True I think any new manager would prefer Martial or Sanchez up top
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Goals
- 15
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
True I think any new manager would prefer Martial or Sanchez up top
Rashford is absolutely useless as a sole striker. Lukaku isn't anywhere near as dominant in that position as he should be based on his size and power, but he looks like prime Drogba or Costa compared to Rashford who doesn't even try to do anything but run in behind.
Not sure about Martial as it's been so long since he's played there.
Unless you want to play them together, in which case that's a false comparison as we obviously then lose a player elsewhere.
Completely agree. He doesn’t really get involved and when he does have space to run at a defender (let’s be fair, when he is running at full pace he is difficult to stop) he just lays it off and wanders back into the centre.
Yup, pretty much.
Forgot to mention that if by the time new manager gets here ,Martial is here as well.
Sanchez I'm not worried about, he'll be here, he won't give up that huge money he's on, but if he keeps this kind of performances tho…
True - he's just playing the waiting game which is the best thing to do at this point. He will definitely get more chances under a new coach.
Hope so, unless if we get some old style dinosaur for a manager that will continue our hoofball trend of football
Hope so, unless if we get some old style dinosaur for a manager that will continue our hoofball trend of football
Please dont even jest, I just want a young manager with a good attack philosophy.
I don't think so... if any manager can get what he showed for Belgium in the WC out of him (where he was the focal point of a technical and attacking side no less) then we'll be sorted.
I jest to drive sorrow away
When it comes to managers, with our board decision making, you never know
And this is our main striker.
Newsflash. Strikers miss chances. Our problem has been creating more than one chance for him (or anyone else!) over 90 minutes. Once we start doing that, we might start winning games.
EDIT: Yeah, I know, last night we didn’t even create the chance he missed.
You can apply the same that Mourinho has said for Pogba WC performances, to Lukaku.
It's clear Mourinho wants him to be his Drogba. He's sitting in front of the centre backs trying to hold the ball up and dropping deep to get others involved in the attack. It's not how he's played at any other club and he's just not that player. His control is rubbish and he turns like an oil tanker. He needs to be the focus of the attack, running at full pace and getting on the end of passes. He's almost impossible to defend when he does that.
Ultimately i feel he is going to be this generation's RvN. As good as he might be he takes us down a path of play we don't want, and unfortunately he can't finish like RvN could either.
It’s a shame we’ve spent a huge sum of money on a striker and you look at him and think he’s not good enough and probably never will be. Not good enough to take us anywhere great that is. Was pretty clear to me quite early on that in time he’d need to be upgraded. Buying a 24 year old for his fee, with his pedigree before he arrived, that shouldn’t have been the case. His fee really should be enough to get you finished product. Repeatedly misses his first chance in games and the last two it’s been so costly. Meanwhile, from his first quarter chance, the opportunity made by himself, Kane effectively wins the game for his team.
We have spent a lot of money on a player, and tried to turn him into one thing he isn't, sure under a new manager he can improve a lot if we get him running channels down the sides of defenders instead of being positioned between the CBs trying to lay balls off.
Lukaku is overrated,when you look at great Utd strikers like Van Nistelrooy and Van Persie you would not put Lukaku in that bracket whatsoever,he has not got the technique and will never score goals with the level of aplomb and execution of those two,in short is he of Utd standard? I have serious doubts!
It's all to easy to go back in time, and if that and this had happened. With that said, i can't shake the feeling if he had taken both of his early chances against Brighton and Spurs thing would look very different.
He had more than one chance.
Also this idea that he has to have perfect chances created for him is nonsense. He has to create more himself and score difficult chances, look at Kane's goal for an example.
with his price tag and 250k/wk wages, I don't think there will be many takers out there.
Looking at those Gifs, those misses are criminal but he just looks like many a goal scorer who needs a goal to get his confidence up. Any old goal will do, just bundle one over the line. It’s amazing what a goal can do for your confidence, if he had burried that first one those other two I imagine would have been finished no bother whatsoever.
He isn’t the technical marvel of Aguero,RVP and players like that, what he is (normally) is a good goal scorer, a scorer of goals, we are still a disfunctional team that doesn’t play to his strengths but last night there were some flashes of us leaning more to what Lukaku is good at other than the normality of playing to his weaknesses.
I still think the best I’ve seen of him here was the brief times he has played in a 2 with Martial, they just seem to compliment each other.
He isn’t the technical marvel of Aguero,RVP and players like that, what he is (normally) is a good goal scorer, a scorer of goals, we are still a disfunctional team that doesn’t play to his strengths but last night there were some flashes of us leaning more to what Lukaku is good at other than the normality of playing to his weaknesses.
I still think the best I’ve seen of him here was the brief times he has played in a 2 with Martial, they just seem to compliment each other.
He scored against Brighton. I was an any old goal bundled over the line too.
We've paid a top-tier transfer price for a tier 2 striker. Those misses are criminal and should be simple for a player of his value.
Someone recently compared him to Andy Cole and I think that’s a good comparison. Scores a load of goals but misses loads too.
He won’t, as he wasn’t last season. Kane, Salah, Aguero, Vardy at least will likely score more goals than him.
Andy Cole is certainly a better comparison than the Emile Heskey and Salomon Rondon ones on the previous page. It's like people want to overreact.
We created other chances for him last night. Some strikers seem to think they are not expected to score unless they are repeatedly served with the ball in the middle of the 6-yard box unchallenged.
Lukaku missed a good headed chance that Fred created for him, he scuffed a cut back that Shaw played for him, that was just in the first half. He failed to make anything of two good opportunities in the second half too.
Then there’s the chances Spurs created for him.
Feck you’re right
I had blocked out most of the Brighton game. Ok ignore everything I said earlier then about needing a goal.which is weird because I’m sure the season before us he was statistically the most clinical striker in the league. Make what you want of stats I say they don’t always show the truth but I’m sure his shot percentage or goal percentage was the highest in the league.
Here's a quick comparison of a few players' minutes per chance in the PL last season:
1. Kane - 16.8
2. Giroud - 20.5
3. Aguero - 20.9
4. Austin - 21.5
5. Morata - 26.2
6. Vokes - 29.7
7. Jesus - 29.8
8. Lacazette - 32.5
9. Firmino - 33
10. Lukaku - 33.4
Meanwhile, goal conversion rate last season among those same ten players:
1. Jesus - 23.2%
2. Aguero - 22.3%
3. Lacazette - 20.6%
4. Lukaku - 18.6%
5. Firmino - 17.9%
6. Kane - 16.3%
7. Vokes - 15.2%
8. Austin - 14.6%
9. Giroud - 14.6%
10. Morata - 13.9%
All of which suggests that Lukaku's time here has actually been characterised by him putting away his fair share of limited chances rather than needing a lot of chances to score.
Which makes sense when you consider that we finished behind the rest of the top six in terms of metrics like chances created, chances from open play, touches in the final third and touches in the final half.
Also, just in case someone says "well, Lukaku's chances were easier, he had a lot of tap ins"
Minutes per goal attempt in the box:
1. Giroud - 21.9
2. Aguero - 24.6
3. Kane - 25.3
4. Austin - 29.4
5. Morata - 32.3
6. Vokes - 32.7
7. Jesus - 33.4
8. Lacazette - 36.9
9. Lukaku - 38.3
10. Firmino - 50.5
Minutes per goal attempt in the box:
1. Giroud - 21.9
2. Aguero - 24.6
3. Kane - 25.3
4. Austin - 29.4
5. Morata - 32.3
6. Vokes - 32.7
7. Jesus - 33.4
8. Lacazette - 36.9
9. Lukaku - 38.3
10. Firmino - 50.5
What was Zlatan's when he was here. Could be wrong but it seemed he was better than Lukaku at making things happen, especially linking up with Pogba.
Don’t have stats to hand but, from memory, his chance conversion stats were fairly woeful. He needed a lot more chances than Lukaku does to score.
You seem to be making the point that the striker is, in part, responsible for creating chances for himself. That’s probably true but Lukaku’s goal-scoring record with Belgium shows he’s well capable of being part of an effective front line. Ditto his assists record for United. Feeding of scraps evidently isn’t his thing and the Pogba we’ve seen so far this season (and the latter half of last season - since he started sulking about Sanchez’ wages) is a pale shadow of the Pogba that Ibra tended to link up well with.
I know Zlatan's conversion record for United was poor as it did my tree in, it really cost us that season. I was interested in the amount of chances he got compared to Lukaku, however.
International goal scoring records don't interest me when considering how a player will do for United. Lukaku's record is similar to Javier Hernandez and inferior to Berbatov's at international level.
Zlatan's conversion rate was around 15%.
Ibrahimovic's chances will be high as he took so many shots from outside the box.
Zlatan took 80 shots from inside the box in 2437 mins
Lukaku took 75 shots from insider the box in 2869 mins
Well then, I can’t help you. Google it?
They interest me. For obvious reasons in this context. It’s impossible to judge Lukaka fairly as part of such a dysfunctional team going forwards. He can only dream of playing for the United sides that Hernandez and Berbatov did, that’s for sure.
Lukaku for us last year, Zlatan for us in 16/17:
Min. Per Chance: L - 33.4, Z - 21.2
Goal conversion: L - 18.6%, Z - 14.8%
Shot Accuracy - L - 48.8%, Z - 39.1%
Min. Per Attempt in the box: L - 38.3, Z - 30.5
Minutes per touch: L - 2.5, Z - 1.7
So Zlatan got chances more regularly, touched the ball more regularly and had attempts in the box more regularly, which you could argue is either down to him, down to the team or a mixture of both. However he was definitely better in terms of things like pass completion & chances created, though I won't bother posting the stats.
Meanwhile Lukaku was more accurate and substantially more clinical, despite recieving fewer chances across the board.
I don't see the logic in taking what happens at international level as evidence for club level. Since his international record improved he's bagged a hat trick against Gibraltar, braces against Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, Panama and Tunisia.
We don't get to play such over matched sides in the PL.
Thanks. confirms what I suspected.
I like his attitude, just not his ability.
That was my issue with him from day 1 and I said as much loads of times. Hes a good player, but hes a £75m signing who is 24 years old but is not a standout player in our squad and is worse than the strikers at most other big clubs. Hes not someone who gives us an advantage in big games. In fact in big games you start thinking if we should just bench him because he is next to useless in most of them.
Lukaku with us last year and Lukaku at Everton the year before:
Min. Per Chance: L - 33.4, EL - 29.7
Goal conversion: L - 18.6%, EL - 22.7%
Shot Accuracy - L - 48.8%, EL - 48.2%
Min. Per Attempt in the box: L - 38.3, EL - 40.8
Minutes per touch: L - 2.5, EL - 2.2
So at Everton he got chances more regularly, got touches more regularly while being even more clinical in front of goal.
All of which suggests that whatever problems Lukaku may have, being clinical in front of goal isn't one of them. Rather it's that he doesn't get near as many chances as the players we compare him to, whether through the team's fault or his own.
Min. Per Chance: L - 33.4, EL - 29.7
Goal conversion: L - 18.6%, EL - 22.7%
Shot Accuracy - L - 48.8%, EL - 48.2%
Min. Per Attempt in the box: L - 38.3, EL - 40.8
Minutes per touch: L - 2.5, EL - 2.2
So at Everton he got chances more regularly, got touches more regularly while being even more clinical in front of goal.
All of which suggests that whatever problems Lukaku may have, being clinical in front of goal isn't one of them. Rather it's that he doesn't get near as many chances as the players we compare him to, whether through the team's fault or his own.
- Status