Romelu Lukaku | Napoli watch

It's what happens when you move an above average football player into the spotlight of top level football. I've said it multiple times in the past that this guy has no place at top level football - he's mid-table mediocrity yet he kept getting chance after chance after chance.
He is an exhibit of how scarce CF supply is in the market.
 
This makes no sense, the entire point is that those comparisons have never made sense. He has never had a similar play style to Drogba, they never had any similarities.
Totally agreed. One is actually a CF and another pretends to be.
 
I'm not sure if understand your point. Bent best scoring season is 24 goals in the PL, his second best is 18 goals. Lukaku best PL season is 25 goals and second best 18 goals.

Yeah my mistake, I thought his 24 goal season was in the championship.
 
He’s not very much like Drogba at all.
If you read the chain you’d see I was saying he initially did have some similarities at Anderlecht and at WBA you could see it as well. He was much more involved with his back to goal and was better aerially - maybe just because of his size but again, there were obvious similarities. He also actively modelled his game on Drogba is again you’d assume there were some similarities.
 
If you read the chain you’d see I was saying he initially did have some similarities at Anderlecht and at WBA you could see it as well. He was much more involved with his back to goal and was better aerially - maybe just because of his size but again, there were obvious similarities. He also actively modelled his game on Drogba is again you’d assume there were some similarities.
Nah, let’s just agree to disagree. I don’t think they’ve ever been anything alike, not even during his WBA/Everton days.
 
Nah, let’s just agree to disagree. I don’t think they’ve ever been anything alike, not even during his WBA/Everton days.
Yeah I can’t change how people see football, for me it was pretty clear for others apparently (assuming they did actually watch him at those clubs and aren’t just YouTubing goals) it’s not so we move on.
 
Yeah I can’t change how people see football, for me it was pretty clear for others apparently (assuming they did actually watch him at those clubs and aren’t just YouTubing goals) it’s not so we move on.

To be clear, some of the people you‘re discussing with were talking about him at the time on this very forum. This was from over 10 years ago:

Brwned said:
The only comparison to Drogba that I can see is the fact they both struggled in their first season. Completely different style of play as Drogba could score from anywhere and brought others into play very well while Lukaku spends most of his time in the box scoring tap-ins. Missing plenty too. He's very young and players of his ilk typically develop late but at the moment he's still nowhere near ready to be playing for a top club, IMO.

It’s got nothing to do with YouTube.
 
Not sure the bits in brackets are really necessary :lol: but alas, each to their own, bud.
Because then I’d get why they might think that. It’s kind of like when you watch early Drogba and he plays completely differently to how he did at Chelsea - these players evolve so much over time. I think early Lukaku has a number of similarities whereas current Lukaku really has almost nothing in common with Drogba.
 
You post way too little these days bud

I just packed a lifetime of footy conversations into a few years! Got nothing left in the tank on that front. Most sport debates are just the same circular conversations with minor changes to the details, you reach a certain point where you can’t really find anything new to say or see. Don’t you think?
 
To be clear, some of the people you‘re discussing with were talking about him at the time on this very forum. This was from over 10 years ago:



It’s got nothing to do with YouTube.
YouTube comment explained above.

re the analysis wasn’t that during AVB’s tenure? If so surely there’s some acknowledgement it could be a tactical change because you can contrast Chelsea to WBA and see the difference basically within the same time frame with how Clarke used him and how his goal output skyrocketed?

Lukaku at WBA and Drogba at Marseille below. For me they move in a very similar way, strike the ball in a similar way off their left and score a number of similar goals.





(now you can watch the YouTube of Lukaku;) @Ish)
 
YouTube comment explained above.

re the analysis wasn’t that during AVB’s tenure? If so surely there’s some acknowledgement it could be a tactical change because you can contrast Chelsea to WBA and see the difference basically within the same time frame with how Clarke used him and how his goal output skyrocketed?

Lukaku at WBA and Drogba at Marseille below. For me they move in a very similar way, strike the ball in a similar way off their left and score a number of similar goals.





(now you can watch the YouTube of Lukaku;) @Ish)


Nah it was when he was at West Brom, halfway through the season, you can see the date if you click through. Like you said Youtube is a very poor way to judge a player. Drogba‘s playing style was so different it’s hard to believe people are still saying it, unless they just remember Drogba as a big black guy. I think it just shows how sticky labels can be. Most people adopted the new Drogba label before they’d even seen him, it was just how he was introduced.

I agree with @JPRouve that Lukaku’s always been like Mario Gomez. This kind of fits the description:
Brwned said:
He looks seriously raw to me. Poor timing of his runs, poor hold-up play, inconsistent finishing and just a lack of all-round intelligence. His 2nd goal was just terrible defending (ask Fedirici, he was raging at how easy it was) and that's pretty much his only move coming off the wing.

His hold up play is still poor, his finishing is still inconsistent, his all-round intelligence is better but still very much sub-standard at this level…just like Mario Gomez. He was never anything more than that. Some people just got carried away.

RDCR07 said:
Where is Brwned? Now do you believe me when I said Lukaku was going to be quite a player when Chelsea signed him two years ago? You said you werent sure about this kid but I asked you to be patient and look at he did this season when given playing time. What is that, 17 goals now for West Brom? If this is what he can do in a mid table team like West Brom, then I am genuinely worried about how he is going to do in a strong team like Chelsea's.

Scary stuff.
 
Nah it was when he was at West Brom, halfway through the season, you can see the date if you click through. Like you said Youtube is a very poor way to judge a player. Drogba‘s playing style was so different it’s hard to believe people are still saying it, unless they just remember Drogba as a big black guy. I think it just shows how sticky labels can be. Most people adopted the new Drogba label before they’d even seen him, it was just how he was introduced..
Then I don’t really get your criticism of him from the quote you posted if it wasn’t from AVB. He scored a load of different types of goal at WBA so saying he was just in the box and missing a lot doesn’t ring true in my opinion.
 
Nah it was when he was at West Brom, halfway through the season, you can see the date if you click through. Like you said Youtube is a very poor way to judge a player. Drogba‘s playing style was so different it’s hard to believe people are still saying it, unless they just remember Drogba as a big black guy. I think it just shows how sticky labels can be. Most people adopted the new Drogba label before they’d even seen him, it was just how he was introduced.

I agree with @JPRouve that Lukaku’s always been like Mario Gomez. This kind of fits the description:


His hold up play is still poor, his finishing is still inconsistent, his all-round intelligence is better but still very much sub-standard at this level…just like Mario Gomez. He was never anything more than that. Some people just got carried away.



Scary stuff.
I actually think he resembled a (not as good) version of Torres.

To cut a long story short, both need(ed) space to use their acceleration to beat defenders and neither had the craft in their game to help break down tight defenses on the regular.
 
I actually think he resembled a (not as good) version of Torres.

To cut a long story short, both need(ed) space to use their acceleration to beat defenders and neither had the craft in their game to help break down tight defenses on the regular.
Torres was way more skilfull and could create goals for himself

 
"every shot I take I lose a new friend,can't stay for long just turn around and I'm gone again"

''Maybe tomorrow I'll want to see out a contract but until tomorrow I'll just keep moving clubs''
 
Pretty sure he's played more than 25 games in Serie A.

He's coming off a poor season in Serie A and lost his place to 50 year old Dzeko. At one point in March/April, Lukaku had something like 3 goals in the league and only 1 from open play. Ended the season better though
 
Honestly he is so shit right now i wish he regains his confidence and atleast scores a good amount of goals.
 
He's coming off a poor season in Serie A and lost his place to 50 year old Dzeko. At one point in March/April, Lukaku had something like 3 goals in the league and only 1 from open play. Ended the season better though

The internet (which is obviously never wrong) tells me he missed 18 games through injury.

He's had a crap season last year but his record in Italy is very good so it's no surprise that Italian sides would want him.
 
He's coming off a poor season in Serie A and lost his place to 50 year old Dzeko. At one point in March/April, Lukaku had something like 3 goals in the league and only 1 from open play. Ended the season better though

Hey Dzeko's only 49.
 
Is he close yet to having half a billion spent on him in transfer fees?
 
Inter apparently has a bid rejected. It must have been a crazy low offer like less than £20M or something because I can’t imagine Chelsea wanting anything other than getting rid of this guy.

 
I wish he was in the bargain bin and Chelsea would just give him to us on loan. I miss Rom.
 
I guess Juve are out of the picture. If Inter can put £30-40M on the table, I would snatch their arm off.

 
He's coming off a poor season in Serie A and lost his place to 50 year old Dzeko. At one point in March/April, Lukaku had something like 3 goals in the league and only 1 from open play. Ended the season better though

He missed half the season because of injuries.
He ended the season with 14/7 G/A contributions from 37 appearances, slightly better than Edin Dzeko, who had 14/7 G/A contributions from 52 appearances.

He is not a world beater, but a player with a 200+ goal record always has a place in top-level football.
 
Inter apparently has a bid rejected. It must have been a crazy low offer like less than £20M or something because I can’t imagine Chelsea wanting anything other than getting rid of this guy.



It was a year long deal with an "obligatory" purchase option that wasn't actually obligatory and was based on appearances, goals, etc. Inter tried to essentially get him on loan without a fee and were rightly told to do one - what is concerning is that both Inter and Lukaku seem intent on doing everything possible to destroy any leverage Chelsea can drum up.
 
It was a year long deal with an "obligatory" purchase option that wasn't actually obligatory and was based on appearances, goals, etc. Inter tried to essentially get him on loan without a fee and were rightly told to do one - what is concerning is that both Inter and Lukaku seem intent on doing everything possible to destroy any leverage Chelsea can drum up.

Can we report them for fraud? :lol:

We paid them £97M two years ago and for one of those years he was back playing for them on loan and now they’re trying to sign him back for like 10% of the original fee. Lukaku gave that stupid interview about wanting to go back to Inter literally 3 months after signing a 5 year deal. He wanted the big contract but there’s zero chance he ever wanted to actually play for Chelsea. This is collusion. The feckers have been plotting and scheming against us from the beginning.
 
Can we report them for fraud? :lol:

We paid them £97M two years ago and for one of those years he was back playing for them on loan and now they’re trying to sign him back for like 10% of the original fee. Lukaku gave that stupid interview about wanting to go back to Inter literally 3 months after signing a 5 year deal. He wanted the big contract but there’s zero chance he ever wanted to actually play for Chelsea. This is collusion. The feckers have been plotting and scheming against us from the beginning.

Yeah it's infuriating - especially because personally I bought into all the bullshit (re-signing him 10 years after he first signed, him destroying Arsenal early on, the fecking awesome twitter video with Public Service Announcement off The Black Album behind it, etc).

EDIT: This one - this was fecking sick, I was so hyped: