Romelu Lukaku | Napoli watch

Big Rom was asked to change and adapt his game a little bit for the greater good of the team at United. He was unable to do this. A clear limit to his abilities. We move on. What he does for Inter will not change the fact that he's a very good striker who is dependent on service. A classic #9.

Arguably the worst primary United center forward in the past 15 years, at least.

Zlatan, Rooney, RVP, Chicha, Berbatov, Tevez, Saha, RVN...I believe that goes back to the early 00s.
 
Glad to see the back of him, but letting him and Herrera leave without replacement is just irresponsible.
 
roonster09 said:
Lukaku averages 15-16 league goals per year, that's average for a CF who is limited. If you can't find a better player who can score more than 15 league goals for 74 million and 300K per week then you should ask serious questions about your scouting team.
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If Conte was so desperate to get him there's a reason… its not about the scouting here, it was a request to be satisfied… I don't think other players on the market as pure 9 with his physical abilities were available, maybe Duvan Zapata but everone are skeptical about players coming from Atalanta.
 
damageinc. said:
If Conte was so desperate to get him there's a reason… its not about the scouting here, it was a request to be satisfied… I don't think other players on the market as pure 9 with his physical abilities were available, maybe Duvan Zapata but everone are skeptical about players coming from Atalanta.
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ManUtd know more than most about signing players wanted by managers. Not always the best choice.

Anyways he is a good player, inter got what their coach wanted and ManUtd sold the player not wanted by their coach. So it's win-win for both.

I'm glad he is gone, sucks that we don't have replacement but I would rather watch Greenwood playing for first team than Lukaku for first team.
 
Casanova85 said:
Perhaps a chance for Martial to play as CF?
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Yeah not gonna lie, I don't see either Martial or Rashford becoming consistent performers for the first time in what will be their 5th season as first teamers. So unless they suddenly become 20 goal a season players it's going to be a long year.
 
spiriticon said:
I'm still amazed he's gone to such a technical league. Italian defenders will have him for breakfast once they figure him out

Oh well... not our problem anymore *shrugs*
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This is what I'm wondering about...
However Conte's a good manager so I have to assume he knows what he's doing even with all of Lukaku's limitations.
 
roonster09 said:
Lukaku averages 15-16 league goals per year, that's average for a CF who is limited. If you can't find a better player who can score more than 15 league goals for 74 million and 300K per week then you should ask serious questions about your scouting team.
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This isn't about scouting. Inter choose Conte, and pay him more than Liverpool pays Klopp. Conte is obsessed with Lukaku. Hence, they had to sign Lukaku
 
Good luck Rom, one of the most horrible first touches though.
 
M Bison said:
That was hilarious, looked like he’s just run a marathon after that run - was goosed :lol:
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It was made more hilarious by the commentator who may have been Gary Neville getting so angry and shocked by it he sounded so disbelieving he could be in that state :lol:
 
The Times claims that Solskjaer was unhappy with Lukaku last week after he leaked results of sprint test. The newspaper said:

‘Lukaku will not be missed. Solskjaer launched what one source described as a “brutal” verbal attack on him last week for revealing the confidential details of a sprint test.

‘Luke Shaw, who was bottom of the list, complained. Lukaku moped around the team hotel for much of United’s tour and the coaching staff were furious that he would approach them at the end of training sessions with an apparent injury.’
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And The Sun claims that his ‘fate at Manchester United was sealed after a massive row with Mike Phelan about missing a bus during their pre-season tour of the Far East.’

The newspaper tells the story:

“Everyone was present but when a second head count was done on the bus there was one player missing – Lukaku.

“Security informed Solskjaer he was missing but his furious assistant Mike Phelan told the bus driver to forget him and drive off to the stadium.

“Lukaku had to make his own way to the stadium where he berated one of the security men for allowing the bus to leave without him.

“At that point Phelan marched over and intervened and told him that it had been his call.

“He also laid into the player, telling him he deserved it and questioned his professionalism.”
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Hawks2008 said:
Yeah not gonna lie, I don't see either Martial or Rashford becoming consistent performers for the first time in what will be their 5th season as first teamers. So unless they suddenly become 20 goal a season players it's going to be a long year.
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Stranger things have happened, remember Cristiano? I never imagined he'd become the player he did up until his first big haul.
 
Lukaku was exactly what people thought he was, an effective flat track bully but terribly limited by his technique to the point where he was barely a passing option if any semblance of pressure was on him.

Football fans really need to start looking beyond goalscoring stats when judging strikers, it is not an individual sport, how you contribute to the overall team coherence matters.

Chicharito was equally limited, explaining his short period of usefulness at Utd, other than that probably have to go back until some time in the 80's to find a less talented main striker for Utd than Lukaku.
 
Casanova85 said:
Name a more disappointing Starting XI CF of Man Utd's PL era.
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The post I replied to never mentioned starting 11, simply that he was the worst striker we've had in the PL era, which is just not true. Now if we're talking about regulars in the starting 11, or value for money, that's a different argument.
 
Bobski said:
Lukaku was exactly what people thought he was, an effective flat track bully but terribly limited by his technique to the point where he was barely a passing option if any semblance of pressure was on him.

Football fans really need to start looking beyond goalscoring stats when judging strikers, it is not an individual sport, how you contribute to the overall team coherence matters.

Chicharito was equally limited, explaining his short period of usefulness at Utd, other than that probably have to go back until some time in the 80's to find a less talented main striker for Utd than Lukaku.
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Chicharito had good footballing fundamentals, was inventive and was a prolific goal scorer. His short period of usefulness as you put it was mainly down to the mistake of a manager not picking him when he should have IMHO.
 
RedFish said:
Chicharito had good footballing fundamentals, was inventive and was a prolific goal scorer. His short period of usefulness as you put it was mainly down to the mistake of a manager not picking him when he should have IMHO.
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Always thought his first touch and ability with back to goal was extremely limited, not much of a passing range either. Hard to maintain a place in a top team when you are as one dimensional as Hernandez. Don't see it as a mistake to move him on, Fergie had already started to use him in more of a super-sub role with non scoring but all round team player Welbeck much more useful in the majority of games.
 
arnie_ni said:
Did he really though? Didnt he score like half of his 1st years goal tally before the end of September then go on a barren run for months?
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Don't know about that but he was consistently our best attacking player in his first season and was getting a lot of unfair stick at the time. I remember someone trying to make this point and when I looked back basically every game we won for the first 3/4 of the season was down to Lukaku either scoring or directly setting up a goal.

In a way I feel sorry for him as he basically had to score two goals every game to not have half our fans on his back. There's not really an excuse for not getting yourself fit though. Even this season. He's going to turn up at Inter unfit for no actual reason other than because he decided to sulk.
 
noodlehair said:
He had a very good first season.

Second season was unacceptable. Poor performances are one thing but not getting yourself fit for almost an entire year is a cardinal sin. Shows a poor mentality and lack of self motivation. The guy would be visibly exhausted every time he sprinted for more than 5 metres.
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He had a decent 1st half of the season - was average for the rest and really bad at times - The Sevilla game :wenger:
 
I wish him the best in the future (except in any game against us) but I didn't like is attitude in the 2nd half of last season, so I'm glad to see the back of him. I had hoped that we'd use the money we got for him to sign another option in midfield, but...
 
To be fair he averaged 0.48 goals per game at Everton and 0.42 at United. From a statistical standpoint he did his job and gave United the ability that they paid for aside from his 12 match drought with Mourinho leading up to his sacking...He did start last season flying though before it went down hill. Ole pretty much froze him out when he arrived but we forget he was on a hat trick against PSG and he let Rashford take the pen at the last minute.

I feel for him a bit because from a United fans perspective I think he's been a bit hard done by because of the lack of success in results.
 
Personally couldnt give a toss how he does. If he sets the world on fire there, in my mind he was never either good enough or the right fit for our club before we signed him, nothing every changed my mind while he was here and now he has gone so its over, but personally wont miss him at all
 
I heard that the second the planes wheels hit the tarmac in Milan they bounced off and it landed in Rome by accident.
 
80m striker who couldn't even manage 1 goal every 2 games and only scored 12 league goals last season. We've done really well to get 74m + 10% sell on fee for him.
 
Ed will do some smart stock investment with the 70M and by the end of the year it will be worth 120M, because he's a smart money man.

With that 120M we will buy Jadon Sancho so basically we've swapped Lukaku for Sancho, just a year out. So not a bad deal overall.
 
I find it interesting how optimistic some of the Inter fans are. Like have they watched Lukaku at all last season?
 
GifLord said:
I find it interesting how optimistic some of the Inter fans are. Like have they watched Lukaku at all last season?
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They're basing their opinions on Lukaku's overall career I reckon. For what it's worth, Lukaku has a lot of goals for his age.
 
noodlehair said:
Don't know about that but he was consistently our best attacking player in his first season and was getting a lot of unfair stick at the time. I remember someone trying to make this point and when I looked back basically every game we won for the first 3/4 of the season was down to Lukaku either scoring or directly setting up a goal.

In a way I feel sorry for him as he basically had to score two goals every game to not have half our fans on his back. There's not really an excuse for not getting yourself fit though. Even this season. He's going to turn up at Inter unfit for no actual reason other than because he decided to sulk.
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The concern wasn't about the lack of goals or the expectation to score every game. It was the lack of technique, consistency and coherent playing style.

You couldn't count on him being a target man, a link up player or selfless team player.

There were other factors but his bottom level was just shocking.
 
Wait, how did they miss counting him the first time around? Our staff must be more incompetent than we ever imagined. :wenger:
 
GifLord said:
I find it interesting how optimistic some of the Inter fans are. Like have they watched Lukaku at all last season?
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Tbh we felt exactly the same when you signed him (people just thought we were being bitter).

From a far (highlights) he looks like a good asset and has a proven goal record but in reality he's so flawed as a player only really a Messi/CR7 like goal record could make up for how bad his overall game is.

Us both and Everton fans caught on after a bit and so will the Inter faithful.
 
criticalanalysis said:
The concern wasn't about the lack of goals or the expectation to score every game. It was the lack of technique, consistency and coherent playing style.

You couldn't count on him being a target man, a link up player or selfless team player.

There were other factors but his bottom level was just shocking.
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Yes but in our first season he was by far our best attacking player, yet was also by far the most criticised.

He was clumsy technically and had poor games, but meanwhile you had other player playing worse and putting no more effort in being defended or praised.

There was one point Mourinho had to come out and publicly defend him due to the amount of stick he was getting from the media and fans...This is a player who along with De Gea was probably the main reason we were 2nd and not somewhere between 4th and 6th.

So I don't really blame him for not wanting to stick around or endear himself to fans, but he does seem to be a big sulker and you really don't want that in the dressing room. I mean what has he been doing all pre season? He would have still gotten his move if he didn't behave like a baby.

I also think that if he can't take a bit of criticism, fair or otherwise, he's not going to like playing in Italy much. He'll be slaughtered every time Inter lose if he turns up looking out of shape or demonstrating the mobility of a washing machine.
 
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