Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea

I said this before they signed him, he is not the player everyone thinks he is. Obviously when you don't watch a player every week and only see the highlights of the goals, they'd look good.

His touch, attitude, workrate all was an issue before and still is. I just cant believe Chelsea fans thought he is a changed player.
 
I said this before they signed him, he is not the player everyone thinks he is. Obviously when you don't watch a player every week and only see the highlights of the goals, they'd look good.

His touch, attitude, workrate all was an issue before and still is. I just cant believe Chelsea fans thought he is a changed player.

Thing is, he is not even doing what he is supposed to be good at, scoring against mid to low-table sides, he has 5 goals in the league, which is meme-worthy.

Only contest for flop of the season, as far as i can see, is Grealish.
 
I said this before they signed him, he is not the player everyone thinks he is. Obviously when you don't watch a player every week and only see the highlights of the goals, they'd look good.

His touch, attitude, workrate all was an issue before and still is. I just cant believe Chelsea fans thought he is a changed player.

My Chelsea friend was a mess after they brought him, he was boarderline suicidal. Not sure all Chelsea fans thought he was changed.
 
Thing is, he is not even doing what he is supposed to be good at, scoring against mid to low-table sides, he has 5 goals in the league, which is meme-worthy.

Only contest for flop of the season, as far as i can see, is Grealish.

But this is what happens with him, whenever he is dropped his attitude stinks, we had that at United when Ole came in and he wanted to train with a different club, this year with Chelsea making excuses about their style of play.
 
Thing is, he is not even doing what he is supposed to be good at, scoring against mid to low-table sides, he has 5 goals in the league, which is meme-worthy.

Only contest for flop of the season, as far as i can see, is Grealish.

He scored 3 in first 3 games, and 2 in many months.
 
Enjoyed the booing and jeering. All in good fun.

To think people thought it was a mistake to let him go. Then again I suppose some people still think the likes of Martial, Shaw and McT are going to come good.
 
One thing that bothers me more than anything about Lukaku is his aerial ability, and by that, his lack of of it.
Yes, he is a big guy who is clumsy on the ball, misplaces touches, that is to be expected, but for a guy with his physique and size, he is laughably bad at doing something productive when there are long balls coming his way, the lack of timing/anticipation, lack of jumping, his heading accuracy isn't great either.

Sure, he will trap some of those long balls, just by virtue of his size, but he is not good at it, at all.

Any other well-known big guys who are as bad at heading the ball, being a target man etc?
 
Can't believe Chelsea paid 100M for him!!!!
Can't believe we got 74mil euros for him. Not a good fit with the PL at all. A bit of a difficult character too. Apparently still worth 85 mil euros now according to transfermarkt :confused:
 
Can't believe we got 74mil euros for him. Not a good fit with the PL at all. A bit of a difficult character too. Apparently still worth 85 mil euros now according to transfermarkt :confused:

Strangely, was just a fine fit at West Ham, maybe counter attacking mid-table side just suited him better.
 
Strangely, was just a fine fit at West Ham, maybe counter attacking mid-table side just suited him better.

Everton, and yeah there was less pressure on him playing for a mid table side and doing his flat track bully thing. I thought he wasn't the same after his Belgium bulk, but I remember people saying he looked good for Inter.
 
One thing that bothers me more than anything about Lukaku is his aerial ability, and by that, his lack of of it.
Yes, he is a big guy who is clumsy on the ball, misplaces touches, that is to be expected, but for a guy with his physique and size, he is laughably bad at doing something productive when there are long balls coming his way, the lack of timing/anticipation, lack of jumping, his heading accuracy isn't great either.

Sure, he will trap some of those long balls, just by virtue of his size, but he is not good at it, at all.

Any other well-known big guys who are as bad at heading the ball, being a target man etc?

Plenty at Sunday League level - not so at the top of the table
 
For me, Lukaku is a player who is victim of being too young. He would have thrived in days of a 4-4-2. Sure, he looks like a great target man but he is horrible with back to goal and hold up play. Give him a strike partner and someone to run off of and he would score a ton. Problem is nobody really plays that formation anymore. Perhaps Chelsea could play a 3-5-2 to get more out of him because again, as a lone striker in a 3-4-3 it's just not going to work...
 
For me, Lukaku is a player who is victim of being too young. He would have thrived in days of a 4-4-2. Sure, he looks like a great target man but he is horrible with back to goal and hold up play. Give him a strike partner and someone to run off of and he would score a ton. Problem is nobody really plays that formation anymore. Perhaps Chelsea could play a 3-5-2 to get more out of him because again, as a lone striker in a 3-4-3 it's just not going to work...
You have to be great with your back to goal in those systems though.
 
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You have to be great with your back to gial in those systems though.
Most teams playing 442 used one target man and more mobile second striker. He would need to play that role, not the target man.

And honestly I doubt whether his work rate is good enough for that role.
 
Most teams playing 442 used one target man and more mobile second striker. He would need to play that role, not the target man.

And honestly I doubt whether his work rate is good enough for that role.
Well that's the thing as you've pointed out, he's not good enough for neither of those roles.
He's an anomaly , neither here or there, I struggle to point at one thing that he would excell at.
Conte is a strange man for not only liking him but making him somewhat decent as well.
 
Well that's the thing as you've pointed out, he's not good enough for neither of those roles.
He's an anomaly , neither here or there, I struggle to point at one thing that he would excell at.
Conte is a strange man for not only liking him but making him somewhat decent as well.
He can be a great counter attacking striker. He just isn't suited to play for a dominant team.
 
Most teams playing 442 used one target man and more mobile second striker. He would need to play that role, not the target man.

And honestly I doubt whether his work rate is good enough for that role.

It's too old way to thinking, one big target man and one short striker. Plenty of teams played 4-4-2 or 2 striker system without any target man. Even at Inter, him and Lautaro played very well and wouldn't call any of them as target man.

It all depends on the 2 players who link with each other and the whole set up. Even at Chelsea, there are plays who plays close to him. It's just that he is having poor season, wouldn't put everything on 2 striker or 1 striker system. He made his name playing as lone striker.
 
He can be a great counter attacking striker. He just isn't suited to play for a dominant team.
Perhaps your right, he did put decent number for brom and everton after all.
Still I don't understand why conte loves him so much.
 
It's too old way to thinking, one big target man and one short striker. Plenty of teams played 4-4-2 or 2 striker system without any target man. Even at Inter, him and Lautaro played very well and wouldn't call any of them as target man.

It all depends on the 2 players who link with each other and the whole set up. Even at Chelsea, there are plays who plays close to him. It's just that he is having poor season, wouldn't put everything on 2 striker or 1 striker system. He made his name playing as lone striker.
Right, the point is that there is a place for forwards in a 442 who aren't target men.
 
5 league goals this season, what's that about £20 million per goal? Great value.
 
A student of the game and knows 11 languages, which tells you he's a very intelligent and wise man - He KNEW he would play for Chelsea one day! He knew, which tells you something!
 
For me, Lukaku is a player who is victim of being too young. He would have thrived in days of a 4-4-2. Sure, he looks like a great target man but he is horrible with back to goal and hold up play. Give him a strike partner and someone to run off of and he would score a ton. Problem is nobody really plays that formation anymore. Perhaps Chelsea could play a 3-5-2 to get more out of him because again, as a lone striker in a 3-4-3 it's just not going to work...
Jose was in an uncharacteristically experimental mood in the first half of his second season at United. One of the formations he tried was a two-up-front with Lukaku to the right of Martial. It seemed to work pretty well, particularly in a CL group match away in Moscow.

Around Christmas he started sticking with the dullest 4-2-3-1 imaginable and playing Pogba and Fellaini in deep roles that suited neither of them. It was really disappointing following his uncharacteristic boldness earlier on.

Attempting to employ Lukaku as an ersatz Drogba was a disaster for both United and the player.
 
Enjoyed the booing and jeering. All in good fun.

To think people thought it was a mistake to let him go. Then again I suppose some people still think the likes of Martial, Shaw and McT are going to come good.
Which people were these? I can only recall a handful of Jose devotees, most of whom got banned. Remember haram :wenger:

It always struck me as weird that Jose and Lukaku were (on the face if it) so devoted to each other. The latter didn’t seem to have the right character for Jose, being flaky and high maintenance. And the former did Lukaku no favours at all with allowing/encouraging him to bulk up so ridiculously and expecting him to play like Droga reincarnate.
 
Which people were these? I can only recall a handful of Jose devotees, most of whom got banned. Remember haram :wenger:

It always struck me as weird that Jose and Lukaku were (on the face if it) so devoted to each other. The latter didn’t seem to have the right character for Jose, being flaky and high maintenance. And the former did Lukaku no favours at all with allowing/encouraging him to bulk up so ridiculously and expecting him to play like Droga reincarnate.
Jose was our manager in 2014 when Lukaku raged quit and went to train with Anderlect (until he got his move) over us signing Costa.

He was aware more than most the chaos this guy would cause if he was actually held to some standards and had to fight for his place.
 
5 league goals this season, what's that about £20 million per goal? Great value.

Fred and Messi have 4 league goals. What a weird season this has been. You'd never predict Messi and Lukaku scoring as much as Fred in a league Season. :wenger:
 
Fred and Messi have 4 league goals. What a weird season this has been. You'd never predict Messi and Lukaku scoring as much as Fred in a league Season. :wenger:
That's something for the weird facts thread :lol:
 
I never expected him to fail this hard for Chelsea. I mean he's never been a technical player but Chelsea creates lots of chances I expected to get 15-20 goals at least.

I don't think they can get back their money neither, maybe a Serie A team? But definitely not for anything above 60M.