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2018-19 Performances


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4.8 Season Average Rating
Appearances
45
Goals
15
Assists
3
Yellow cards
5
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Holds the ball up in a central position? He received it in a great position to run at the keeper and shoot. He didn't hold it up, he got it stuck under his feet.
Yup, it was exactly that. A competent striker would have taken into his stride and opened up himself for a good shot.

This is really upsetting. I'd compare it to swapping the athleticsm of LeBron James with the physique of Shaq.
Shaq used to dominate physically his opponents, Lukaku doesn't even do that.
 
Yet the first assist against Arsenal was not from him being in a wide position. Again he holds the ball up in a central position, plays Rashford in and it’s Marcus that messed it up.
So?
Lukaku isn't first player to miss out on assist. Martial had countless chances not converted by others
Rashford had unbelievable cross not converted by Lingard a few matches ago
Pogba missed out on numerous assits due to Ibras poor finishing . It can happen in some isolated moment . If we analyse the rest of his game he falls well behind the standard and that's what I'm focusing on. One chance doesn't mean much if the player is preventing us from more chances.
 
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Holds the ball up in a central position? He received it in a great position to run at the keeper and shoot. He didn't hold it up, he got it stuck under his feet.

No, he held it waiting for Rashford.
 
He is a good player but the change in performance when Rashford starts as CF compared to Lukaku as CF is very big. We are like limited side with Lukaku leading the line.
 
I think you need to watch it again. Rashford was miles away and behind him when he took his first touch.

The pass from Rashford doesn't even put Lukaku ahead of the defenders. He holds it and lays it off to Rashford.
 
Ha, made me so irate I ended posting it in 4 like different threads.

I don't understand how Ole can watch Lukaku have two decent-ish performances coming in from the right wing, playing with Lingard as a false 9. And then do this today.

He's presumably seen many, many matches that Mata has played in. And yet we still see Mata out on the right wing, where anyone with eyes and a brain should know he is always a total passenger. And we see Lukaku up front with his back to goal where, as we all know by now, he's useless. Playing two duds out of sympathy is bad enough, but playing two duds in their least ideal positions is next level stupid.

My guess is ole knew there wouldn’t be too much space behind and Burnley would mainly sit deep so mata would be there to play a killer tight ball between the lines more than bombing it down the wing.
I’m fed up of commenting on Lukaku, he may have scored goals in the past under different styles and teams set up to cross balls into him or whatever but when we try to play tight passing triangles uptop or rely on someone to stretch a defence he’s useless and ruins the style of play.
getting a goal or not is neither here nor there if he’s preventing the team possibly scoring more with his useless, bumbling lazy style
 
The pass from Rashford doesn't even put Lukaku ahead of the defenders. He holds it and lays it off to Rashford.
The way I see it is that he tried to have the optimal touch that would have allowed him to open himself up a better but once the defender closed that space, he did the right thing to pass it Rashford who fecked it up royally.
 
My guess is ole knew there wouldn’t be too much space behind and Burnley would mainly sit deep so mata would be there to play a killer tight ball between the lines more than bombing it down the wing.
I’m fed up of commenting on Lukaku, he may have scored goals in the past under different styles and teams set up to cross balls into him or whatever but when we try to play tight passing triangles uptop or rely on someone to stretch a defence he’s useless and ruins the style of play.
getting a goal or not is neither here nor there if he’s preventing the team possibly scoring more with his useless, bumbling lazy style

I agree with most of what you said, but we were crossing the ball constantly last night. Especially the last half hour of the game, weirdly after he was taken off. So we were effectively crossing balls into Sanchez and Mata at times.
 
I never considered him to be *Utd quality* when we first signed him and now he would struggle to get into a top 6 team, i would be happy if we sold him in the summer, will probably have to be a Chinese team due to his wages etc
 
I think it tells its own story that when we needed a goal last night, Ole brought him off. He really is a detriment to the football we have played recently. Dont mind him being a squad player (an expensive on at that) but if we could get 50 mil for him, id take it in a heart beat.
Lukaku, Fellaini... not the type of players we need to modernise our football. Looks like Fellaini is on his way so i expect Lukaku gone in the summer too/
Seems like a good guy but woeful player at this level.
 
I think it tells its own story that when we needed a goal last night, Ole brought him off. He really is a detriment to the football we have played recently. Dont mind him being a squad player (an expensive on at that) but if we could get 50 mil for him, id take it in a heart beat.
Lukaku, Fellaini... not the type of players we need to modernise our football. Looks like Fellaini is on his way so i expect Lukaku gone in the summer too/
Seems like a good guy but woeful player at this level.
Huge respect to Ole to haul him of yesterday. Some other manager wouldn't have balls for it (supposed premier striker with a huge price tag lacking in confidence and form etc.) We started to really control the match and put Burnley under pressure when Lukaku and Perreira were subbed and Mata started to orchestrate things in the middle.
 
Huge respect to Ole to haul him of yesterday. Some other manager wouldn't have balls for it (supposed premier striker with a huge price tag lacking in confidence and form etc.) We started to really control the match and put Burnley under pressure when Lukaku and Perreira were subbed and Mata started to orchestrate things in the middle.

Mata started to play better because Lingard was on the pitch, not because Lukaku was off it.
 
The way I see it is that he tried to have the optimal touch that would have allowed him to open himself up a better but once the defender closed that space, he did the right thing to pass it Rashford who fecked it up royally.

That's exactly what happened. The ball put him almost level with the last defender, a player of his pace and power should have been able to get ahead enough to make an angle for a shot. To put it another way, Rashford would have managed it. He stumbled over the ball with his first touch, the defenders caught up and the chance was gone.
 
That's exactly what happened. The ball put him almost level with the last defender, a player of his pace and power should have been able to get ahead enough to make an angle for a shot. To put it another way, Rashford would have managed it. He stumbled over the ball with his first touch, the defenders caught up and the chance was gone.
When he got the ball there was a defender in front of him and one almost caught up on his left side.
 
Lukaku, I think is a hopeless case.
How on Earth do you improve such a striker?
Can't trap, can't interchange pass,can't make runs, can't create chance or shooting space for himself, some say cross the ball to him but even if you do he'll probably miss time his jump.
How do you create for such a striker? as a coach it must be really hard to work with him even his teammates must find playing with him frustrating as well.
Ole decided to use him because he was good against arsenal and he messed up, Chelsea just sold morata,i suggest we do the same with lukaku,

Frustratingly limited player.
 
I have little confidence when he starts upfront for us which is a shame. He doesn't look like a footballer when I see from the comfort of my screen as he looks like a big lump out of shape. Then I see his technique, misplaced passes, long balls and lack of spring in his step/sharpness and my confidence drops further because he doesn't make things easy for us.
 
The pass from Rashford doesn't even put Lukaku ahead of the defenders. He holds it and lays it off to Rashford.

When he got the ball there was a defender in front of him and one almost caught up on his left side.

This is how I saw it

That's exactly what happened. The ball put him almost level with the last defender, a player of his pace and power should have been able to get ahead enough to make an angle for a shot. To put it another way, Rashford would have managed it. He stumbled over the ball with his first touch, the defenders caught up and the chance was gone.

They defender to his right was already ahead of him and well positioned when Lukaku made his first touch, they were not even level, look at it again. The pass from Rashford was slow, I wouldn't even consider it a through ball. If Rashford hit it with more power and angled it better Lukaku would've had a better chance to sprint past the nearest CB to him. Lukaku did well with his hold up and awareness to lay it off to Rashford.
 
This is how I saw it



They defender to his right was already ahead of him and well positioned when Lukaku made his first touch, they were not even level, look at it again. The pass from Rashford was slow, I wouldn't even consider it a through ball. If Rashford hit it with more power and angled it better Lukaku would've had a better chance to sprint past the nearest CB to him. Lukaku did well with his hold up and awareness to lay it off to Rashford.

Think you're overrating his speed - I've yet to see him really gas anyone this season. If he's got acres to run into he's quite fast in a straight line but takes so long to get going - he's like an old steam train.
 
This is how I saw it



They defender to his right was already ahead of him and well positioned when Lukaku made his first touch, they were not even level, look at it again. The pass from Rashford was slow, I wouldn't even consider it a through ball. If Rashford hit it with more power and angled it better Lukaku would've had a better chance to sprint past the nearest CB to him. Lukaku did well with his hold up and awareness to lay it off to Rashford.

This is the point at which the ball comes into his stride:

dvszf5.jpg


Are you really telling me he shouldn't be able to get that out of his feet, take it towards the edge of the box, and as a left footer get a shot away? I guess we must have a different take on what we require from our star striker.
 
This is the point at which the ball comes into his stride:

dvszf5.jpg


Are you really telling me he shouldn't be able to get that out of his feet, as a left footer, and get a shot away? I guess we must have a different take on what we require from our star striker.

The still image doesn't show how quickly the defender was closing him down in that passage of play, he was already on Lukaku and the other defender to the left closed down the pocket of space Lukaku would've realistically ran into. From their positions and the speed at which they were moving in him they'd have been disappointed not to stop him, they covered all angles. Good defending is good defending. Why are you so confident Rashford would've done better in this situation? I mean his decision making last night was shocking and it has nothing to do with him not being played in the middle. The two defenders did a good job of containing Lukaku, and if Rashford played a better ball Lukaku would've had a better chance to get a shot off. You're over analyzing this IMO. You make it seem like any striker should be getting a shot off in that position 10/10 times.
 
The still image doesn't show how quickly the defender was closing him down in that passage of play, he was already on Lukaku and the other defender to the left closed down the pocket of space Lukaku would've realistically ran into. From their positions and the speed at which they were moving in him they'd have been disappointed not to stop him, they covered all angles. Good defending is good defending. Why are you so confident Rashford would've done better in this situation? I mean his decision making last night was shocking and it has nothing to do with him not being played in the middle. The two defenders did a good job of containing Lukaku, and if Rashford played a better ball Lukaku would've had a better chance to get a shot off. You're over analyzing this IMO. You make it seem like any striker should be getting a shot off in that position 10/10 times.

For all Rashford's faults in front of goal, hes getting very good at driving into spaces like that. Yes defenders would be disappointed to let him get a shot away there, but these are Burnley defenders and this is supposed to be our leading striker. We are talking about someone who is supposed to be up there with Van Persie, Van Nistelrooy, Rooney and Ronaldo here. Not Andy Carroll. A player with Lukaku's pace, power and pricetag should be going shoulder to shoulder with the last man there and getting into a shooting position, not running over the ball and having to stop his run. The second player chasing shouldn't even get near.
 
If he starts vs Leicester we will drop points.

He just nullifies the attack.
 
Wonser if the club would be willing to let him go in the summer? But if his playing time is limited he probably wants out anyway.
 
If he starts vs Leicester we will drop points.

He just nullifies the attack.

Ah yeah he really nullified our attack vs Arsenal didn't he :rolleyes:. What about Lukaku creating the best chance of the game against Burnley from the right.

It's pretty obvious that some in here don't really care how he performs, they just decide before the game that he's gonna be shite regardless.

He's shown to be a genuine option from the right and as a sub under Ole. Rashford is our in form striker and so deserves to start at striker ahead of him. Martinez deployed Lukaku from the right countless times and it suited his qualities because he could bully the fullback and only be marked by one player which gives him more space. I'm glad we've got a manager using him to his strengths rather than forcing him to develop into a target man.
 
Wonser if the club would be willing to let him go in the summer? But if his playing time is limited he probably wants out anyway.

Yh I think Ole has probably made his mind up on him, it's a tough situation for Rom because his form has been really poor and now he's not getting as many minutes on top of that.

If someone comes in with a £40m+ bid, I think we should take it because I just don't think he suits our style of play at all. He's got a great scoring history in the PL so I'm sure he can do well somewhere else and would hate to see him just benchwarm for us given his age.
 
I don't mid if he starts but not centrally. Rashford is way better centrally than Lukaku. He should start on the right
 
Pretty hard to see him starting again except for rotation like the next Chelsea Fa Cup game, otherwise Rashford will be the main starter and I'm not sure Lukaku will be fine with that long term. The next manager will probably follow on that because I said loads of times no manager wanting fast free fluid football will want Lukaku starting ahead of Rashford long term, only for rotation and sub appearance.

He turned up better than Morata but there's no guarantee he's not going to follow him out this summer too. Both were underwhelming and probably chose the wrong club. I wonder what would have happened if Chelsea had taken Lukaku and United had taken Morata. Maybe both would have done better.
 
In Burnley game, he’s done nothing apart from the pass he made to Rashford early on. When Rashford plays as CF, he always make himself available and even sometimes he needs to drop back and then play quick link up play. While Lukaku, he always trying to makes others difficult to give him the ball, even if we ask him to drop deeper his poor touch will only slow us down.

Lukaku should only play in cup games or being a super sub when the opposition defenders are tired. We should stick with Rashford as CF or Lingard/Sanchez as false 9. If Martial is injured or we need to rest Lingard again, Sanchez should play instead. The guy looks like a midget but ironically he’s a better in heading the ball than Lukaku.
 
If we can get £40m or so I think we'd be best off selling. He's not a great forward and not a good fit for us.
 
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