They all were not their main target men or you can say non of the teams relied on these players to provide the bulk of the goals or deliver the goals at critical moments. The problem with Lukaku is that he plays for both united and Belgium as their main target man. And as a target man he is unreliable or i must say does not have the skill set required at this level.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Goals
- 15
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
Been given compassionate leave for the game tomorrow and on Boxing Day.
Whatever happened, doesn't seem to have affected his brother. His bother is on the bench for Lazio.
Maybe its compassionate leave for losing Mourinho
That's interesting though. He doesnt have a girlfriend as far as I know so no personal family that could really affect him but not his brother. A close friend? Seems weird. Ole in the press conference basically said:
"Yeah I havent seen him yet, the decision for him getting a few days off was given before I got here so that's fine".
He didnt specify anything being the problem just that he had a few days off. Kind of skeptical over this being some family issue now.
it is assumed that he had a minor injury and had a death of a relative
Maybe he's been sent somewhere to lose some weight. Wasn't Rooney sent to the states by Ferguson back in 2010 because of fitness issues? some kind of conditioning center.
Think he's in trouble.
Where does he fit in all of this? Hopefully the bench.
How can anyone watch today game and want him in to kill that Martial-Rashford combo in center ?
His time is up, he's from the past like Mourinho. Feck him off in summer and spend some money on RW. Sanchez can be the option upfront if we want some experience. Lukaku has no role to play here.
His time is up, he's from the past like Mourinho. Feck him off in summer and spend some money on RW. Sanchez can be the option upfront if we want some experience. Lukaku has no role to play here.
Should have never signed him.
Not sure there is enough space, or reinforcement.
They should just deactivate his entry card at Carrington while he’s away tbh.
Bench player now hopefully. Unless he proves us wrong and can contribute to the overall game he simply should not be a United starter. If he can't do this consider moving him on however I reckon keep him as a sub.
We can say he's in trouble, but he'd have probably scored a hat trick out there today. Whatever happens, we have a lot of games coming up and he'll be important to us, as will the rest of our squad.
What Ole needs to do is getting scoring and playing well again. He did it last year so it's not like its not in him to do so.
What Ole needs to do is getting scoring and playing well again. He did it last year so it's not like its not in him to do so.
That's too funny
Nah but seriously we need to cut our losses with him. We would be better off investing in an RW.
Disappointed with this thread. Actually can’t wait to see him under a different manager.
Which 3 of those 5 goals could he have buried with certainty? It's not like we created any tap-ins today
It's not about goals. Did you see the constant motion in our frontline? He will have his uses but this is a 75m striker we are talking about.
He could actually benefit from this system himself.
What the hell has he done to suggest he would have scored a hatrick today. None of the goals were on a plate. I’ve never seen him go round a keeper like Lingard did today. All the players up top contributed to the play, and created chances, sonrething Lukuku can’t do.
He was never needed here. We'll see more confirmation of this as we go.
id be happy if we sold him next month and bought a better replacement
There's absolutely no reason he couldn't improve along with the rest of the team. It's not like he was ever suited to Mourinho football in the first place.
My point is that he wouldn't have been isolated today and we created loads of chances. I mean, apart from Martial in the last couple of months who has been scoring regularly for us? No one. Our attacking play has been stagnant. Don't get me wrong, Lukaku has been poor, and doesn't deserve to start, but surely we will be able to judge him properly in an attacking side.
He'll get his chance to prove his worth under Solskjær, no doubt about it. Whether he'll take it, I'm honestly not sure at this point, given how he's looked so far this season. I have claimed since the LVG days that you can't judge an individual by how they perform in a non-functional collective, so I'm not ready to write him off just yet.
Regarding his leave, I hope everything is alright with him and his family.
Regarding his leave, I hope everything is alright with him and his family.
We created chances because there wasn't a lump with a crap first touch that destroys every attempt at playing fast one touch football.
The vitriol towards him is unbelievable. He's obviously had a pretty prolonged rough patch, but he still scored 27 in his first season and he's been back among the goals this month. Look at what's happened to the rest of the team today - he deserves every chance to play in an attacking side and get a fresh start.
You say 75M, but Mourinho knew what he was getting, in that he's not going to provide the fluidity that a Martial or Rahsford will give you. Morata wouldn't have neither.
He does have his strengths, though, and his goal record speaks for itself, but you're right, the way we played today wouldn't suit Lukaku as well it did with Rashford.
That said, we have seen the same front line under Mourinho, and they've looked extremely average. Young Boys being a prime example.
Not sure what Ole will do, but the next permanent manager will have a big decision to make, in regards to whether they want to keep Lukaku or not.
Try to imagine him being involved in the build-up to the third goal.
Every player looked better today than they've looked in a long time. Matic was excellent despite looking utterly hopeless all season. Lukaku deserves a chance to prove he can improve as well. A lot of games over the next couple of weeks where rotation will be necessary so he will get a chance, I would presume. He was never a target man, but Mourinho so desperately wanted him to be one. Based on today, OGS won't try to force him to be one. I do think that he would be more suited to a fluid front 3 like today, rather than just having the ball launched to him, as we've seen previously.
I don't know if he has a future here beyond this season, but I do expect him to look better under OGS than he has looked over the past 4 months.
I don't know if he has a future here beyond this season, but I do expect him to look better under OGS than he has looked over the past 4 months.
So we'd have seen the same performance we just saw if Mourinho was in charge today?
It's looking like I'm protecting Lukaku here. As I said, he deserves to be benched, but this is the best we've looked going forward in a while. Coincidentally, Jose wasn't in charge.
Lukaku is one of many mistakes Mourinho did for us. He suits him not United, that's all.
Ok, he is not a striker that makes things happen necessarily on his own and his touch is abysmal but, he is a very good striker when he has good attacking intent around him, when he isn't isolated and just expected to make things happen with balls thrown his way. In a game like today, where there is movement, where defenders are getting pulled around, he will be handful because it won't be as easy for central defenders when all they are doing is ganging up on him.
There were numerous times today I thought we had opportunities to play a ball into the box but, didn't because we didn't have a presence like him in there. He was very good at the world cup with a team that played with attacking intent, he was when he first started here before Mou went into his shell after the Pogba injury early last season. I think he'll do the same if we continue in the same way most of the time as today.
There were numerous times today I thought we had opportunities to play a ball into the box but, didn't because we didn't have a presence like him in there. He was very good at the world cup with a team that played with attacking intent, he was when he first started here before Mou went into his shell after the Pogba injury early last season. I think he'll do the same if we continue in the same way most of the time as today.
It's not hard to imagine, really:
Martial bursts forward, passes to Lukaku. The ball bounces off Lukaku and Cardiff clear their lines easily. Lukaku proceeds to point in front of himself.
See, it was easy.
I have said it plenty of times. Hes not world class or top quality but hes young and things may change.
I just think right now rashford should start ahead of him centrally
I just think right now rashford should start ahead of him centrally
I don't doubt he would benefit from more movement (meaning he would also need to move a bit off the ball). For now I don't wanna see him start though
If any forward has to come back into this side I’d much prefer it to be Sanchez.
Didn't think some of you guys would have taken my comment so literal. My point was that we attacked today and players like Lingard, who have been highly criticised this season, looked fantastic today and scored goals.
I dont know and not sure if he should be our main CF after today's game. Lingard, Rashford & Martial looked more dangerous together.
- Status