Heskey.
9
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Yet we see professional footballers do it all the time. A player simply being there doesn't mean it's completely cut off. It's a dynamic situation.
Something like Martial does here at 0:35 is another option..
Guess that was Gareth from down the road
Not even a similar situation. There are even people closing in behind Lukaku into the space to the left of Davies.
A situation where something similar could work. But continue being obtuse
You seem to have a very low standard for our 75mil striker, while laughably critical of a certain young french LW. Double standard much?
Even my wife who is no expert at watching football kept asking me why the Big Oaf didn't run a bit more to press their CBs.
If you think it's impossible to get inside there you've not played much football nor watched much.
Of course
.He has been put through and has eyes for goal, he wants to use his left foot, its a split second for any supposed chance to even come inside anyway.
I hope other managers sharing your view, so we can recoup some of his fee. I doubt it though, any would pay him 200+k/wk wage.
About your last sentence, if the manager could bring almost all others to up their level, but Lukaku can't. There's clearly not the manager's fault. Easy to think about.
I do think he's better than what we're seeing right now. He's aware of his first touch problems, maybe a bit too much. A striker like him needs confidence more than anything, you can see him thinking for that extra split-second these days rather than acting on instinct. His numbers back him up, there is more Ole can get out of him.
However, the distance between him and top strikers in terms of quality cannot be disguised. Aguero can dink through trailing legs with great agility and put it past a keeper's near post from distance. Kane creates so much space for himself with his touches and lay offs, and you'd always back him in a 1v1 unlike Rom. Just watching Barca for Messi's 400th goal, and Suarez curls it into the far post, off his toe end while off balance. Everytime I see a good striker pull off a finish like that, I think of how Lukaku could never have done the same. He's miles off being a top striker because of a lack of technique and agility. For all his size, he can't even head the ball, Troy Deeney does a better job. He's just a classic poacher who relies on pace and strength and offers nothing else.
I don't think he has a future as a starter at United.
However, the distance between him and top strikers in terms of quality cannot be disguised. Aguero can dink through trailing legs with great agility and put it past a keeper's near post from distance. Kane creates so much space for himself with his touches and lay offs, and you'd always back him in a 1v1 unlike Rom. Just watching Barca for Messi's 400th goal, and Suarez curls it into the far post, off his toe end while off balance. Everytime I see a good striker pull off a finish like that, I think of how Lukaku could never have done the same. He's miles off being a top striker because of a lack of technique and agility. For all his size, he can't even head the ball, Troy Deeney does a better job. He's just a classic poacher who relies on pace and strength and offers nothing else.
I don't think he has a future as a starter at United.
Its not so much writing him off as it is realizing we already have better options in Rashford/Martial, and that comparison is wildly misleading. Lukaku has played pretty regularly as a striker since 2011 giving him 228 apps in the PL, Martial has 103, Rashford has 97, Lingaard has 102 and those three (except Rashford maybe) has played the majority of their games on the wing or as a #10. Pogba is a midfielder.
No one is denying hes a competent goal scorer, but his overall play and contribution is a huge concern
I really doubt your wife said that
That whole exchange missed the biggest point, he was too busy bringing the ball under control. When he lifted his head, his body was already all kind of wrong to square to Dalot or shift it outside of the CB, hence the blast. All stemmed from a lack of technique.
Lukaku is not a top striker, not by any means but he can have a very significant role to play for us. Assuming we continue playing this style and play with a higher line, with lukaku getting the ball higher up the field. In such a scenario, his instinct fit goal scoring would come in very useful.
Ofcourse he does need to improve himself a lot in terms of overall play but the most critical ingredient for a striker is already there. I have no doubt that with the right coaching and in this style of play he'll prove very effective
Ofcourse he does need to improve himself a lot in terms of overall play but the most critical ingredient for a striker is already there. I have no doubt that with the right coaching and in this style of play he'll prove very effective
Just saw Ander's no look pass in his thread, and what Lukaku managed to do with it, the pleb.
This is how I look at it. Too many people here are scapegoating him because they don't like him. That is a tough game to come into for the last minutes when the midfield is overwhelmed.
Re watch Rashford goal against Liverpool last season to see the options a technically gifted player would have.
My thoughts exactly.. Unacceptable really.
2 for 1 deal, Lukaku and Fellani, maybe even Sanchez as well.
Some of the negativity he gets is way over the top. However, I am convinced that if he does not become more dynamic, agile and quicker in his play, he wont make it in the system that Ole currently plays. Let's see if he can adapt and get back to the style he had a few years ago
This guy's attitude is all kinds of wrong. Gets the biggest move of his career and goes and gets fat. Feckin remember all the shite he came out with at Everton, how he's bigger than them and disrespecting them with idle chatter toward the end of his stay.
Now telling others to be grown ass men when he's the most sensitive soul ever to criticism and being benched. He's been badly exposed at the very top and it's rocked his self belief.
Now telling others to be grown ass men when he's the most sensitive soul ever to criticism and being benched. He's been badly exposed at the very top and it's rocked his self belief.
Of course
He has been put through and has eyes for goal, he wants to use his left foot, its a split second for any supposed chance to even come inside anyway.
Your standards are low, and its those split seconds (understanding the situation and decision making) which make top players top. It was clear as day he needed to beat Davies on the inside
I really doubt your wife said that
That whole exchange missed the biggest point, he was too busy bringing the ball under control. When he lifted his head, his body was already all kind of wrong to square to Dalot or shift it outside of the CB, hence the blast. All stemmed from a lack of technique.
Haha, she said it in Vietnamese, loosely translated into these lines "why Rashford and co chased other Tottenham players while Lukaku just jogged around".
To be fair, his confidence might hit rock-bottom, combined with bad technique, the result will only be hilarious. What I'm critical of him last match is not his ability, but his effort to press when our team was pushed back.
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Lukaku needs a move this summer. He's a very good striker and will do well elsewhere he's just not going to get ahead of Rashford at this rate and he would never be happy being a back up option here. Shop him around Europe.
Why is he still not as lean as his Everton days? What's taking him so long?
Gareth down the road from Sunday League doesn’t face £75m strikers. It is ridiculous to not think a Manchester United striker has no hope of getting a shot on target because he has one defender, a tired full-back at that, not a centre half, between him and the goal.
This means the situations in which he can fashion a shot at goal are the most basic of situations, with no work to do except put it in the net. Does this sound like a striker who should play for one of the best clubs in the world? Did you see the goal Firmino scored against Arsenal the other week? Or the one Salah scored against Napoli, where he had a much better defender than Ben Davies between him and the goal? This is the standard at the top. Letting our £75m striker off the hook by saying ‘what is he meant to do, a defender was there?’ is lowering the standard.
Top forwards should be licking their lips to be put in a scenario like that. Make space for the shot with your ability. Don’t just smash it at the defender. At worst, if he doesn’t trust his ability to make space to get a shot away, then just turn around and hold possession given the circumstances at the time. Head to the corner. But Ben Davies isn’t going to just disappear. If you can’t bother to try and beat him, then anyone will tell you the shot will not get past him.
Is the consensus in here that he can't press, or that he simply doesn't want to?
I find it most infuriating that no matter when he comes on the pitch, even late in the game, he simply doesn't work like the player he's replacing and we lose the pressing aspect of our game.
I find it most infuriating that no matter when he comes on the pitch, even late in the game, he simply doesn't work like the player he's replacing and we lose the pressing aspect of our game.
Sell him, recoup some cash to invest in a RW. Sign a DLP, a CB and possibly a RB and we are sorted.
Not writing him off, just painfully clear he either isn't suited to the type of football we want to play and the rest of the top teams are playing. I actually think he's got a huge attitude problem because comparing him to how he used to be at WBA and Everton he just seems so sedentary.
The worrying thing for me is that he is 25 but has regressed. He's less mobile, less dynamic, slower, worse in the air and obviously rock bottom for confidence and I can only think he's taken his foot off the gas a bit in training and thought he'd made it after a huge payday to come to United. I honestly don't know what else it could be.
We haven't mate. Been watching since late 70's. We had Joe Jordan who was limited but extremely good in the air and used his physical strength to bully defenders - exactly what Lukaku should be doing but isn't. Good old Joe used to take his teeth out before the game so that probably helped scare the opposition. Someone mentioned Gary Birtles earlier, him & Peter Davenport came with good goalscoring records but neither made the grade or stepped up at United. Similar I guess to Lukaku's position now.
I still dont get how he was allowed to bulk up the way he was.
Considering this and the squad's general fitness, I don't think it's monitored and controlled anything like the level many would expect at a big club. Although it should've been obvious and addressed as soon as he got back.
Didnt he say he did it for the world cup? But when you looked at him, it wasnt like a drogba / ronaldo type build. He just looked like he had added timber here and there.
but as soon as he came back to United, how he was allowed to stay like that is shocking for a club like us. And then he was played (and played, and played and not dropped).
I used to be scared of Joe Jordan even when watching United play on the Telly. He was scary without his teeth. I do not know how anyone can defend Lukaku for the Sunday game? Yes he will lose possession and he will miss open chances but at least make an effort to help the team as they are dying on their feet. He came on the 72nd minute only and he jogged or walked when he did not have the ball. Rashford who has started the game was sprinting to join the attack when Lukaku had the ball and sprinting back to help the defence when Lukaku lost is while Lukaku just jogged or walked back.
Can we swap Lukaku with Richarlison? Mata and Sanchez needs to go too and we need a left footed winger, ideally Sancho but Pepe will do too, and we will be sorted up front.
So we smash another clubs wage structure with a cast off? Then take one of their better players into the bargain?
Then get a left footed Winger in Sancho (who’s actually right footed). Keep going with these posts they’re facilitating
Just let him go to anywhere he wants to go. Lukaku cannot afford to be on the bench for United or else he may lose his place for Belgium. Who are his competitors for the Belgium side?
he cant. If he tries to sprint he will be out of gas very quickly. With the weight he's carrying he must conserve energy.
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So we smash another clubs wage structure with a cast off? Then take one of their better players into the bargain?
Then get a left footed Winger in Sancho (who’s actually right footed). Keep going with these posts they’re facilitating
We can do swap or sell him to some other club, the point is we need a striker in Richarlison mold, also yes i know Sancho is right footed but he does play on both wings and has a very good left foot as well. In that way he is that perfect long term signing.
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Still the whole "I bulked up for the World Cup" is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of related to football
This is what Neville said and I think he is spot on.
Bingo!
It's so easy to talk big when you can get away with bloody murder but now, let's see how he reacts to this (and this isn't as bad as lots of players got under Jose, those ones were facing unfair competition).
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