Do Belgium honestly have nobody better then this guy?
Romelu Lukaku | Napoli watch
- Thread starter Samid
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I quite like my limited viewing of Openda. Different type of player though.
I am a bit baffled by the posts after that. Sure, there are a lot of “lol Lukaku” clutch moments, but he was the only one that looked liked doing something today and should have had an equalizer .
Better than 85 goals in 116 games?
Shock and Surprise. Lukaku missed a lot of chances.
He is like a shitty axe that cut down everything you throw at it but when its actually a big tree it needs to cut (which is its main purpose) it doesnt do enough damage to the tree, if you keep doing it for a year it will fall down eventually but you cant afford it.
this is perfectPretty much my view. He looks like he'll score a few this tournament provided Belgium get out of their group. He's very good at getting chances.
But I certainly enjoyed his misery yesterday all the same.
How many times did he point at his feet and gave thumbs up?
Maybe I'm wrong but don't think people think he's bad. For me he's really good striker that's been scoring goals plenty of goals every season for 10 years or so but does feel he has a tendency to bottle big games. I remember even when he was at Everton there were those stats that he rarely scored vs top 6 teams. If he was better in those big games I'd think of him as an elite striker but he's probably below that Kane/Lewandowski level.
He is a weird player; proven pedigree to flat-track bully and guarantee a good-ish but not great return basically everywhere he goes, but outside of a season for Inter where he was basically the best player in the Serie A for the season, he hasn’t really ever had any truly stand-out seasons in his career. I always find myself deliberating if he is a smidge bit underrated, but then he pulls out performances like this. And he’s such a dislikable guy in the media with his comments and bizarrely thin skin.
Of course, all strikers have off days where they cannot hit a barn door, but because of the colour of his skin and the fact he's a big lad people go to town on him. When Harry Kane misses the big chances, like the two he's spurned in the last two games, you hear very little by comparison. Funny that.
We've seen it in the past with Pogba and Souness, Andy Cole and Hoddle, and with Nicolas Jackson at Chelsea being unfairly ridiculed and it will happen with Kobbie, Saka, if they make mistakes. I'm not saying it is racism but it's pretty suspicious the level of criticism sometimes levelled at black footballers and how it is directed in the wake of a disappointing result.
Lukaku simply had a bad day at the office and was actually unlucky with his disallowed goals.
We've seen it in the past with Pogba and Souness, Andy Cole and Hoddle, and with Nicolas Jackson at Chelsea being unfairly ridiculed and it will happen with Kobbie, Saka, if they make mistakes. I'm not saying it is racism but it's pretty suspicious the level of criticism sometimes levelled at black footballers and how it is directed in the wake of a disappointing result.
Lukaku simply had a bad day at the office and was actually unlucky with his disallowed goals.
For getting through group stages against mediocre sides that's fine, but he's proven time and time again he's next to useless against any sides of worth.
He's an atrocious big game player.
jesus fecking christ.
He was never a target man in the traditional sense. He was always a player that played better when the ball was played in and around him rather than directly to him. The worst thing to happen to his career was going to United and then bulking up. Completely changed his physique to the type of player he wasn't.
he can blame himself for bulking up.
Isn't that exactly what you are saying?
I can write some crazy shit, but this take a cake.
I mean Belgium is a small country and producing world class strikers is rare anyway. Even nations with a bigger pedigree like Spain, Holland and Italy play Morata, Memphis and Scamacca.
Without him they would probably struggle against those mediocre sides that park the bus. So no, they don't have better. Openda and Batshuayi and that's really it.
I’ll stick to the strikers in the PL otherwise the list would be very long.
One of the greatest strikers in the PL who’s admired universally - Drogba
The most mocked striker for the past 2 seasons in the PL - Darwin Nunez
The most feared striker or maybe the best player ever in the PL - Thierry Henry
The biggest joke in the PL - Timo Werner
Lukaku is criticised because he’s an awful striker who always fails in major tournaments or big matches. You just can’t trust him. He’s a flat track bully who has scored feck ton of goals but falls flat on his arse everytime when it matters the most. How many times he has helped Belgium getting eliminated now? I can remember the CL Final v city too where he decided to help city win the damn thing. And Neither I’m white nor I have an agenda against him. Seems like people like you can’t handle criticism because you see the world with one angle.
He dominated against Brazil even if he didn't score. I get it, the guy is easy to laugh at but his goal scoring record is impressive despite all his flaws. Belgium is a small country who rely on the likes of Mpenza before Lukaku came about.
Many people on here think he’s shit. Or at least they claim to do so.
I am genuinely baffled by your response and the worrying lack of awareness it illustrates.
Lukaku's literally had a TV pundit say in front of a live TV audience that the only way to stop him is to give him '10 bananas to eat'. Juve fans have been identified and banned from attending games for racially abusing him. Gianni Infantino has spoken openly about his disgust over the racist chanting directed at Lukaku.
The guy is constantly the butt of racist abuse online.
So why would my take be 'crazy shit', given that people are on record for racially abusing Lukaku and the FIFA President has highlighted it? I am simply reading between the lines in this instance, and in all fairness it is not difficult to see racial undertones in the criticism of him given what's gone before.
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Wasn’t the move back to Chelsea just shy of £100m? Huge wages too?
Must be one of the worst, if not the worst, signings in football history.
Must be one of the worst, if not the worst, signings in football history.
Silent domination, you mean?
Can you quote any posts on here with «racial undertones» direkted at Lukaku?
Had an assist, so not so silent actuallySilent domination, you mean?
He's like football's anti-Michael Jordan. If it's crucial, you can bet everything you own on him to feck it up
Great player otherwise
Well, no.
In my original post, I made no reference to anyone here at all.
And yes, you can criticise Romelu Lukaku's performances without being racist. That goes without saying.
But would you not agree that when you have pundits routinely singling out black players when everyone has played badly that it is not slightly suspicious? You would not expect, for example, an ironic highlights reel of some of the chances Harry Kane has been missing of late, but it's totally normal to see it for Lukaku and Nicolas Jackson.
The fact is that there is a lot thinly-veiled racism that goes on in society and football is no different.
I just feel with what Lukaku has gone through, with a pundit literally saying that you can stop him by feeding him bananas, and fans chanting racist songs at him, that people should lay off a bit. Black people and ethnic minorities go through an immense amount of day to day racism that is not necessarily overt.
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So if you can't make a single reference to anyone here doing it, why the feck would you bring up the issue in a thread pretty much filled with criticism of him, and argue he gets stick because he's black. It's fairly obvious what you're indicating.
Harry Maguire gets a lot of stick in various forms including ironic highlight reels.
Luke Shaw gets a shitload of stick for his size.
Stones in his first season at City got a lot of stick too.
Jesus Christ. This is not helpful. Nor is it accurate.
It's certainly up there. Probably would argue Hazard to Madrid was worse given it was a bigger fee and Chelsea have managed to get loan fees for Lukaku for the last couple years, but Lukaku was of course also inarguably a much more significant destabilising force.
The hazard one was horrendous.
This one doesn’t get much of a mention though oddly. Antony gets some stick and regular mentions as one of the worst deals but arguably this has to be up there!
In fairness likely it's in part because he was shown the door quite quickly (albeit on loan) so there's a bit less scrutiny on him day to day. Still though it's absolutely correct to say that his stench lingers like a fart in a hot elevator
How are Portugal going to do this time mate? What’s your prediction
Put a cheeky €50 to win ~€24,500 on Portugal to win with Rafa Leao top scorer - can't say I have a whole lot of faith after yesterday!
Still think Portugal are best placed to win the whole thing if they'd just play a cohesive XI - but starting to think that Roberto Martinez is suffering from PTSD due to the lack of Belgian fullbacks and that's why he's insisting on playing 3 of them for some bizarre reason. Would say as well that I underestimated the impact Nagelsmann would have coming into this tournament; for me he's by some distance the best manager at the tournament and the German approach to just completely overwhelm the middle of the pitch is quite interesting.