Such a strange player. Unplayable at times, but pub league at others.
No real inbetween.
No real inbetween.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Goals
- 15
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
It is a such downgrading for United with him. We had top top strikers and now we have Lukaku. We had Yorke, Cole, Ole, RVN, RVP, Rooney and now Lukaku.
What tune is that to?
Heskey was the same.
Reminds me a little of Andy Cole. Brilliant at times but misses some absolute sitters. Cole played in a team that created 3 or 4 chances a game for him though, rather than 1 or 2.
Don't know if your idea would work, but I'd try Sanchez in that role. He did well as a centre forward for Arsenal and in preseason, and I think at this stage of his career, that's where he belongs. He has enough hustle and technical ability to play the Firmino role imo.
Disappointed he's missed an easy chance against Leicester and now Brighton. When he's got a bit of time he seems to fluff it but has great instincts like for the header.
Rom has looked good for us and Belgium on the right, perhaps a right side of a front three.
Rom has looked good for us and Belgium on the right, perhaps a right side of a front three.
Was he still injured? Like the previous week 
The apologetics for some of our players are really something else. He's nothing more than a bonafide Heskey, poor first touch, misses sitters, average technically, clumsy...
He could still come good but watching him play for the past year I can't believe we really paid so much for him.
The apologetics for some of our players are really something else. He's nothing more than a bonafide Heskey, poor first touch, misses sitters, average technically, clumsy...
He could still come good but watching him play for the past year I can't believe we really paid so much for him.
He is out of form and probably not only because of the WC , but because for Belgium he does not play as the target man .
If he scored yesterday for 0-1 , we would have won .
If he scored yesterday for 0-1 , we would have won .
Probably the most accurate description of him. He missed that golden chance yesterday that could have put us 1-0 up. Oh how it all went down hill from there.
Weird player but I have faith in him. If we play the way Manchester United should play, he'll get 30+ a season.
Heskey.. This place never cease to amaze me.
Would be nice if as a team we could play to the strengths of our players and mainly our striker so we get the best returns instead of what we normally do. Put him in a decent counter attacking team and he is easy a 25+ league goals man.
Instead we persist in playing to his weaknesses.
Instead we persist in playing to his weaknesses.
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So let me get it straight. Current opinion is that, after 110 minutes of football off the back of a good first season and very good World Cup he's an Emile Heskey.
feck me.
feck me.
Yup.
Maybe you’re not old enough to remember when he was decent. The comparison isn’t that far fetched.
Hes a donkey no doubt about that, never going to be enough for Man Utd even if he does score goals.
It's just a way of portraying him as a bad player. I'm not even going to go to donkey part as a poster is mentioning above. Every time he misses a sitter he gets a ton of abuse.
Perhaps if he had some of the attributes of a top striker people would give him more leeway.
Weaknesses:
Heading- Unforgivable how bad his heading is for someone with his size/frame. Could perhaps move into the average skills category for attacking headers as he scores afew from these.
Dribbling- Give him space and this might just move into the average/good categories but Utd don't play teams with space alot of the time. He cant get out of small spaces nd regularly trips over his own feet.
Ball Control- No where near good enough for a so called 'top striker'. Attacks regularly end at his feet as the ball bounces back to opposition players.
Movement- (He never gets infront of his man at the front post, just waits for the ball into the box). His only good movement is spinning in behind onto the RW which is pretty pointless for a striker. How about spinning down the channels every once in a while?!
Average skills:
Finishing- hes very hit and miss, Aguero and/or Kane bury those chances against Leicester and Brighton
Goalscoring: yeh hes good but hes not quite Carling. (Man Utd have always had Carling (RVN, RVP etc...))
Good Skills/Strengths:
Attitude/Leadership: one of the few players in the team that has a good attitude both to improve individually but also to help his team.
Pace: Hes lighting quick, but again i would say thats over longer sprints rather than short bursts which is what Utd require more from out CF.
Strength: one look at him tells you this, despite being an ox he cant hold the ball though due to the above weaknesses.
I don't think I am being overly harsh here. Lukaku is an athlete that is bigger and stronger than 90% of his competitors, however, his technical game is nowhere near the standard of the Utd CF. He regularly has the touch of a donkey which breaks down attacks and prevents us moving up the pitch. I think due to his excellent attitude, he has improved his game since coming here but we need someone absolutely special that is not just gonna hit 20 goals but instead get 30 or 40 and on top of that score some spectacular and incredible solo goals in there as well.
The Heskey comparison is apt in terms of how clumsy he is at times when he tries to dribble and be slick, but Andy Cole is the closest United striker to him, technically unrefined but will get a decent tally every season if we create more chances, Cole used to get them on a plate for us but struggled for England as chances were sparce, it's the other way around for Lukaku.
Don't know about Heskey. He had a good tally but sometimes poor finishing and his awful first touch was apparent throughout. It was never the myth people on here made out when we bought him. His ball control just isn't good enough, even when he's supposed to be in control of it.
He did have a good World Cup, but he was flattered by that very good Belgium side, and we don't have the luxury of all those quality players playing nice football.
Can he improve? I think he probably can. Will it be enough? I'm not sure. He should better at this stage imo.
Costa and drogba are both 100x the player Lukaku is you really can’t compare them at all.
He's no Emile Heskey as his goalscoring clearly shows. But the concern is that he's not a really top class striker. So while I don't think this is an area we need to address as sorting our cohesion and general issues attack has to be sorted out first, we should be on the lookout for the next great RVP/RVN level CF before they go to the other top teams.
He's young so I'm patient - but he needs to improve a lot if he wants to be as good as he thinks he is.
The chance he had yesterday was a sitter for a world class striker - he misses these chances too often.
Didn't think he did anything good yesterday. First game back which is fair enough.
The chance he had yesterday was a sitter for a world class striker - he misses these chances too often.
Didn't think he did anything good yesterday. First game back which is fair enough.
That’s a good analogy.
That’s the thing though, last season wasn’t that good, and his WC certainly wasn’t exceptional. Scoring against pub teams, not to be seen against better teams. Missing chances when it matters the most, that’s how I remember last season. 16 goals in the league, not enough when you’re the focal point for Manchester United. The Heskey-comps aren’t apt, but he’s closer to Heskey than he is to Drogba, Costa et al. A very limited striker with strengths that doesn’t really help up in most games I’m afraid. He is a striker that thrives with space and runs into corridors, we seldom or never have space or huge rooms to exploit.
Can't believe he's getting stick, I thought he was alright. Only criticism was he was coming back a bit too often.
Bit more deadly with the finishing and we'll be back at some point. Players around him needs to work for the chances more, he's clearly a team player but he's definitely a finisher and he should keep doing it.
I think Lukaku is probably one of the more limited strikers in the "elite" bracket. He'll score a ton of goals given the right service, but his technical limitations are fairly glaring and are a big hindrance to him. He can't control the ball in tight spaces, can't dribble through defenses, can't turn on a dime, can't score with a diving header, will often miscontrol the ball and ruin the attack if the ball is played to him with too much pace. He's also a pretty average target man because of his technical limitations; this was why we created so many more chances when Zlatan was playing the target man role instead. Very good, sometimes excellent striker, but nowhere near the best ones imo.
Having said that, we're currently not at a level where Lukaku is hampering us. He's definitely one of our best-performing players. Hopefully he'll keep on improving even while we improve as a team, but I think (hope?) we'll eventually reach a level where he'll have to be upgraded.
Having said that, we're currently not at a level where Lukaku is hampering us. He's definitely one of our best-performing players. Hopefully he'll keep on improving even while we improve as a team, but I think (hope?) we'll eventually reach a level where he'll have to be upgraded.
I wouldn’t ever call Lukuku an elite player. He’s similar to Andy Cole (not at all in the way they play), but a player who will score goals, but will never be really too drawer/ elite/ World Class - whatever you want to call it.
Like you say, far too many limitations and flaws on his game. However, we would be completely buggered without him - which shows the level we are at currently.
I wish we would get a world class striker instead of a b class Drogba.
White text ?
Does there need to be?
I'd have thought so. He was shambolic and missed a sitter at 0-0 but you've said the ONLY criticism was he came back too much. Poor old Romelu. Tries too hard for the team.
Really.
No he's not. You're talking utter shit.
Heskey averaged 6.8 goals a year since his first full season in the EPL. Lukaku is currently on 16.8.
Heskey's best season ever in the EPL was 14 league goals for Liverpool. Rom banged in 25 for Everton and hasn't even entered his peak yet.
His stats are up there with Drogba's and Diego Costa's and a million miles from those of Heskey. Unless of course you're telling me to completely ignore his amazing numbers and only go by your own personal ranking of strikers based on probably never having fecking watched Heskey in the first place.
With all those names, it can only be Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire.
You didn't see him against Brazil or do you classify Brazil as a pub team? He was brilliant in that game.
Yeah it's mental and such a lazy comparison. Heksey's best ever season from a goals perspective would be Lukaku's second lowest tally. Even in that season Lukaku made up for it scoring for fun in Europe being the top scorer in Europa League.
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