I watched Lukaku pretty closely, and here are my thoughts:
- He really easily outmuscles defenders, is faster and stronger than I thought he would be. Also he's "sharp" in the sense that he actually can dribble well (usually) and doesn't shy away from trying difficult shots.
- He actually had less service and chances than I thought he would have in the tournament. Maybe I overrated the playmaking abilities of this Belgium side. I can't say he was particularly wasteful. Everybody misses chances from time to time. Lewandowski missed two good chances this tournament too.
- As for his overall technique, it's very erratic. Like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're gonna get from him. People obviously will remember his fails more than his successes. And yeah, there were quite a few fails from him in this tournament.
- He doesn't seem to do anything when opposing team has the ball. He's just walking around and that's all. 0 pressing. It's super shocking because many players in this tournament have shown astonishing level of dedication that allowed them to reach higher level than I expected them to. In fact this tournament was a proof for me, how big difference a high level of motivation can make to the performance of a team. This motivation sometimes even backfired, resulting in dumb fouls you usually don't see in top level football, and red cards.
And then you have Lukaku who can't be arsed to try hard when his side is not on the offensive, and looks as if he played a friendly... We live in a time, where nobody is immune to criticism for not working hard on the pitch - even Messi. So Lukaku obviously doesn't get a free pass either - sorry.
As for rating strikers overall, I don't know how people can just lump them all together. Between Lewandowski, Suarez, Benzema, Kane and Lukaku, I dont know if any two of them are even on the same tier. In my humble opinion there's a pretty clear distinction on where each of them stands. But I guess that's a topic for another thread. This one is Lukaku's