he was often dispossessed very quickly.
I genuinely think we should have stuck Martial or Rashford up top as all we did was hoof the ball and try and play it into the channels. Lukaku isn't slow but he's not got the acceleration or the control of the other two and couldn't play to his strengths.
I genuinely think we should have stuck Martial or Rashford up top as all we did was hoof the ball and try and play it into the channels. Lukaku isn't slow but he's not got the acceleration or the control of the other two and couldn't play to his strengths.
Benfica 0:1 Man Utd
His last international games erased all he's learned at United.
We hit aimless balls to him with no support around him, no one is going to bring those balls down and do something with them. How about we fling some crosses in the box and actually give him a chance to beat the CB.
This teams lack of a decent consistent crosses will probably cost Lukaku 10 or so goals a season.
Tide has turned. Lots of voices against him. It's in the matchday thread which is crazy but still......
The Martinez effect.
Manager allowing him to take free kicks is worse than Phil Jones taking corners.
Back to his Everton days.
Meh, last 2 games I won't hold against him as he had next to no support.
Held the ball up much better today than the Pool game.
Held the ball up much better today than the Pool game.
What a gent he is with the opposition gk at the end.
No worries, Lukaku is still a good player and will score lots of goals. We of course know what he isn’t capable of, but it’s not a devine right to have a goalscoring striker who’s also technically gifted.
What Lukaku needs now is to score the game-winning goal against Spurs in the 90th minute!
What Lukaku needs now is to score the game-winning goal against Spurs in the 90th minute!
Needs better support around him and my god we need a winger.
Seems he's still on a knock for me. He doesn't look as energetic as before the break and the only possible reason is that he's not fully healed.
He doesn't seem to have any understanding with Rashford. Always plays much better and is more involved with Martial on the pitch. Ignoring that, his touch and hold up play was pretty shocking today.
Got me thinking... I don't have any worries about him in terms of being good enough to win the premier league, he'll hammer in the goals consistently. But in terms of the champions league, or generally being seen as one of the best teams around. I don't think Lukaku will ever be at that level. Just not good enough technically for that. Uniteds far away from that level of course so it's not something we have to worry about right now, though we do have that ceiling for the next 5-7 years as long as he'll be our main striker.
Got me thinking... I don't have any worries about him in terms of being good enough to win the premier league, he'll hammer in the goals consistently. But in terms of the champions league, or generally being seen as one of the best teams around. I don't think Lukaku will ever be at that level. Just not good enough technically for that. Uniteds far away from that level of course so it's not something we have to worry about right now, though we do have that ceiling for the next 5-7 years as long as he'll be our main striker.
My thoughts too.
That's harsh.
How many chances did he get tonight? The service around him was shocking.
His movement isnt that great, it is hard to "serve him" as well. Both our midfielders and wingers are lacking but so is he. He also csnt create a chance out of nothing. He is fairly one dimensional, counterfootball or crosses.
Back to being average again?
Do people lie in wait with their confirmation bias or is it a reflex?
I guess Lukaku is lucky Morata is injured or it would be 10x worse.
Do people lie in wait with their confirmation bias or is it a reflex?
I guess Lukaku is lucky Morata is injured or it would be 10x worse.
Yeah, two things isn't one dimensional. Just being a pedantic arse here.
He is getting feck all service at the moment. He’s been completely isolated under the monotonous tactics Mourinho has deployed.
When the team is creating chances and he’s missing 3-4 of them a game is the time to criticise!
When the team is creating chances and he’s missing 3-4 of them a game is the time to criticise!
Agreed. He would've been fine in a different era, but just scoring goals isn't enough at that level anymore.
This.. We have been shocking going forward the last two games..
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