Guys, he played against Arsenal. The team that got out played by Brentford. Lukaku was always able to bully small teams. Let's see what he does against the top teams. Then you'll know if he really improved or not.
Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea
- Thread starter RDCR07
- Start date
Are you deliberately deleting the 2 Inter years inbetween the United and Chelsea period for Lukaku out of existence because it doesn't fit your narrative ?
I think I know where you’re going now. This appears to be a bit of a vent towards Ole as a result of a bad day today. Using Lukaku as the platform to do this is a bit of an odd move, though. Existing players at the club have improved under Ole’s disposal. Lukaku isn’t one of them because he didn’t want to be here and wasn’t a right fit for the club. Playing the Captain Hindsight card with Lukaku is only ever going to be disingenuous.
There are reasonable criticisms of Ole out there but I wouldn’t hang your hat on selling a fat, disinterested Lukaku two months into the job as one of them.
You're kidding right? Ferguson wouldn't have gone near a player as limited as Lukaku. This is the man who shipped Ruud Van Nistelrooy out once the goals were no longer enough. Not a chance in hell he would have bought this, or any, version of Lukaku.
What’s that got to do with Utd? I’m not over here rating Ashley Young over Shaw because of his time in a weaker league.
2 years of Lukaku is enough to judge him by. If not then why is it ok to rate him based on that exact same timeframe in Italy?
You're kidding right? Ferguson wouldn't have gone near a player as limited as Lukaku. This is the man who shipped Ruud Van Nistelrooy out once the goals were no longer enough. Not a chance in hell he would have bought this, or any, version of Lukaku.
Fergie have signed a lot of players who were worse than Lukaku. Are you implying that Ferguson had never signed a shit player in his 27 years at United ?
You're kidding right? Ferguson wouldn't have gone near a player as limited as Lukaku.
Dion Dublin says hi.
You are definitely talking a lot of shit. It’s the sheer arrogance for me. ‘Bigger beasts’ that hasn’t won a trophy in four years but trust the process. Give your head a wobble
Weaker league ? What about his 25 goals in his last PL season with Everton ?
When are you going to realize that United is the only anomaly in his career so far ? He has been a success everywhere else so far regardless of us liking him as a player or not.
I’m not the romantic type, I’m afraid. It’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that Lukaku didn’t have the stones for United and that the heavy weight of the shirt (as well as an obvious lack of build up play) played into his failure as a star striker at the club.
Also, Ferguson wouldn’t have signed Lukaku as his £75 million striker for feck sake. Cop on.
Nobody has ever doubted Lukaku ability to score?
Lukaku had been a success at WBA, Everton and Inter. He's also been a success for his national team.
It's literally only United so far that he failed with.
Again, you’re missing the point. Nobody has ever said he doesn’t score goals. Even at Utd he scored a lot of goals and you yourself are calling him a failure.
Ask yourself why is that?
Do you apply the same logic to when that great manager we used to have had players leave that went on to perform better? Tevez for example?
Lukaku failing at United was on Lukaku, not Ole. His attitude was awful, by all accounts he was a toxic influence in the dressing room, and he needed to go as much as we needed him gone.
He's done well since leaving, mostly because he's applied himself well, like he did during his first season with us. There's a legitimate question though around whether he can maintain that application over multiple seasons in the same place. For me that's what will show if he's grown since his time with us.
Lukaku will be good for many teams but not man utd. He is not messi if you expect the footwork of messi from him or ball control then you will be disappointed.
Of course for man utd stature fans wanted messi once he left Barcelona but he chose psg instead.
Of course for man utd stature fans wanted messi once he left Barcelona but he chose psg instead.
Well, I'm sorry but that's honestly laughable to say that the success of striker isn't based on the number of goals he scored.
He failed at United because he wasn't scoring at a similar rate to his other teams. His last season at Everton he scored 25 in the league, then with Inter he scored 23 and 24 in the league alone as well. At United he couldn't manage more than 16 goals a season in the league. His last season he only scored 12 in the league and 15 in all competitions, which isn't his usual scoring rate at all.
Clearly, neither us nor him managed to fit with each other. It happens. To base your opinion on him as a player on these 2 years and ignore that he has been a success at his other clubs before and after United makes no sense.
Lukaku is a very good player regardless of us liking him or not. He didn't fit with United, it happens. I have seen a lot of great players who made missteps in their career or failed at one big club because they couldn't fit into the team's structure and plan. It doesn't mean that they're shit.
He was the best player in Serie A last season.
Because he's taking pens. He'd score over 20 in the league for utd if he took pens. Scored 15 in the last 2 seasons. Take them away and his league tallies are 16 and 17. And then you take a closer look at the other topscorers and it become very clear it wasn't anything special to begin with.
I don't know about fail like he wasnt scoring. He still had a rate of a goal every other game, same as at Everton though it picked up at Inter.
Serie A wasn't as strong last season as it has been previously. No team in the CL quarters, Lukaku's Inter knocked out in the group stages behind Borussia Monchengladbach (8th in Bundesliga) and Shakthar Donetsk (2nd in Ukraine, 11 points off top). There was also only one Serie A team in the Europa quarters.
Saying "best player in Serie A last season" doesn't really dispel the idea that he can't do it against the best teams when all of Serie A wasn't comparatively weaker than the other top leagues.
He wasn't that bad for us, he scored goals but also missed a ton of chances before getting benched, when he refused to run. Not sure how the club was the difference, maybe the shirt was cursed?
And his last season at Everton his whole 25 goals included only one pen, meanwhile he scored 28 league goals with United in his both seasons combined.
One of the top 5 strikers in the world right now
Lukaku's rate of scoring with us was really poor imo in comparison to his usual self. His first 2 months he was on fire and scored like 10 goals in 9 games or something, but then for the rest of his first season he was scoring about one or two goals every month. Things got worse in his second season of course. He was also missing chances I wasn't expecting him to miss really. Clearly, it wasn't working with him for us.
I actually have no problem with us selling him and I think it was the right choice, for both parties. I don't think we missed him nor did he miss us. He's still a very good player in the right team though, regardless.
Played very well today. Still expect him to feck up his fair share of attacks though, mainly against better opposition. With the prospect of them getting Haaland, I'm pretty relieved they've ended up with Lukaku.
Fergie wanted to keep Tevez.
To be honest, I only got sucked into this thread by your weird - and obviously nonsensical - claim that playing striker for United poses a unique challenged that he won’t experience at Inter or Chelsea.
There are obviously other, more obvious, issues to bring up if my priority today was having a go at ole. But I’m happy to leave that to everyone else for now. God knows there’s no shortage of critics at the moment.
Will get haaland in January mate with the rumour of him have release clause set to start in january.
We spent literally zero in this window and won't rule us out of chasing haaland.
If Fergie truly wanted to keep Tevez, we'd have kept Tevez. How many more decent seasons did City get out of him? 3?
As for Lukaku, he played fecking Arsenal. A team so shit I could probably score against them. Nobody has ever said he wouldn't score goals, just that he'll vanish the moment those goals mean anything.
You genuinely think you’ll get Haaland in January?
That wasn't my claim, it was another poster.
I got sucked in by your post suggesting that it was Ole's substandard management that led to Lukaku failing here, rather than the man himself.
The comparison to Conte was particularly odd, given how many players he's fallen out with.
Lukaku affected how we were able to break low blocks down and the quick interplay in and around the box ( hence the many pens over the last 18 months after we settled since his move)
That’s nothing to do with goals and we can 100 percent judge him on that. We will get arguments about Lukaku v Utd player on here but that isn’t what we are aiming for. No side with Lukaku up top will ever overcome Man City and that’s our goal.
Rashford has a fantastic G+A record over the last two seasons as he is questioned. We have a 19 year old with 9 (?) in last 10 and nobody is claiming he is the catalyst for our rest attacking play. Bruno is the most productive attacking player in the league and this place would choose rival players because they don’t give the ball away as much. Their influence falls down when the striker, as Martial today, does little in the build up phase
Last edited:
At United it started great.
Then it all started going downhill after that fecking song debacle.
Then it all started going downhill after that fecking song debacle.
It isn’t unique at all? I think it’s a tougher gig than either of those tasks you mention, for reasons I’ve already explained. Much in the same way I’d argue that a move to Madrid, surrounded by white handkerchiefs and immense expectation, is a fairly unique challenge for a multi million pound striker. Certainly moreso than playing at Stamford Bridge every week. Plenty of folk have been quick to criticise this which I accept, but they’re not off on a bizarre tangent surrounding Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
I never had you down as such a Lukaku advocate, mind.
He's going to absolutely bully and manhandle weak CBs like Mari and Holding. The sheer number of chances he'll get with Chelsea (plus he shoots on sight) will have him in the top 3 in goals at the end of the season. He was an excellent purchase for them.
Thank goodness for Antonio Conte
Yeahhhnooo you won't. Appreciate the optimism though.
His style of play not fitting with how we wanted to play doesn't mean that he's shit. I replied on that already. It means that he wasn't fit for us, which happens. It still means that in the right team and with the right system he would be very good.
Goals matter the most ultimately for the striker, saying otherwise is delusional or just to disregard such player's numbers. Werner has been doing a great job moving behind defenders and opening spaces for himself and his teammates at Chelsea, but no one remembers or mention that, because his goal scoring record sucked and he has been ridiculed everywhere for the easy chances he's missing regularly.
As I said I think it was the right choice ultimately for both parties to part company when it happened. He found a team that suits him much better and was a big success there, and we build an attack that suits our current manager's play style better. It doesn't mean Lukaku himself was a bad player. He's a very good player and in the right system will be a huge success and will bang ton of goals. There's also no proof that "No side with Lukaku up tip will overcome Man City" and it feels a pretty ridiculous claim to make based on nothing. It's Lukaku, not Troy Deeney ffs.
This whole Lukaku didn't fit Ole's way of playing malarkey is honestly just that. Ole simply preferred Martial and Rashford, that's all there is to it. At the time it was fair choice
That Lukaku went on to massively improve, and turned into one of the very best strikers in the world is down to Conte's coaching and his own willingness to put in the work
This version of Lukaku would fit just fine at United. The 17/18 version would do well too, if not as well as Cavani
That Lukaku went on to massively improve, and turned into one of the very best strikers in the world is down to Conte's coaching and his own willingness to put in the work
This version of Lukaku would fit just fine at United. The 17/18 version would do well too, if not as well as Cavani
That was 30 years ago! And he broke his leg before anybody could find out how good he really was.
Lukaku will be decent for you and he fits your club more than ours. Ferguson was about building long term teams around the best players and Ole is supposedly trying to do the same. Lukaku is not a player you can do that with, he's somebody you can bring in to score goals in certain types of games, but eventually his limitations will be exposed. Chelsea have seemed fine with that chop and change approach in general and you haven't gone for that kind of long term striker since you bought Drogba in what? 2005?
Fergie never signed a player as limited as Lukaku to lead the frontline. Nobody even close.