Romelu Lukaku image 9

Romelu Lukaku Belgium flag

2018-19 Performances


View full 2018-19 profile

4.8 Season Average Rating
Appearances
45
Goals
15
Assists
3
Yellow cards
5
Status
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Awful as a sub yesterday - offered no outlet and his lack of pressing just let spurs run through us centrally rather than him being the point of our defence.
 
As much as Ive not liked this signing, even before we signed him and can’t wait to see the back of him we’d be silly to sell him to Chelsea in January when we fighting them for top four
 
I don't think yesterday was the day to judge him. Came on when we were pinned against the wall and had no help or service as we were busy defending .

He was all alone against Toby and Jan who is pretty decent in dealing with forwards like Lukaku.
 
Let's see that mental toughness he talked so much under Mourinho now that he's no longer untouchable and he's now facing a fair competition. Let's see how he reacts watching the game from the bench.

We need to sell all the Mourinho's favorites, they aren't good enough. Fellaini, Lukaku and Matic need to be replaced as soon as possible.

The more i tthink about it the more i understand Jose transfer policy.

If his normal practise is to have a power struggle with the board he needs allies. Signing players with which he has a history buys him allies. It also allows him to say to the board (maybe not outright but by implication) "you need me - these are my players and only i know how to get the best out of them".

Well rid.
 
Trying not to judge him after yesterday's little appearance. He's certainly not a starter right now and his issue for me is that he doesn't even offer half the work rate of Rashford or Lingard and with our current style of play, I don't see where he fits.

He still spends his time facing away from goal, and I'm not sure my TV can take it if I see him not chase a ball which is 5 yards away.....
 
I thought he was actually quite good when he came on?
In my opinion he is being made a scapegoat at the moment. He will be criticised regardless.

BUT he does need to lose weight. He looks like an American Football player.
 
I was never a fan of this signing and always believed he wasn’t good enough for the very top level, and thus for quite a while now I’ve had very little time for him.

However, I would probably have had a bit more time for him if he didn’t run his mouth so much. All his talk about mental toughness, about other players needing to man up, pretty much all of his sound bites annoy me to no end because he himself, on the field, couldn’t be further from the player that he portrays himself to be in the media. If he had shut up a bit more and not went on and on about it to prove himself to daddy Mourinho, maybe people might have been a bit more patient with him.

As it is now, I can’t wait for us to get rid.
 
The more i tthink about it the more i understand Jose transfer policy.

If his normal practise is to have a power struggle with the board he needs allies. Signing players with which he has a history buys him allies. It also allows him to say to the board (maybe not outright but by implication) "you need me - these are my players and only i know how to get the best out of them".

Well rid.
It doesn't help when your allies are the worst performers of the team, the club will just get rid of you and your army of clowns. A good general ally with the best soldiers.
 
Hard to see how he fits our new mould for the big games.

Fine to bully the smaller teams, and a great option there, but not a starter for us it seems.

Would be fine had we not forked out so much for him.
 
Absolutely hate it when he's 1v1 with a defender, realises he can't get past them so just says sod it and randomly shoots straight at the defenders legs. Shows such a lack of ability and/or confidence.
 
Absolutely hate it when he's 1v1 with a defender, realises he can't get past them so just says sod it and randomly shoots straight at the defenders legs. Shows such a lack of ability and/or confidence.

It's because he has nothing else in his locker.

The 2019 version of Lukaku is an immobile goal poacher against the weaker sides. Against the big sides he offers you nothing.
 
His performances will improve if he gets back to his leaner self.

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I watched him yesterday, and I just wonder whether he 'get's it..' being that talisman, the United player leading the line.

Rashford gets it... he is still learning of course, but you can see he gets it.
 
He did eff all to be honest. I have written in an earlier post as to what he did at what timings. He had a couple of close headed passes to Rashford and Pogba. That is it. He passed to a Spurs player, then got dispossessed by Toby and then he also headed it straight out for a throw in. That's is what he did. When they were playing near him, he just stood there with his hands on his hip. This is when it was outside our own box. At the same time Rashford was running like crazy though he has been on the pitch from the kick off. Give me Fellaini any day over him now. At least with him he tries hard and makes a nuisance of himself and gives all.
With Lukaku it is him and his traffic policeman act. Even yesterday he was waving his arms about and doing eff all.
 
According to whoscored he wasn't dispossessed and had 1 out of 11 bad touches with regards to those saying he didn't hold the ball up well or was losing it.

This is exactly how i saw it.
Nowhere near as bad as everyone is making out.
 
This is exactly how i saw it.
Nowhere near as bad as everyone is making out.

Please look at my response earlier in this thread. I have given the instances he touched the ball and everything in detail. Whoscored is wrong. He was dispossessed once by Toby and then he had a couple of headed passes to Rashford and Pogba and then he headed it straight out. He had about 9 touches and that includes his headers and one short pass to Rashford.
What makes me mad is that he just stood there one instant with his hands on his hip while we were struggling to clear and they just went near hi with the ball and he made absolutely no effort to even take a step forward to stop them. Just stood there.
 
I was never a fan of this signing and always believed he wasn’t good enough for the very top level, and thus for quite a while now I’ve had very little time for him.

However, I would probably have had a bit more time for him if he didn’t run his mouth so much. All his talk about mental toughness, about other players needing to man up, pretty much all of his sound bites annoy me to no end because he himself, on the field, couldn’t be further from the player that he portrays himself to be in the media. If he had shut up a bit more and not went on and on about it to prove himself to daddy Mourinho, maybe people might have been a bit more patient with him.

As it is now, I can’t wait for us to get rid.

Agreed. He talks like he's RVP, when he can barely control a football.

I still remember his miss Vs Spurs earlier in the season at 0-0. We lost that game 0-3.
 
Please look at my response earlier in this thread. I have given the instances he touched the ball and everything in detail. Whoscored is wrong. He was dispossessed once by Toby and then he had a couple of headed passes to Rashford and Pogba and then he headed it straight out. He had about 9 touches and that includes his headers and one short pass to Rashford.
What makes me mad is that he just stood there one instant with his hands on his hip while we were struggling to clear and they just went near hi with the ball and he made absolutely no effort to even take a step forward to stop them. Just stood there.

I have the match video downloaded, it feels like some people need to be shown actual footage on what happened.

I will get clips of all his touches and clips of him just walking as Spurs play out from the back.
 
Not judging him on yesterday's performance. Came on when we had lost control of the midfield, what was he supposed to hold up, and for who?

The greater concern is about his ability to synch with our attackers. I think he can, despite some of his limitations. I'll let Ole make that decision and not throw him under the scapegoat bus in the meantime.
 
I have the match video downloaded, it feels like some people need to be shown actual footage on what happened.

I will get clips of all his touches and clips of him just walking as Spurs play out from the back.

So have I and I have taken my timings from there. He did not play well. He had very few touches and the only had a few headed passes to his team mates. he got dispossessed once too and this is where Rashford had busted a gut to get into their box from our left back position and Lukaku got dispossessed and Rashford was sprinting back to our own half while Lukaku just walked. If this is making an effort then I do not know what it means.
 
Not judging him on yesterday's performance. Came on when we had lost control of the midfield, what was he supposed to hold up, and for who?

The greater concern is about his ability to synch with our attackers. I think he can, despite some of his limitations. I'll let Ole make that decision and not throw him under the scapegoat bus in the meantime.

This exactly why he needed to hold the ball. So the midfield can get out from our defence and take the pressure off our defence. If if he cannot hold the ball as his ball control is so poor he could have sprinted for the 20 mins if was on the pitch like his team mates who has been on the pitch for the whole game and who were still spinting and busting their guts.
 
Personally I can't wait till he upsticks, for the simple reason he just isn't very good, however I think Utd need to have a replacement in first as we cannot be certain the starting front 3 will stay fit for the rest of the season and we cannot rely on Sanchez either. Not sure who there is available. Someone in the vein of Llorente who is experienced but happy to be on the bench. I know he's not a world beater or anything but he wont kick up a fuss. Whilst I like the idea of promoting the youth such as Greenwood i'd be interested to know if he is a genuine contender (cannot be any worse or less effective than Lukaku) or will he end up another Wilson??
 
This exactly why he needed to hold the ball. So the midfield can get out from our defence and take the pressure off our defence. If if he cannot hold the ball as his ball control is so poor he could have sprinted for the 20 mins if was on the pitch like his team mates who has been on the pitch for the whole game and who were still spinting and busting their guts.

You're abdicating responsibility from our midfield. Attribute it to fatigue or whatever... we were abject at holding onto the ball in the second half.

If Lukaku is viewed as the solution to that, then we have bigger issues
 
Ultimately, I think Rashford and Sanchez are enough as number 9s, with Greenwood coming through as cover. Martial can also play there. Lukaku can go. Get a winger. Reckon we can even p/x him with Dortmund for Sancho. They really wanted Batshuayi, maybe they would be keen on Rom.

I wonder if West Ham would swap him for Rice and Hernandez?
 
I wonder if West Ham would swap him for Rice and Hernandez?

Probably, but they likely wouldn’t want to get anywhere near what we pay Lukaku weekly. Besides, for the money we could probably fetch for Rom, I reckon we’d be better putting it towards other areas.
 
The amount he tried seemingly random flick-ons and volleyed passes to non-existent team-mates infuriated me. Like at least, try and hold the ball up while the other 10 red shirts are camped deep.
 
He was decent when the ball came to him. But him not running channels, trying to put on a press was so infuriating. He still does that thing where he does a flick or pass to nobody then just stands and points.

There was no excuse why he couldnt at least put pressure on opposition players when we didnt have the ball. He came on and was fresh for the last 20 or so minutes.
 
You're abdicating responsibility from our midfield. Attribute it to fatigue or whatever... we were abject at holding onto the ball in the second half.

If Lukaku is viewed as the solution to that, then we have bigger issues

No Lukaku is viewed as the problem and not the solution. That is why I am saying he is of no use. He was of no use yesterday too.
 
Thank you Giflord. If that is hold up play and keep possession then I do not know what it means. Can you also put up the one where he stood hands on his hips while the play went around him? it is very much later in the game.
 
Lukaku vs Spurs

]


The end is one of the most frustrating things hes done. He had two better options, either look up and square it to Dalot or hold it and lay it back to Rashford who could just run it to the corner flag, nope, he went for the blast it and hope option...
 
Please look at my response earlier in this thread. I have given the instances he touched the ball and everything in detail. Whoscored is wrong. He was dispossessed once by Toby and then he had a couple of headed passes to Rashford and Pogba and then he headed it straight out. He had about 9 touches and that includes his headers and one short pass to Rashford.
What makes me mad is that he just stood there one instant with his hands on his hip while we were struggling to clear and they just went near hi with the ball and he made absolutely no effort to even take a step forward to stop them. Just stood there.

Just watched his individual touches that giflord posted.
I take some posters points on board like him not engaging in the high press and looking a bit lethargic but unfortunately that's not his game.

I think people are scapegoating him to be honest because they don't like him.
It was a hard game to come into especially when we took our foot off the gas and Tottenham decided to put their foot on the pedal.
Yes we should be playing with Rashford as a number 9 but good look finding a striker happy to come off the bench thats better than Lukaku.

Remember Fergie was always known for having like three number 9s. Even in his latter years when it seemed football had moved on.
 
If he is satisfied with a sub role then we should keep him, but he should have no illusions about being our number one striker.
 
Just watched his individual touches that giflord posted.
I take some posters points on board like him not engaging in the high press and looking a bit lethargic but unfortunately that's not his game.

I think people are scapegoating him to be honest because they don't like him.
It was a hard game to come into especially when we took our foot off the gas and Tottenham decided to put their foot on the pedal.
Yes we should be playing with Rashford as a number 9 but good look finding a striker happy to come off the bench thats better than Lukaku.

Remember Fergie was always known for having like three number 9s. Even in his latter years when it seemed football had moved on.

I have no issues with him not being able to press but he came on te 72nd minute of the game and for him just to stroll around the way he did is not acceptable. All he needed was to use his head and also to make an effort to stop Spurs coming back. He simply did not do enough to help the team. People will like him if he makes an effort.
I have the recording of the match and have watched it a few times.
 
Funny how that Giflord post above doesn't show the narrative that he was abysmal at holding up the ball. Watching the game I didn't think he did bad when the ball came to him, so can't really slag him for that like others have. However, I did want to see him come on the pitch and run his socks off in trying to press from the front.

It kind of goes back to the days of Mourinho last season with Sanchez and Martial, Sanchez as bad as he played would run like mad and fight and managers appreciate that. OGS has said it a few times now about how hard Rashford is running on top of the other qualities he has. So if Lukaku wants to displace him, he needs to show OGS, he is going to give him the same.

Personally think Lukaku will still fit into this team but, because the last 2 years he's been playing that target man, not really been making the runs into the channels, playing half turned like OGS wants him to and such, it will just take him a bit longer, especially as he'll want to drop a bit of bulk as well to do so.
 
Lukaku vs Spurs

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It does look like he was growing into the game a bit. Also seems to be regaining some speed although he's still not as mobile as he once was. Still, when you look at that video it's no surprise that Rashford is starting over him.
 
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