Remember in 2010 when Nicklas Bendtner said he was one of the best strikers in the world, with literally zero evidence? Lukaku is the Belgian version of Bendtner.
Romelu Lukaku | Napoli watch
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Lukaku is clearly better than Bendtner ever was.
Don't.
I think he had a late one vs Sevilla under Mourinho.
He's not played that many CL knockout games to be fair has he?
That outstretched arm, where he's, basically, telling opposition where the ball is going to arrive, is still haunting me. Just get into position and let your teammate do their thing, you buffoon. And if he doesn't get the ball he just freezes, and any potential second ball or ricochet is lost, because he's too busy staring down the teammate who didn't pass it where he wanted it.
Happy for this oaf to be far away from the club, still can't believe how much we got for him. I understand there's always gonna be a stat stick to beat down on those who don't consider him an elite, but anyone who grinded through watching United play with this guy in lineup, would've seen what he's all about, and that's more than any goal tally will ever show.
Happy for this oaf to be far away from the club, still can't believe how much we got for him. I understand there's always gonna be a stat stick to beat down on those who don't consider him an elite, but anyone who grinded through watching United play with this guy in lineup, would've seen what he's all about, and that's more than any goal tally will ever show.
He's really not good.
Apparently he scratched the Fiorentina defender that's why he was able to get to a free header 
Wait, which of them is cuddly and which of them has the rougher approach? Because my understanding is that Klopp is the former and Tuchel the latter, and Mkhitaryan's best football came under Tuchel.
Apparently he scratched the Fiorentina defender that's why he was able to get to a free header
How feckin soft are footballers
full sleeve of tattoos and a scratch hurts him that posted like he's had a broken nose or something.Tuchel and Mkhitaryan seemed to have a great relationship and during their one shared season the team played terrific football with Mkhitaryan in a relatively free role. If I remember correctly Mkhitaryan even thanked Tuchel for giving him some book that deals with being your own worst enemy.
His CL knockout record is 3 goals in 6 matches. Two of the 6 matches he played 6 minutes and 18 minutes respectively.
Apparently he scratched the Fiorentina defender that's why he was able to get to a free header
Lucatku
Literally clawing his way to victory. Now that's the kind of mentality you want on your team!
Lukaku is one of the best strikers in the world. The amount of disrespect he receives in the game makes me quite uncomfortable to be honest, and there are definitely shades of the ‘implicit’ in it for me (as much as I genuinely hate to take a conversation there).
The man will likely retire with 400+ career goals but have spent most of his career being laughed at. He’s hardly the biggest prick in the game either, so I can’t help think there’s just something that triggers the subconscious about him that leads to him being constantly spoken down on.
I wasn’t his biggest fan for a while, but in football, and with strikers in particular - you have to respect players even if you don’t rate them. I’m not a fan of Jamie Vardy either, and for a long time, I wasn’t a fan of Harry Kane (until the last few years where he has, to me, actually become a top level footballer) - but I always respected them, because they have more than earned it with their numbers. And I often found some of the language used towards him on here to be fairly distasteful.
I’m only posting this here as I was in the Haaland thread and I saw someone say he was in the top 5 strikers in the world now with x,y and z. With Lukaku, you cannot help but think he is a classic example of ‘has to do twice as much’.
Depends what you mean by strikers because most teams play with attackers that aren't traditional CF's anymore. If you mean strikers as in attackers then he is no where near one of the best in the world. If you mean traditional CF's then he is still no where near the best in the world either. Might be in the top 10 CF's because there are not that many in todays game but definitely not one of the best.
I don’t mean strikers as in attackers, I mean strikers as in strikers.
And of those, he is certainly near the best in the world. Perhaps when he retires, and his records then begin to speak for themselves, would he get some credit.
The same thing happens with Andy Cole. Never comes up in any conversations about great PL strikers, despite being the third all time goalscorer (and for a long time, he was second), without taking penalties either. He doesn’t have to be likes, but he has to be respected. And Lukaku would, and should, feel that he is in any conversation about top strikers in the game. He’s the fastest player to reach 50 goals for Inter, faster than R9, he’s his country’s record goalscorer, and has scored a couple hundred league goals and counting to go with it. He will be forever overlooked for whatever reason though. A lot of the specific criticisms I’ve seen applied to his game I’ve seen in Haaland’s game too, but nobody cares. In his case, we’ll just pay attention to the numbers. And this isn’t to say Haaland isn’t great or even better, I’m saying that the metrics applied are different. For most strikers, goals tends to be the key currency. Vardy does fexk all on the pitch but score (mostly from the spot), yet is never spoken about negatively.
As I said, ‘twice as hard’ for Lukaku in my opinion.
Get out of here with this shit. It’s been explained countless times why he isn’t liked.
I don’t care why he isn’t liked. I care that he isn’t rated, or respected.
He’s overlooked because he’s never been elite. Last season was the first season in his career at age 27 that he got in the top 10 of the Golden Boot, he finished 7th. Immobile won it with 13 more goals than Lukaku in the same league. No one talks about him either, probably because the Italian League is now the 4th ranked in Europe and his side do nothing in European competition. For Lukaku to be talked about as a truly elite striker he’d have to start putting those numbers in in the league and start affecting the Champions League in the knockout stages. The top strikers put in a goal a game numbers. Lukaku never has.
If Jamie Vardy started to publicly claim he was a top 5 striker in the world everyone would think he is a dick too. Not only because people don’t like that kind of arrogance but more importantly, same as in the case of Lukaku, it isn’t true.
edit: I do respect Lukaku’s career though, he’s a solid and reliable goalscorer, he’s never injured and can play in pretty much every game. I’m not a fan of his style, get no enjoyment from watching him play and am glad he’s no longer at United, however.
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That’s a fair response. And I don’t think he’s the greatest player necessarily, and I’m not really talking about where he has been at any particular point in time in his career. More a case of his catalogue. He’s scored a lot of goals for a long time. And I appreciate that he isn’t competing for the European Golden Boot, but half of the time, that is won by non-strikers anyway, or they at least dominate the top 5. As far as centre forwards go, he doesn’t get the credit he deserves, in my opinion. Similarly as Andy Cole didn’t. People would probably think he’s a dick if he claimed he was in the top 5 PL strikers ever too, despite his record speaking for itself.
And it’s one thing to not get your due, but I think with Lukaku, it seems almost the opposite. He’s ridiculed, and I think he has been for quite a while, I’m assuming before he made such comments either. I just think people have been generally quicker to celebrate other strikers than Lukaku, and with him, any positivity in the media I can really recall seems to be more a case of having to defend him than champion him.
I think when he retires, he will get more credit.
Also, even if it is only since he’s been at Inter that he qualifies to be in the top 5 centre forwards, then it is what he is, perhaps he’s in the top 5 right now then. But whether he is top 5 or not, my main point is that he has done enough in his career to be celebrated more than he is ridiculed. He’s no Niklas Bentdner, and even mentioning them in the same sentence is ridiculous.
I couldn't care less about Lukaku now that he's not our player, I come in this thread for more GIFs of his stupid pointing and raising his palm to his face when he fluffs a chance, not to have a debate.
Your post made me think WTF though - the amount of disrespect makes you uncomfortable? Really? Are we that fickle that a little bit of disrespect online about Lukaku makes one uncomfortable??? We're not talking about racial slurs, bullying etc, just a bunch of people saying how shit he is!
Also not sure what shades of the implicit means!
And why do strikers in particular deserve respect?? Are they some special breed? Everyone and every player deserves respect unless they're some prick.
I remember the Belgian World cup or Euro's game where Lukaku and Benteke were Injured and had to play De Bryune as false 9 in a quarter/semi final.
They looked the best Belgium team version I've seen that could have gone on to win a world cup or a euros if they stuck with those tactics (play a false 9 and drop Lukaku to a subs role).
They were really good without Lukaku. However, they bought him back the next round to start the match and almost instantly you could see that him & the whole of Belgium were not as good as they were without him.
Lukaku unfortunately starting every game playing against the best teams in the world (both clubs & Internationally) isnt usually good enough and alternatives need to be taken.
They looked the best Belgium team version I've seen that could have gone on to win a world cup or a euros if they stuck with those tactics (play a false 9 and drop Lukaku to a subs role).
They were really good without Lukaku. However, they bought him back the next round to start the match and almost instantly you could see that him & the whole of Belgium were not as good as they were without him.
Lukaku unfortunately starting every game playing against the best teams in the world (both clubs & Internationally) isnt usually good enough and alternatives need to be taken.
He’d be banging them in here this season. If we hadn’t got Cavani I feel like we’d genuinely be missing a proper striker leading the line. Flaws and all.
@Rozay are you suggesting it's racist if you don't consider Lukaku to be one of the best stikers in the world? Deary me.
Underrated striker. I constantly see a lot of critics about his performances against top teams, so I just watched his numbers on Transfermarkt and
Non-penalties goals scored against English Premier League top 6:
R. Lukaku: 20 goals in 72 games played -> 1 goal every 3,6 games played
A. Martial + Rashford: 23 goals in 80 games played -> 1 goal every 3,5 games played
Very similar. Maybe all Manchester United forwards, and not only Lukau, struggle against top teams?
Non-penalties goals scored against English Premier League top 6:
R. Lukaku: 20 goals in 72 games played -> 1 goal every 3,6 games played
A. Martial + Rashford: 23 goals in 80 games played -> 1 goal every 3,5 games played
Very similar. Maybe all Manchester United forwards, and not only Lukau, struggle against top teams?
Rashford's record is very good, not comparable to Lukaku at all.
He’s a lot better than Bentdner no question!
I don’t really open this thread, so what made me uncomfortable was when he was a United player. I can’t go into all the detail now, but he was often spoken of in such a poor way I think, not just the ‘he didn’t play well’, it was often the ‘lazy, thick, donkey’ variety. I haven’t opened this thread much since as I suspect it is just here to serve as a safe place for such stuff to continue, although I may be wrong.
And why strikers, in particular, deserve respect is because their metrics are not really subjective. Even if you don’t like a particular striker, you have to respect a man who trades in goals who puts up good numbers. I was never really a fan of Inzaghi, but I have no choice but to respect him as a centre forward because he finds a way to score goals. That isn’t so much a matter of opinion anymore.
I’m suggesting what I wrote, not what you wrote. Everything I am saying, is what I actually said, so there is thankfully no need to run with an alternative version.
1 goal in 23 appearances against the top 6 in 3 years.
16, then 12 league goals.
that’s simply not good enough.
that’s why he’s not rated.
in terms of why he’s not respected, it’s due to his time at OT on the pitch - and then add in the utter contempt he’s shown for the club, his shocking attitude and the worst fitness I’ve seen from a professional footballer since Jan Molby.
So you think he doesn't get his due because of...racism ? Seriously
? Folks need to stop univariate analysis on multivariate equations (in general with racism, sexism etc. as a whole). Most people actually rated him pretty highly when he was at Everton..Then we saw his majesty at his pomp playing for United week in and week out and comparing him to world class United strikers from the past (and even Zlatan that one season) you could reliably point out and say that he doesn't deserve to be in the conversation for what we need leading our line.No. Rashford scored just 13 non-penalty goals in 43 matches played as you can see on Transfermarkt:
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/marcus-rashford/bilanz/spieler/258923
vs Chelsea: 5 goals, 12 games played
vs M.City: 4 goals, 10 games played
vs Liverpool: 3 goals, 8 games played
vs Arsenal: 2 goals, 7 games played
vs Spurs: 3 goals, 6 games played
= 17 goals - 4 penalties = 13 non-penalty goals -> 1 every 3,30 games played.
Mediocre numbers and very similar to Lukaku (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/romelu-lukaku/bilanz/spieler/96341)
So you think he doesn't get his due because of...racism ? Seriously
I think if he were white, with the same record that he has had throughout his career, he’d be spoken of differently than he is. Obviously, I can’t prove that so I won’t try to. But it’s my opinion, formed of years of watching how various players are spoken of, in light of their respective achievements, and a lifelong heightened sensitivity to things of this nature. And I don’t think it’s ‘racist’ per se, not direct, more of a subconscious nature. I’m also not speaking of his time at United exclusively, just his standing within the game, and the level to which he has the piss taken out if him online, and has done for years, with compilations, memes and the rest of it. I just can’t see it having played out like that if he looked different, but who knows?
What about per mins considering Rashford and Martial were bench players in most of the games?
What about assists, what about penalty wins to change the outcome of the game?
or it’s just because he’s been a bellend multiple times
nail on head.
Fixed.
If you prefer.
There's no unconscious bias against Lukaku. It just so happens he's not a great footballer and he's an idiot to boot.