[Sylar]

He peaked at winning the penalty.

There was one moment where Sanchez did well on the right, and pinged it to him. It just... bounced off him.
I remember a lot of people talking about his touch, but it seems to have gotten worse over time with us. For a big man target player that likes to work the channels, he doesnt really do any of that particularly well.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

Did really well to win the penalty and then proceeded to do absolutely fecking nothing right for the rest of the game.

It's an indictment on himself and the club itself that he's been allowed to get into the shape he is. We've had similar issues with Depay bulking up with too much muscle and also Rooney and Shaw looking downright fat at times. What are we doing?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I felt that the criticism of him became unecessary viscous and have defended him as a footballer. But I do sometimes wonder how we as a football club decided that it was acceptable for our big money star number 9 signing to be poor technically. I mean, shouldn't there be some sort of pride in excellence and technical attacking football that deters you from signing footballers, especially such important ones, who lack in this regard?

This is where we have to learn from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. In fact City seemed to have inculcated that before we have.

 

[BusbyMalone]

His average positioning/touches when he came on. The crosses represent the times he lost possession. Now obviously this doesn't look great, but we're just not getting the ball to him in the opposition box.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

His average positioning/touches when he came on. The crosses represent the times he lost possession. Now obviously this doesn't look great, but we're just not getting the ball to him in the opposition box.

Even still, he has to do something with possession outside the box.

No striker can expect to only contribute in the penalty area.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Even still, he has to do something with possession outside the box.

No striker can expect to only contribute in the penalty area.

Yeah definitely agreed on that. He's just not playing well at all. I posted it more to highlight how broke we are as a team. But he has to do more, 100%

 

[LoveFootball]

I actually believe he's on the decline. Like Rooney. Remember both of them were playing football at early age. Lukaku might be past his best already. He's too big, fat almost.

Hohoho. Lukaku isn't on the decline, he's still 25 year old, nobody declines at that age, come on. He's an average striker who is in a bad form, his form looks terrible because of the ridiculous transfer fee we paid and the fact the manager took too long to drop him.

At his best he runs more and provide some presence in the attack that mask all his other flaws, but when he isn't at 100%, he got exposed for the average striker he is. No other big team will want him, he'll have to run down his contract in order to leave this club. I just hope the next manager gives him the Joe Heart's treatment and force him out of the club

 

[AndyJ1985]

The club needs to ask serious questions about why our big money signings keep turning out to be duds. Pogba may be the exception as he performs well at least some of the time, but pretty much everyone else has failed spectacularly. It's happening too often to be coincidence.

 

[LoveFootball]

The club needs to ask serious questions about why our big money signings keep turning out to be duds. Pogba may be the exception as he performs well at least some of the time, but pretty much everyone else has failed spectacularly. It's happening too often to be coincidence.

It's quiet simple to figure this out, tbh. We give too much power to the manager. Most managers are just coach; it's the DOF job and his staff to identify the right players to fit the system. Fergusson was a genius and was able to run the whole football side of the club by his own, but even people like Pep, Ancelotti, Allegri, LVG, Mourinho need help.

I'm of the opinion that if LVG worked with a proper DOF he'd have succeed here; he bought the like of Depay, Falcao, Di Maria and Schneiderlin when these players aren't suited for a possession based style. The only players he got right are Blind (he knew him from the Dutch NT) and Martial (who I think was the board/scout choice as LVG himself said we bought Martial for the next manager). Look at Mourinho's signings; do you think the like of Lindelof, bailly, Lukaku suit his style?

If we don't restructure the board and bring in a DOF with proper football men, then we'll continue to see many players come here and struggle.

 

[Rajma]

His average positioning/touches when he came on. The crosses represent the times he lost possession. Now obviously this doesn't look great, but we're just not getting the ball to him in the opposition box.

You have to laugh at that picture. Thank you.

 

[sunama]

This is actually ridiculous considering our first choice striker is big lump forward.
Only we can have striker who is one of tallest and biggest players on the pitch who can't win header. Even Rashford won some headers in last game I think and he isn't mostly challenging for headers for some reason.

I can only think that this is because of his weight.
If he lost about 10-20kg, he'd be able to jump higher in the air.
And why are the MUFC medical support staff allowing players to become overweight?

 

[sunama]

It's an indictment on himself and the club itself that he's been allowed to get into the shape he is. We've had similar issues with Depay bulking up with too much muscle and also Rooney and Shaw looking downright fat at times. What are we doing?

So, the manager is mis-firing and is under performing, doing worse here than he did at his previous clubs.
Many of the players who we bought, have under performed and did/doing worse here than they did at their previous clubs.
Now we can add the medical support staff to that list.
McKenna did great things with our youth - teaching them great attacks. As a first team coach, he seems to be a doing a bad job.

Why are so many people in our club under performing?

 

[ash_86]

His average positioning/touches when he came on. The crosses represent the times he lost possession. Now obviously this doesn't look great, but we're just not getting the ball to him in the opposition box.

has to work on his hold up play.

 

[UnrelatedPsuedo]

I do wish people would stop talking shit about players ‘Bulking up’.

There are genuine issues with lazy players at times. Shaw deserves both barrels for his shitty work ethic.

But anyone thinking that Lukaku is fat/too bulky is an idiot and doesn’t understand basic human biomechanics or performance.

He’s a terrible centre forward. Let’s focus on his poor movement (for United), his awful first touch, the fact that he gets pushed off the ball too easily, his inability to play to the best of his ability, week in, week out. I don’t even know how we approach how bad he is in the air for someone that’s as tall as he is, and how he routinely jumps too early, or late.

But for the love of all that’s holy.... let’s stop pretending that hes not one of the best examples of an athlete in our entire squad. His shoulders and waist will never narrow. He’s got the perfect build to play as a lone centre forward.

 

[clarkydaz]

His average positioning/touches when he came on. The crosses represent the times he lost possession. Now obviously this doesn't look great, but we're just not getting the ball to him in the opposition box.

what minute did he come on? How can you lose possession that much as a sub?

 

[BusbyMalone]

what minute did he come on? How can you lose possession that much as a sub?

He came on in the 57th minute

 

[Foxbatt]

We used to have brilliant CFs all the time. Be it poachers or more possession type of CFs. But this is ridiculous. From Rooney, to RVP, Berbatov, Tevez, Hernandez, RVN, Hughes, Stapleton, Pancho Pearson, Cole and Yorke. How did it come to this low?

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

 

[cheeky_backheel]

I felt that the criticism of him became unecessary viscous and have defended him as a footballer. But I do sometimes wonder how we as a football club decided that it was acceptable for our big money star number 9 signing to be poor technically. I mean, shouldn't there be some sort of pride in excellence and technical attacking football that deters you from signing footballers, especially such important ones, who lack in this regard?

This is where we have to learn from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. In fact City seemed to have inculcated that before we have.

Probably the same logic that many here apply when looking at and vaunting his production for Everton, while papering over his limitations a player.

The truth is that productivity is heavily influenced by the system employed and can be enhanced or diminished by it. A system well suited to a player can maximize his productivity while an ll suited system can kill it, but the qualities of the player remains unchanged.

When valuing a player I feel more weight should be given to the qualities of the player and less to his production.

 

[Tomuś]

I felt that the criticism of him became unecessary viscous and have defended him as a footballer. But I do sometimes wonder how we as a football club decided that it was acceptable for our big money star number 9 signing to be poor technically. I mean, shouldn't there be some sort of pride in excellence and technical attacking football that deters you from signing footballers, especially such important ones, who lack in this regard?

This is where we have to learn from the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. In fact City seemed to have inculcated that before we have.

He peaked during WC and a good deal of people on here (some of whom became his harshest critics after first 2 poor games) thought he can be a top striker, myself included. Judging by this form it's a bit sad. Every single footballing guy I know associate United with the finest strikers possible. We've always had them, even during lean periods. So no, I wouldn't say others had learned that before us.

 

[el3mel]

I actually bursted out laughing watching some parts of this video. That's that comically bad.

He wasn't even that terrible last season. His first touch was erratic but what he has been doing this season is championship quality.

 

[Marcus]

He has missed a few sitters and confidence is low. But Lukaku is gonna turn his game around and go on a scoring streak. I have great confidence in the man.

 

[Jeppers7]

Jesus....he's pub team level at some aspects of the game.

 

[Djemba-Djemba]

We're closing in on December and our main striker has scored 4 goals all season.

No wonder we're mid table.

 

[Smores]

We're closing in on December and our main striker has scored 4 goals all season.

No wonder we're mid table.

Far more to do with our defence, we've scored the same amount as the amazing attacking Spurs who have one of the best strikers in the world.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Sometimes I feel that how can someone have such a bad touch? Its very to difficult to achieve these levels of a fecked up first touch.

 

[James Peril]

We're closing in on December and our main striker has scored 4 goals all season.

No wonder we're mid table.

Last season he started with lots of goals in the beginning, then he scored like 9 goals from October to May... it's difficult to predict what we're in for over Christmas. He can't be as bad as now forever, so he will score goals... but even his miserable return of 16 league goals from last season looks hard to top. I'm not a fan at all, but I was 100% sure he was going to top 16+ league goals if fit this season.

 

[Cassidy]

Last season he started with lots of goals in the beginning, then he scored like 9 goals from October to May... it's difficult to predict what we're in for over Christmas. He can't be as bad as now forever, so he will score goals... but even his miserable return of 16 league goals from last season looks hard to top. I'm not a fan at all, but I was 100% sure he was going to top 16+ league goals if fit this season.

Since last October he has 13 league goals? Thats pretty bad

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Since last October he has 13 league goals? Thats pretty bad

Yeah he has been awful for a very long period now. He was doing other good work if not goals but that has dried up as well.

 

[Hawks2008]

 

[BrianMcClair'sBarnet]

Kicking a man who's clearly down at present isn't my thing.
I hope he rediscovers his scoring form.

 

[Cassidy]

The fact he is doing well for Belgium and the fact he doesn't have a great record vs top teams tells me its a phycological problem he may have dealing with high pressure situations.

He is not the best technically but he certainly has the ability to score plenty of goals, but then sometimes his goalscoring instincts go to shit for no apparent reason.

 

[Canagel]

He should kick the ball hard at a wall and then try to control the ricochet. Lots of times. Will definitely improve that first touch.

 

[marko goalo]

He should kick the ball hard at a wall and then try to control the ricochet. Lots of times. Will definitely improve that first touch.

That's pretty much all we did a kids, hence why I have a much more impressive first touch than RL.

 

[Foxbatt]

I think he panics when he receives the ball. You can see the flurry of activity he tries and his face gets all contorted as if he has to do many things with the ball.

 

[Johan07]

His whole student of the game thing and all his pointing is infuriating.

It's baffling how he has been allowed to get into the shape he's gotten.
Did the club realise hes not that great of a hold up player even given his natural size so thought the solution would be to bulk him up more? It's bizarre

I have actually pondered this as well. I dont like conspiracy theories normally, but this one might stick.

 

[Jed I. Knight]

I can only think that this is because of his weight.
If he lost about 10-20kg, he'd be able to jump higher in the air.
And why are the MUFC medical support staff allowing players to become overweight?

Even if he were able to jump higher, I doubt it’d suddenly stop him from horrendously mistiming most of his efforts when he goes for the ball. Once you become aware of it, it’s absolutely unbelievable how often he jumps at least a few seconds before he should, or even just finds himself a few yards off the spot where he should be, only to sort of symbolically jumping to look like he’s actually contending for the ball.

It’s been prevalent since he first joined us. Didn’t watch him close enough to say whether it was a regular feature or his game before that.

 

[Rozay]

This is his type of game today. Expect a brace from him.

 

[sullydnl]

I don't even care if he plays like shite, just hope he at least scores to maybe get his confidence rolling.

 

[Who's Kissing Cameras?]

Today is his last chance for me. Needs to be sold if he under-performs again.