Romelu Lukaku | United confirm deal subject to medical and personal terms

How do you feel about the imminent signing of Romelu Lukaku?

  • Muppetastic!

    Votes: 456 20.6%

  • Happy enough

    Votes: 1,222 55.2%

  • Ambivalent

    Votes: 370 16.7%

  • Disappointed

    Votes: 112 5.1%

  • Oh please god no!

    Votes: 54 2.4%
  • Total voters
    2,214
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Jazz said:
I'm not convinced he'll score plenty of goals for us.

In any case, I cannot see us spending that kind of money on two strikers. Why isn't Morata enough and why can't Jose put some faith and get Martial and Rashford properly coached, instead of spending all this money on a guy with as much technique as my little finger? He's also got a shit attitude and not much of a 'football brain' - cannot see him blending with the players we have imho.[/
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He's scored double the goals of Morata. He's done it season after season in the EPL at a young age. Nothings guaranteed but Lukaku scoring plenty for us is close.

I think you've created a conundrum that doesn't exist on who to play. We won't sign both.
 
I think we will buy two strikers. Most of the pressure would be on Lukaku allowing Morata to bed in. I wouldn't worry about Lukakus technique. We can improve that. I would like to see Lukaku however, make sure he is in control of his weight. He's been a professional for eight years now so even though he's still young, he has to look after himself but if Zlatan is gone and Rooney leaving then obviously we'll buy two.
 
forevrared said:
You're absolutely right. I think I already said it in this thread, but Berbatov won the Golden Boot and we won the league in a season where he didn't score against any of the top 6.
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This.

We play 38 games a season, 10 of which are aginst the 'top 6' (I'm including us in there hence why 10 not 12). If we won against every 'weaker' team home & away that's 84points... Enough to win the title some years. Obviously a lot more simple to say than do but flatrack bullies are alright with me.
 
The issue with Lukaku is not so much whether he can score goals and whether they're against the top teams or the bottom -- I completely agree with the notion of 'flat-track bullies' winning leagues (mostly because it's true).

The problem is whether he can assimilate to the style of football at a bigger team. His only real case study for this is his performances for the Belgian NT, where teams will entrench themselves and force Lukaku to play an alternate style of football - something he'll find more prevalent at Chelsea or Manchester United. I think it's safe to say from that - albeit small, and not completely transferable - sample size, he has failed far more often than succeeded.
 
forevrared said:
You're absolutely right. I think I already said it in this thread, but Berbatov won the Golden Boot and we won the league in a season where he didn't score against any of the top 6.
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That was a funny old season. He scores 11 of his goals in 3 games, and the other 9 league goals came in the remaining 35.
 
DWelbz19 said:
The issue with Lukaku is not so much whether he can score goals and whether they're against the top teams or the bottom -- I completely agree with the notion of 'flat-track bullies' winning leagues (mostly because it's true).

The problem is whether he can assimilate to the style of football at a bigger team. His only real case study for this is his performances for the Belgian NT, where teams will entrench themselves and force Lukaku to play an alternate style of football - something he'll find more prevalent at Chelsea or Manchester United. I think it's safe to say from that - albeit small, and not completely transferable - sample size, he has failed far more often than succeeded.
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Like every Belgian player has "failed" with Belgium? I agree he hasn't done great for Belgium, but they've underperformed for the talent at their disposal in recent years no matter who they put on the pitch. Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku. Hell, you had Fellaini coming off the bench and changing games for them at times.
 
Nick7 said:
Like every Belgian player has "failed" with Belgium? I agree he hasn't done great for Belgium, but they've underperformed for the talent at their disposal in recent years no matter who they put on the pitch. Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku. Hell, you had Fellaini coming off the bench and changing games for them at times.
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Hence why I said not completely transferable. De Bruyne has normally been one of the better performers for the NT, fwiw.

But yeah, one can't truly assess the step-up until it actually happens, and I'm only stating what small sample size we have. Beyond that, it's just personal opinion. I'm not much of a fan of Lukaku from a stylistic point, either.
 
DWelbz19 said:
Hence why I said not completely transferable. De Bruyne has normally been one of the better performers for the NT, fwiw.

But yeah, one can't truly assess the step-up until it actually happens, and I'm only stating what small sample size we have. Beyond that, it's just personal opinion. I'm not much of a fan of Lukaku from a stylistic point, either.
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Oops completely skipped over that in your post.
 
Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber said:
Strikers like Lukaku win big teams league titles by pummeling small sides into submission. The idea that big games arw where titles are won and lost is often mistaken. In those games a team effort is required. That is why I don't buy the idea Lukaku doesnt show up in big games. Its more like Everton does not show up in big games.
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Good point, he is also still young. I remember people levelled the same criticism at Ronaldo when he was younger. Flat track bully, doesn't show up in big games etc. I think that will come for him in the next couple of years. But our problem last season was against the small sides and at home.

My only concern is that with such a heavy first touch, would he be any good against a wall of 10 players in tight spaces at OT. Id rather have morata for the considerably lower fee.
 
They generally say, you win the league by beating the smaller teams and Lukaku is great against them. That's also where we've struggled in terms of winning those games.

I mean look at the past 3 years, especially under LVG, we were very good against the "top teams". However, we still never won the league as we were poor against the lesser teams.
 
red thru&thru said:
They generally say, you win the league by beating the smaller teams and Lukaku is great against them. That's also where we've struggled in terms of winning those games.

I mean look at the past 3 years, especially under LVG, we were very good against the "top teams". However, we still never won the league as we were poor against the lesser teams.
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The problem with his goals last year wasn't even that he scored them against small teams. It's that they were not decisive

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/6boxx3/if_you_remove_all_lukakus_goals_everton_would/
 
Sign both Lukaku and Morata and I'll be pretty happy, given the availability of strikers.
 
harms said:
The problem with his goals last year wasn't even that he scored them against small teams. It's that they were not decisive

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/6boxx3/if_you_remove_all_lukakus_goals_everton_would/
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Yea, there's a stat about how i you take his goals out of Everton's games last year, they would've still finished seventh.

But as we all know, you can twist facts and figures to suit your case. I mean for instance, how many times last year were we winning one nil and we'd end up conceding late on and draw the match? Even if Lukaku were to score in those games for us next year, we'd win the game even 2-1. However, statistically, it would say, Lukaku's goal made no difference, as United were winning anyway.
 
DevilRed said:
Think that would cost us like 160-170m. Not really convinced we would sign two strikers as Mourinho usually only plays one.
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It would cost a lot. However, if we just look at just formation, Morata can play on the left of a front 3, like he did for Jose when at Real.
 
red thru&thru said:
Yea, there's a stat about how i you take his goals out of Everton's games last year, they would've still finished seventh.

But as we all know, you can twist facts and figures to suit your case. I mean for instance, how many times last year were we winning one nil and we'd end up conceding late on and draw the match? Even if Lukaku were to score in those games for us next year, we'd win the game even 2-1. However, statistically, it would say, Lukaku's goal made no difference, as United were winning anyway.
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Nope, that's not how it works. If he scores a second goal in 2:1 victory, he earns 2 points for the team.
Transfermarkt did it more professionally
https://www.transfermarkt.com/premier-league/gamewinners/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?saison_id=2016

Mesut Özil, who scored 8 goals, won more games than Lukaku with his 25
 
There is a little bit of me that's wondering if the Pogba-Lukaku holiday was something put on to drum up talk and hype. I wouldn't put it past agents/clubs as it benefits them quite a bit. The professionally shot video of them was a bit weird.
It's not really worked, anyway.
 
VeevaVee said:
There is a little bit of me that's wondering if the Pogba-Lukaku holiday was something put on to drum up talk and hype. I wouldn't put it past agents/clubs as it benefits them quite a bit. The professionally shot video of them was a bit weird.
It's not really worked, anyway.
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Doubt it, they did it last year too, seems they're on holiday together quite a bit
 
Judas said:
I think it's pretty safe to say Morata isn't joining us to be shoved out wide again, and I'd presume he's got those assurances from Jose.
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Yea, probably. We just don't know what formation Jose has in mind and what players. Deep down I think he's off to Chelsea, however, I wouldn't be too displeased if he joined us.
 
red thru&thru said:
Well if you want to go by stats, especially on that website you've given, let's go for Llorente, Ozil, Benteke or King?
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Nope, your logic is flawed here, as I never said that they are good enough - just that Lukaku's goalscoring exploits are overrated (and he isn't good enough - or, at least, that he isn't on the level you'd expect from someone who scored 25 goals last season).

Unsurprisingly, the best goalscorers (and players) in the league are very high up that table - Kane, Costa, Sanchez, Hazard... Lukaku's proportion of goals/points is probably the worst of the lot. Not saying that they are meaningless, but it certainly a point to look at
 
harms said:
Nope, your logic is flawed here, as I never said that they are good enough - just that Lukaku's goalscoring exploits are overrated (and he isn't good enough - or, at least, that he isn't on the level you'd expect from someone who scored 25 goals last season).

Unsurprisingly, the best goalscorers (and players) in the league are very high up that table - Kane, Costa, Sanchez, Hazard... Lukaku's proportion of goals/points is probably the worst of the lot. Not saying that they are meaningless, but it certainly a point to look at
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Flawed in terms of? Kane, Costa, Sanchez, Hazard...all play for top teams. When you put Lukaku in to a top team, you will get more out of him, in theory. Top teams spend majority of their time attacking, where as teams such as Everton etc will have a defend 1st, attack later approach. So Lukaku won't need to spend as much time in defending like he would have had to at Everton, so you can only presume, he will be available more in the attacking third and more potential to score.
 
Judas said:
It's Morata or Morata and Lukaku. Think Morata will be done by the weekend, and still have big doubts we'd go for both.
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I doubt we go for both as it would cost about £180m, which lets face it would be a bit excessive, especially with Perisic and a midfielder still to be done. Morata and Hernandez would be doable though.
 
How about - Lukaku to Chelsea, Costa to United for 12 months and pre-agreed swap deal Griezmann for Costa next Summer. I'd take that if Lukaku has his heart set on Chelsea.
 
Heardy said:
How about - Lukaku to Chelsea, Costa to United for 12 months and pre-agreed swap deal Griezmann for Costa next Summer. I'd take that if Lukaku has his heart set on Chelsea.
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Trouble is, Costa is a pretty loathed figure and many fans wouldn't welcome him here.
 
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