4 completed passes. How is that even possible?
Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea
- Thread starter RDCR07
- Start date
Well let's hope he's saving energy for Liverpool...
Edited my post, I think we'll sell him in the summer, we'll take less of a loss if he's playing. Plus he'll rot the dressing room if benched.
That's the main logic here.
Yes.
Who will buy him?
He could go back to Everton, but the man is thinking highly of himself so can't see it. None of the bigger clubs will take him unless Inter has the money.
He could go back to Everton, but the man is thinking highly of himself so can't see it. None of the bigger clubs will take him unless Inter has the money.
I think the opposite, we'll likely get more for him if we play him in a select few games he'll likely/hopefully do reasonably well in.
Look at Kepa, when he was number 1 we'd have struggled to give him away but after a year and a bit of being a decent back up there's every chance someone will take a punt on him now.
That's the amazing part, he's a worse player now than he was with United where he had an okay 1st season before going to shit in the following one.
Meh, he had a similar tone after City yet he's started him in every game since.
I'll believe he's holding Rom accountable once he does it with actions and parks his backside firmly on the bench.
Can see Conte being interested when Kane goes to City. If not it’ll be cut price back to Inter.
Totally different situation. Kepa confidence was shattered and playing him would only have made it worse (Let's see how Pickford's getting on in 12 months!). Had to work his way back from the bench.
Despite Lukaku few touches v Palace, he scored 2/3 of our goals in CWC, his overall record this season is ok. As someone else posted his record compared to Sterling from whoscored, the Lukaku numbers aren't atrocious.
His confidence is fine, he just doesn't suit a team playing high up the pitch, he needs space, in the right team he'd look like Inter player from last year.
We still won yesterday despite his few touches and we won CWC. Pretty sure he can improve if we keep playing him and we'll be able to get a decent fee this summer if we want to sell.
He is going to have an incredible goalscoring record by the end of his career, in the future people will look at that record and think he was a phenomenal player.
Individual goal scoring numbers are one of the most worthless stats in the game, if you are not making your team better, or at the very least not making them worse, then those shiny numbers are meaningless.
Individual goal scoring numbers are one of the most worthless stats in the game, if you are not making your team better, or at the very least not making them worse, then those shiny numbers are meaningless.
Does seem quite high for him.
Yep, two years ago we had the reverse situation with a Belgium player when people were looking at the spreadsheet to argue Hazard wasn't all that.
I’d suggest the ‘vitriol’ has been part-fuelled by having to put up with some of the terrible opinions here and even some pining for him to return after going through the ordeal of watching him trip over the ball every other game for us and miss sitter after sitter, despite his tally, then watch us score more goals when he left even though we’ve been awful, proving that even when he’s scoring he has an overall negative effect. When he’s not even scoring, well you could probably do with those skills we were told he didn’t need.
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God, I don't remember anyone wanting him to return- they must've been a minority.
Plenty of signings have worked out far worse - he still managed a goal nearly every other game, just next to none in key games.
The hatred seems far more widespread and enduring than say with Moyes, Tevez, di Maria or whoever.
It feels like some here actually go out of their way to watch him just so they can revel in it if he takes a poor touch. Like an obsessive jilted lover stalking an ex-partner on Facebook.
Coutinho was 145m I think, of which they’ve recouped nothing and aren’t likely to - Barcelona actually paid him to play for Bayern on loan and he scored in the 8-2 game to knock them out
Doing that would make him an unsellable asset though, if he isn't already. I don't know what the right move is but starting him every game and relegating him to the bench for the rest of the season both seem like the wrong answer.
The right team in a different league. He’s not good enough for a top team in the Premier League. That’s been shown in 3 periods at Chelsea and a long one at United. A complete tosser as well.
One of them as a kickoff
Moyes definitely not. It's only his recent revival at West Ham have fans on these boards seem to forgiven/moved on/acknowledged he was just the wrong man at the time.
I'd say the same for di Maria also but I think the biggest difference for why the 'enduring' criticism didn't or doesn't exist as much is because the two Argentines were generally fantastic players on the pitch i.e there just isn't as many meme moments or obvious actual football things to have a go at.
Exactly. So weird. Some here have decided it's their job in the world to prove and convince everyone else that he's shit. It's not enough for them to not like him, they want to force everyone else to not like him as well.
How can you like him? Without being a pedantic contrarian, that is.
Edit: I don’t hate him or anything, just happy he isn’t with us anymore, and obviously playing for a rival, I hope he accomplishes jack shit.
In that context the best way would be playing him in games he's suited too (well on paper atleast, yesterday's game suited him traditionally and we know what happened there).
Ofcourse there's the problem with his ego if we try and make this a thing for the final few months but the way he was used against Villa, Brighton and Liverpool was inadvertently (as he would have started all of them if it weren't for Covid and the interview) the perfect way to utilise him bar he should have gone off on the hour against Brighton. Super sub at Villa Park, starter against Brighton at home and well away from the squad against Liverpool.
(shudders)We won the game, silent domination
The Moyes thread kept getting bumped for years after he left and people were genuinely raging at him. He didn't help himself going on about needing more time for a good while after he left, but agree he's clawed back a lot of respect for the job he's done at West Ham. Remember we have loads of people who genuinely believe managers should resign and admit they're not up to the job 'for the good of the team' if it's not going well.
Agree more or less on the Argentinians- Tevez left on far more bitter terms with the City shenanigans but was great for the team and di Maria more a shame how that panned out imo.
It's purely the level of hate, which is generally reserved for people who've committed a heinous act. I couldn't care less about him at Inter, but yep obviously want him to do badly at Chelsea, as a rival. I just don't go out of my way to watch compilation videos of his missed chances etc...just to laugh and snort at them though.
I wonder how many goals Broja or Weghorst would’ve got this season up front for Chelsea… and in turn, where Chelsea would be in the league.
There were also plenty of occasions when Lukaku did not help himself. Considering his size and strength, he is startlingly bad at competing for high balls with opposition centre-backs; sometimes he lacks the necessary aggression to get his way, others he simply misjudges the flight of the ball and finds himself too badly positioned to even attempt to win it. Andersen physically dominated him in situations such as this one, where Ziyech attempts to send him running into the right channel.
From The Athletic
From The Athletic
That's poor football journalism and analysis for me rather than a dig at Lukaku. Just because someone is big and strong it doesn't mean they utilise it in the same way as everyone else that is big and strong. Lukakus strength and size has always been an advantage when he's running with the ball due to his immense athleticism. That's been evident since his time at Everton. It's boring hearing that he's bad with high balls and comparing that to his size and strength every fecking week. His best football has always been when he's either a) playing with another striker or strike partner - Martinez or Naismith (At Everton) or b) When Martinez played him as a wide forward.
EDIT: Take a look at his goals for us -
There are a handful where he actually brings it down from height with his head or chest to score, the rest are all utilising his strengths of his pace, first time finishing and movement.
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Honestly I think he looked twice the player for United (although possibly because he was twice the size)...and he wasn't good enough then.
Factor in that he downs tools and becomes toxic the second he gets any criticism or has to do anything he doesn't like.
Just a waste of space really.
He'll score a few goals for Belgium in the world cup against the likes of Costa Rica and then will get a move to Milan or something off the back of that
Factor in that he downs tools and becomes toxic the second he gets any criticism or has to do anything he doesn't like.
Just a waste of space really.
He'll score a few goals for Belgium in the world cup against the likes of Costa Rica and then will get a move to Milan or something off the back of that
Actually, journalists, for whatever reason, have been reluctant to make that specific criticism, hitherto. You might be confusing media coverage with this place, where it's been pointed out innumerable times. It's especially pertinent considering what was the expectation before he was signed, and his genius manager expecting him to be Giroud like, with a number of eejits promulgating this notion of Lukaku as a 'changed man', transformed by Conte to finally utilise his physical attributes in a different way.
Some of them probably still believe it.
Not many. Abraham scored 15 in the League for Lampard and couldn’t get on the team sheet for Tuchel.
Don’t think many world class forwards can really score a lot from tuchel system.
They mainly use wingbacks and defenders to orchestrate play and score, most of them are good at setpieces and penalties. For example, I don’t remember many 1v1 chances lukaku had missed or final third passes. I maybe wrong statistically though.
Yes, lukaku is in poor form so is the team’s chance creation.
Sky have done a compilation. Apart from kick-off he had one touch in the first half:
(edit): someone in the comments has pointed out that two of his touches happened when he was subsequently called offside, so don’t really count. So it’s only five legitimate touches, one of which was the kick off.
(edit): someone in the comments has pointed out that two of his touches happened when he was subsequently called offside, so don’t really count. So it’s only five legitimate touches, one of which was the kick off.
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He’s missed 3 big chances in the PL. Pulisic and Havertz has missed most for Chelsea. 5 each. The top of that table in the PL has Salah, Mané, Kane and Ronaldo. They’ve all missed between 12 and 14 big chances.
I don’t know about WC players. But for players who need space it’s a tough job. Chelsea’s high line is too high when in possession, forcing the opponents to retreat and give less space behind the CBS. So the only obvious vertical passes go diagonally to the wingbacks.
With Lampard Chelsea was playing a high line, but players were encouraged to take more risky passes to the forwards. It result in more chances created for the CF (which Abraham thrives in) but it also resulted in countless turnovers that constantly gave the opponents counterattacking possibilities.
I don’t think any of their regular CBs or CMs really have that killer pass in them. Maybe Thiago Silva and Kovacic, but they don’t use it that much
This. Probably this might be a way out for Conte too. Will throw his tantrum if Levy goes against signing Lukaku and Conte can walk.
Or maybe Lukaku doesn't move enough.
I don’t think he moves enough. And he is not good in tight spaces generally.
But expecting him or any other forward to get 10 chances per games in this Chelsea is not reasonable. Chelsea plays a very different football to what he had at Everton, Inter or even at United. That’s one of the reasons Chelsea’s goalscoring chances are more spread among players than other clubs.
Problem isn't even the goals, its the general lack of will to be involved, you can't be having 5 touches in a game your team dominated possession wise, that's just poor poor attitude.
10 goals in 25 apps, 3 of those in Club World Cup and FA cup. Not been a spectacular return for him so far.