Romelu Lukaku | Napoli watch

[Bwuk]

A confident Lukaku will always score goals, but we are trying to move on from that style of play that would suit him to a more modern and fluid style.

If we’d had a strong midfield and could create chances regularly he’d of scored bucket loads at United.

 

[HowYouDoin]

If you play to Romelu’s strengths he will score for fun! Jose brought him to the club and wanted wide players that would provide for him...whether this was the ‘United way’ is debatable but it’s how Jose would have got success!

Ed knew better though- vetoed all Jose’s wishes and around we go again!

10000000 %
There was a method to Jose's madness and why he wanted Perisic and William.
If you cant see the vision in that where are you looking.

As for Inter..why we never looked at Brozovic? He is one of the best midfielders in the world today

 

[GifLord]

10000000 %
There was a method to Jose's madness and why he wanted Perisic and William.
If you cant see the vision in that where are you looking.

As for Inter..why we never looked at Brozovic? He is one of the best midfielders in the world today

Are you joking?

 

[sullydnl]

Good goalscoring form for Inter is only a rebuke to the idiots who seemed convinced that he was a Heskeyesque, West Ham-level waste of space.

The actual reasonable criticism of Lukaku still stands as it never precluded him being able to score quite a lot of goals in the right circumstances.

 

[izec]

Napoli's defending was shite all game long. The three goals they conceded were a joke. If you let Lukaku run like that and try to block his shot instead of actually doing some proper defending, of course you will look silly and chances are you will concede easy goals

Conte and Serie A were the perfect match for him. He seems also much fitter

 

[Foxbatt]

If you play to Romelu’s strengths he will score for fun! Jose brought him to the club and wanted wide players that would provide for him...whether this was the ‘United way’ is debatable but it’s how Jose would have got success!

Ed knew better though- vetoed all Jose’s wishes and around we go again!

I agree with you. Ed should have got Willian. I have always said that the "so called United way" is one of the problems managers have to face as an obstacle at United. All these pundits and ex players and fans talking about it. I wanted Lukaku replaced in the end because you know that his heart is not in it anymore. But all players need the right kind of system for them to work. It works for him for Belgium and now at Inter. Yes you could say Napoli gifted both goals but he still had a lot to do for his first goal.

 

[432JuanMata]

Be nice to have him against the crap sides this season. If he started up top for us this season we probably wouldn’t have as good a record against the top 6 but I feel we would have more points

 

[shamans]

10000000 %
There was a method to Jose's madness and why he wanted Perisic and William.
If you cant see the vision in that where are you looking.

As for Inter..why we never looked at Brozovic? He is one of the best midfielders in the world today

So if jose wanted to implement his vision he shouldnt have wasted money on Mikhi, Sanchez and Matic and actually signed that player we needed?

 

[WR10]

10000000 %
There was a method to Jose's madness and why he wanted Perisic and William.
If you cant see the vision in that where are you looking.

As for Inter..why we never looked at Brozovic? He is one of the best midfielders in the world today

This is why you can’t take this forum seriously

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

He is probably a top 5-10 central forward in the world based on his form for Inter and Belgium.
We do badly miss him even if it didn't work for him here.
People calling him crap has no clue about football or just want to overreact for the sake of it.

I guess the operative phrase is "...based on his form for Inter and Belgium", but I don't think that's an accurate way to gauge him from United's perspective. In the premier league season:

• 2013-14 he was 9th highest goal scorer
• 2014-15 he was 19th
• 2015-16 he was 4th
• 2016-17 he was 2nd
• 2017-18 he was 6th
• 2018-19 he was 16th

Stats don't always tell the full story, though, as some of these are penalties, some are the 3rd goal in a 3-0 win, some are against minnows, and we know his poor record against top 6 clubs.

I personally never thought he was the right kind of player for United, with or without Jose's style and tactics, never wanted him and I'm glad he's gone. I would much rather give his minutes to Greenwood.

 

[freeurmind]

Was very good last night. Conte clearly knows how to get the best out of him. Also he just looks so much fitter than with us.

 

[kouroux]

Was very good last night. Conte clearly knows how to get the best out of him. Also he just looks so much fitter than with us.

That's because he is, they actually made him drop weight and work hard to be in better shape.
I don't know why we don't have similar or even higher standards at United

 

[Eriku]

That's because he is, theya actually made him drop weight and work hard to be in better shape.
I don't know why we don't have similar or even higher standards at United

He said that it was hard to shed the bulk that he added that he said was effective for Belgium, but didn’t suit the EPL. More recently he’s blamed a digestive issue.

Considering he’s made it clear that he lost motivation in terms of playing for us, I’d say it’s just as likely because of that, and that he’s just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks in terms of absolving himself in the public eye.

 

[kouroux]

He said that it was hard to shed the bulk that he added that he said was effective for Belgium, but didn’t suit the EPL. More recently he’s blamed a digestive issue.

Considering he’s made it clear that he lost motivation in terms of playing for us, I’d say it’s just as likely because of that, and that he’s just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks in terms of absolving himself in the public eye.

That makes no sense though, why would the club agree to let him on a dumb ass bulk when the guy was a physical freak for football ? He came back from the WC heavier and stayed heavy basically throughout the entire season. 2-3 months into it, he should have been in better, what we did was a joke.

 

[Eriku]

That makes no sense though, why would the club agree to let him on a dumb ass bulk when the guy was a physical freak for football ? He came back from the WC heavier and stayed heavy basically throughout the entire season. 2-3 months into it, he should have been in better, what we did was a joke.

Nothing makes sense, to be honest. It doesn’t make sense that we couldn’t spot his being too heavy, and it was mentioned in the press by himself as something he was working on. Out of interest, which way are you leaning? Digestive issues? Incompetent fitness staff?

 

[kouroux]

Nothing makes sense, to be honest. It doesn’t make sense that we couldn’t spot his being too heavy, and it was mentioned in the press by himself as something he was working on. Out of interest, which way are you leaning? Digestive issues? Incompetent fitness staff?

Digestive issues seem like a typical PR move tbh. If you look at our track record in terms of fitness, players being available or not, I think there are some serious questions that need answers. Luke Shaw is another whose fitness levels are very suspect.

 

[Champ]

He is. It was more to do with Napoli's mistakes than Lukaku's ability

Nah, it was more to do with Inters really slow build up play
He's a goalscorer who puts our current crop to shame, could have done with him this season without doubt.

 

[roonster09]

Nah, it was more to do with Inters really slow build up play
He's a goalscorer who puts our current crop to shame, could have done with him this season without doubt.

Is it?

He scored 14 league goals in 18 games (1526 mins), with 11 from open play and 1 assist. 127 mins per G+A from open play.
Marital scored 7 league goals in 15 (1198 mins), and 3 assists. 119 mins per G+A.

Even if you include all penalties, everything. Lukaku has contributed to 15 goals, Rashford 16 goals.

Amazing how overrated players become once they leave the club.

In all competitions.
Lukaku - 19 G+A
Rashford - 21 G+A
Martial - 13 G+A
Greenwood - 11 G+A

It's not Lukaku we are missing, it's proper CM and attacking midfielder.

 

[clarkydaz]

Digestive issues went away soon as he was motivated to prove himself elsewhere

 

[devilish]

Digestive issues went away soon as he was motivated to prove himself elsewhere

Or maybe Inter have proper coaches rather then give the jobs to the boys and sticking to incompetent people

 

[Andycoleno9]

There are lots of versions why he left. From what i understand he wanted to leave after Ole started to playing him on a right wing because he didn't think that our style suits him. And many posters here thought that also.
So my question is; how the hell he is excellent in Inter( stats don't lie) who basically play the same style like we are ( trying to do). Deep defence and counter attack.

I like Martial a lot on no9 but Martial-Lukaku-Rashford attack would be great to have

 

[clarkydaz]

Or maybe Inter have proper coaches rather then give the jobs to the boys and sticking to incompetent people

Strange way to talk about jose

 

[SuperiorXI]

Lukaku will always get you goals, it's the rest of his game that led to his demise here. Teams that want to compete for top honors need more from a striker.

 

[roonster09]

There are lots of versions why he left. From what i understand he wanted to leave after Ole started to playing him on a right wing because he didn't think that our style suits him. And many posters here thought that also.
So my question is; how the hell he is excellent in Inter( stats don't lie) who basically play the same style like we are ( trying to do). Deep defence and counter attack.

I like Martial a lot on no9 but Martial-Lukaku-Rashford attack would be great to have

It won't be. None of them are anywhere near good enough to play as RW. Martial is playing well as 9 and Rashford is playing best season of his career as goal scoring LW.

Our problem is players behind the attack, especially very poor AMs and not good enough CMs.

Lukaku didn't play as RW regularly. He played in couple of games, he was always CF. IIRC Martial was injured so Rashford played as LW with Lukaku as CF. Lukaku gave many inconsistent versions of why he left.

 

[elánius]

Is it?

He scored 14 league goals in 18 games (1526 mins), with 11 from open play and 1 assist. 127 mins per G+A from open play.
Marital scored 7 league goals in 15 (1198 mins), and 3 assists. 119 mins per G+A.

Even if you include all penalties, everything. Lukaku has contributed to 15 goals, Rashford 16 goals.

Amazing how overrated players become once they leave the club.

In all competitions.
Lukaku - 19 G+A
Rashford - 21 G+A
Martial - 13 G+A
Greenwood - 11 G+A

It's not Lukaku we are missing, it's proper CM and attacking midfielder.

Well he said he is a goalscorer and you for some reason (everybody knows that reason) started with assists and goals from open play only to make Lukaku look bad. Well it is amazing how people need to hate our ex players to justify some manager decisions and this was one of the worst, specially when we didnt have an adequate replacement.

So Rashford scored 12 goals in 1823 minutes in PL = 152 minutes per goal, without penalty kicks it is just 8 goals = from open play he scores every 227 mins.

Martial scored 7 goals in 1198 mins in PL = 171 minutes per goal (from open play, because he didnt score any penalty kick in PL)

Lukaku scored 14 goals in 1526 mins in Seria A = 109 minutes per goal, without penalty kicks it is just 11 goals = from open play he scores every 138 mins. Btw they had like 3-4 penalty kicks he didnt take.


So this quote

He's a goalscorer who puts our current crop to shame

is definitely true and you cant do anything about that. Lukaku is top CF and it was a huge mistake to prioritize Rashford in front of him. Rashford is better on the right or left, definitely not the center and Martial is hit or miss, even though he is for me our best finisher and best player from the offensive line.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

There are lots of versions why he left. From what i understand he wanted to leave after Ole started to playing him on a right wing because he didn't think that our style suits him. And many posters here thought that also.
So my question is; how the hell he is excellent in Inter( stats don't lie) who basically play the same style like we are ( trying to do). Deep defence and counter attack.

I like Martial a lot on no9 but Martial-Lukaku-Rashford attack would be great to have

He's playing in a significantly weaker league. Lukaku's problem in England was scoring against the top 6, for Everton and United. His record against those sides was absolutely abysmal, that's about 25% - 30% of the games you play in England. As you can see from the UEFA coefficients, the best sides in Italy are much closer to France and Portugal in terms of quality than they are to England or Spain. He basically gets to flat track bully a lot more in Italy.

https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2020

 

[roonster09]

Well he said he is a goalscorer and you for some reason (everybody knows that reason) started with assists and goals from open play only to make Lukaku look bad. Well it is amazing how people need to hate our ex players to justify some manager decisions and this was one of the worst, specially when we didnt have an adequate replacement.

So Rashford scored 12 goals in 1823 minutes in PL = 152 minutes per goal, without penalty kicks it is just 8 goals = from open play he scores every 227 mins.

Martial scored 7 goals in 1198 mins in PL = 171 minutes per goal (from open play, because he didnt score any penalty kick in PL)

Lukaku scored 14 goals in 1526 mins in Seria A = 109 minutes per goal, without penalty kicks it is just 11 goals = from open play he scores every 138 mins. Btw they had like 3-4 penalty kicks he didnt take.

Justify what?

Well it's amazing how clueless and desperate people are that they leave assists which is direct contribution to goal.

I have already debunked the "Lukaku is a born goalscorer" nonsense. You just need a bit of thinking to do instead of following like a sheep.

I will give you a hint instead of posting it again, check the league goals and check how many goals he averages per season.

How is any player a good goal scorer when player has pathetic record like
In 2017-18: From Oct - May he scored 9 league goals
In 2018-19: He scored 12 goals, 6 of them came in 3 games. So that's 6 goals in 29 league games.

So this quote is definitely true and you cant do anything about that. Lukaku is top CF and it was a huge mistake to prioritize Rashford in front of him. Rashford is better on the right or left, definitely not the center and Martial is hit or miss, even though he is for me our best finisher and best player from the offensive line.

And Lukaku was awesome for us? He was even more hit and miss. Do people have such shit memory that they don't even remember that he averaged like 1 goal or less per month after his initial 7 games when he scored 7 or 8 goals?

So much for a good goalscorer that he couldn't even average 1 league goal per month.

Apart from few games/months he was shit for us. Three is no reason to believe he would have changed it considering he averaged 14-16 PL goals in his career.

 

[Champ]

Is it?

He scored 14 league goals in 18 games (1526 mins), with 11 from open play and 1 assist. 127 mins per G+A from open play.
Marital scored 7 league goals in 15 (1198 mins), and 3 assists. 119 mins per G+A.

Even if you include all penalties, everything. Lukaku has contributed to 15 goals, Rashford 16 goals.

Amazing how overrated players become once they leave the club.

In all competitions.
Lukaku - 19 G+A
Rashford - 21 G+A
Martial - 13 G+A
Greenwood - 11 G+A

It's not Lukaku we are missing, it's proper CM and attacking midfielder.

Whilst I don't doubt our need for the aforementioned players, Lukaku has been in top form this season, scoring at will in the league, we could definitely do with him.
His first goal last night was stunning.
He's playing in a new league for a new team in a new country, yet the same outcome as wherever he's been.
Not overrated, underrated.

 

[roonster09]

Whilst I don't doubt our need for the aforementioned players, Lukaku has been in top form this season, scoring at will in the league, we could definitely do with him.
His first goal last night was stunning.
He's playing in a new league for a new team in a new country, yet the same outcome as wherever he's been.
Not overrated, underrated.

He is doing that playing for 2nd best team in italy, which is worse league than PL.

While he was at ManUtd, he wasn't good enough. On top of that he wanted to leave. He scored 27 or 28 league goals in 2 seasons and he scored 7 or 8 in his first 7 games. After that initial purple patch, it was all just dry patch. He was very inconsistent goal scorer for us.

In 2017-18: From Oct - May he scored 9 league goals
In 2018-19: He scored 12 goals, 6 of them came in 3 games. So that's 6 goals in 29 league games.

 

[Champ]

He's playing in a significantly weaker league. Lukaku's problem in England was scoring against the top 6, for Everton and United. His record against those sides was absolutely abysmal, that's about 25% - 30% of the games you play in England. As you can see from the UEFA coefficients, the best sides in Italy are much closer to France and Portugal in terms of quality than they are to England or Spain. He basically gets to flat track bully a lot more in Italy.

https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2020

Yeah, we'll discount his goal against Barca, and against Napoli last night because they didn't beat Liverpool recently.
My word,
He can only score what's in front of him, that's what he's doing. And doing very well.
I'd rather my striker get 20 plus goals a season rather than 5 against the top sides.

 

[Nou_Camp99]

Lukaku is a good goalscorer. It's never been in doubt. He does have major limitations in his game but if you provide him crosses and balls to run on to rather to him with his back to goal be will be fine.

We didn't see the best of Lukaku because quite frankly the rest of the team is pretty awful creatively. We didn't have the players to get the best out of him and we seemed to want to turn him into a player he isn't.

 

[elánius]

Justify what?

Well it's amazing how clueless and desperate people are that they leave assists which is direct contribution to goal.

I have already debunked the "Lukaku is a born goalscorer" nonsense. You just need a bit of thinking to do instead of following like a sheep.

I will give you a hint instead of posting it again, check the league goals and check how many goals he averages per season.



And Lukaku was awesome for us? He was even more hit and miss. Do people have such shit memory that they don't even remember that he averaged like 1 goal or less per month after his initial 7 games when he scored 7 or 8 goals?

So much for a good goalscorer that he couldn't even average 1 league goal per month.

Dude, I have absolutly no idea why you are so salty and rude. Justify what? Maybe letting Lukaku go without an adequate replacement, I have already said that.

If we talk about someone being a GOALSCORER, we are deifnitely not interested in asissts, you can only guess why. For example golden boot in PL is presented for best goalscorer, but for some reason they dont care about assists (it is because they have nothing to do with goalscorirng ability of a player, but dont tell anybody).

Sou you have only debunked that you hate Lukaku for some reason and try to change the point to make him look bad.

He is natural goalscorer, I actually never heard some pundit to deny that. He has a lot of problems as a player, f.e. his horrbile first touch or that he is sometimes one dimensional player, but he can definitely score goals and thats the point.

You judge him based on his last season with us (worst season in our PL history?) and he played second part of the season as a RW, because Olé wanted Rashford to prove himself (and he failed).

Lukaku goals in PL for last seasons? Ok.

18/19 12 goals
17/18 16 goals
16/17 25 goals
15/16 18 goals
14/15 10 goals

Btw I remeber I did some math last year and in PL he had around 150-160 goals per minute for last 3-4 years, so what is actually your problem with him?
I never said that he was awsome for us, I said it was mistake to let him go because we ended up without classic CF and Rashford or Martial are definitely not awesome either. While he proved himself in Serie A, we are struggling big time.

 

[VeevaVee]

( stats don't lie)

This is the problem. They definitely don’t paint anything like the full picture. There were lots of Inter fans questioning what the hell they’d bought for 80m.

At the moment he’s balancing out the bad (which the stats probably don’t show) with the goals. We’ll see what happens if he loses motivation again, or the fans air some grievances.

 

[roonster09]

This is the problem. They definitely don’t paint anything like the full picture. There were lots of Inter fans questioning what the hell they’d bought for 80m.

At the moment he’s balancing out the bad (which the stats probably don’t show) with the goals. We’ll see what happens if he loses motivation again, or the fans air some grievances.

Even if he scores well for Inter, it shouldn't matter for us. In PL he was averaging 14-16 goals and he scored same for us. Maybe that's his level in PL but suited for Serie A.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Yeah, we'll discount his goal against Barca, and against Napoli last night because they didn't beat Liverpool recently.
My word,
He can only score what's in front of him, that's what he's doing. And doing very well.
I'd rather my striker get 20 plus goals a season rather than 5 against the top sides.

This is the Barca side that he faced.

---------------------Neto---------------------
--------Todibo-Umtiti-Lenglet---------
Wauge-Rakitic-Vidal-Alena--Firpo
-------------Perez-Greizmann------------

It was a B-team.

Napoli are having a poor season. They sit 8th in the table and are in a battle to qualify for the Europa. They're 11 points off the Champions League places.

These are the coefficients

https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2020

The top 7 teams of England, Germany, Italy and Spain compete in these competitions. The good thing about them is that they dispassionately award points to the sides as they progress through the competitions. Whilst some chance factors like the kindness of the draw can affect progress etc its pretty clear that the Italian league is not in the same bracket as the English or Spanish league at the moment.

It is correct that Lukaku can only beat what's in front of him (a bit of a shallow point) and I've always rated him as a good goalscorer but he is doing well against weaker opposition currently. It is what it is. I have zero regrets about him leaving United. In fact I'm glad he left because he's awful to watch whilst being a bitter and small character.

 

[devilish]

Strange way to talk about jose

Things soured once Faria left only to be replaced by dumb and dumber

 

[kopviolator]

Strange this thread has amassed 87 pages after his departure. I didn't think he was that controversial.

But yes, still happy he's gone.

 

[Revaulx]

That's because he is, theya actually made him drop weight and work hard to be in better shape.
I don't know why we don't have similar or even higher standards at United

Spot on. This is absolutely true whether one rates Lukaku or not.

It isn’t just him either. Plenty of other players have struggled with their weight while at United in recent times.

 

[Eckers99]

It was inevitable that he'd score goals in that league. Almost as inevitable as people on here forgetting how sluggish and technically poor he often was in a United shirt.

 

[Jonno]

Strange this thread has amassed 87 pages after his departure. I didn't think he was that controversial.

But yes, still happy he's gone.

I was thinking that. But to be fair, he is incredibly outspoken and seems to blame anything or anyone but himself. When we signed him I hoped he would be a goal machine for us. But theres something about him, you can see insecurities in his eyes when he misses a chance.

Good riddance