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

[Theonas]

@Theonas do you think Premier League sides would have done better or worse than they have done in the CL over the last 10 years if they'd played 4-4-2? Genuinely curious.

Anyway...that's my 3 posts. Good night sirs.

There is way too much on the formation in my view. As I mentioned in a previous post, Atlético Madrid technically played a 4-4-2 but the positioning of their wingers and defence was nowhere near ours with Cole and York for example. It would be extremely unlikely for PL teams to succeed in Europe playing our '90s version of that formation, I mean we had probably the best crossers of a ball in the world plus two of the best midfielders of their generation and we still only made one final. It's not of course all down to the formation but it had something to do with losing the midfield battle and having to run more and cover generally more ground than our opponents. For me, PL teams failed in the past 10 years because they don't have the talents of the calibre of Messi or Ronaldo, by that I don't mean world class players, I mean an absolute one off like those two, nor do they have the continuity of tactics/personnel/team unity in general that the likes of Juventus, Bayern and lately Real Madrid have enjoyed. When you have neither, you always will be behind those who do.

 

[Vashu]

Monaco reached the semi-finals playing an attacking 4-4-2, so why not?

But how close were they to winning it? I don't want exactly to downplay Monaco's impressive and merited achievement, yet I need to point out that on their way to the semis they've played against washed out Dortmund and had that crazy City encounter, which Pep's boys bottled as usually in the CL. There is a void in top teams bracket in Europe and Monaco is doing a fine job of filling it atm.

 

[bosnian_red]

Monaco reached the semi-finals playing an attacking 4-4-2, so why not?

You need the right players in midfield to be able to do it. Pogba-herrera could turn in to a midfield that can handle that for some games, but we dont have the wide players to play it. Then again we dont really have wide players for any formation that includes wingers. Just a bunch of #10's or strikers playing out there.

 

[RedPnutz]

Ed feeding a story to the press to get Madrid to stop being so tight about Morata..

Or Everton feeding stories to make Chelsea cough up?

 

[roonster09]

But how close were they to winning it? I don't want exactly to downplay Monaco's impressive and merited achievement, yet I need to point out that on their way to the semis they've played against washed out Dortmund and had that crazy City encounter, which Pep's boys bottled as usually in the CL. There is a void in top teams bracket in Europe and Monaco is doing a fine job of filling it atm.

Atletico played 4-4-2 and they were few seconds away from winning it. They again played 4-4-2 and this time they were just penalties away from winning the CL.

 

[roonster09]

Why would I be worried? If my name was Marcus Rashford I would be.

Chelsea will buy a top center forward whether it's Lukaku or not. Not sure you'll find many Chelsea fans who would be devastated to see him go to United.

I don't think we will sign 2 strikers but Rashford worries is least of our concerns. At big club there will be competition for places and that's what he acknowledged when asked about Morata.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

We don't need him if we're signing Morata. If we can spend £100M we may as well sign Ousmane Dembele so we can actually address our problems.

 

[Vashu]

Atletico played 4-4-2 and they were few seconds away from winning it. They again played 4-4-2 and this time they were just penalties away from winning the CL.

Again a matching squad and little next to no injuries. With Lukaku and Morata we'd still need to bring in 5 other players that would actually slot in and perform consistently on a high level.

 

[Android1974]

Again a matching squad and little next to no injuries. With Lukaku and Morata we'd still need to bring in 5 other players that would actually slot in and perform consistently on a high level.

Why 5? You mean all the midfield and attack except for Lukaku and Morata? Let's ditch poor Pogba, who can't play 4-4-2 except for France trashing England.

 

[roonster09]

Again a matching squad and little next to no injuries. With Lukaku and Morata we'd still need to bring in 5 other players that would actually slot in and perform consistently on a high level.

Why 5 players? All we need is make the team compact like Atletico did.

It's not going to happen but 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 is not outdated, there are teams who use this to good effect.

 

[Loon]

Ferguson believed in four forwards, don't see why this is impossible from that perspective, but not like Chelsea to balls up a transfer.

 

[stepic]

We don't need him if we're signing Morata. If we can spend £100M we may as well sign Ousmane Dembele so we can actually address our problems.

as has been said a hundred times, Dembele is not for sale, Dortmund don't need the money, and he doesn't want to come here. It's not happening.

 

[Solius]

I'd be more than happy with Lukaku. I find the Morata transfer very underwhelming.

 

[The Don]

I'd be more than happy with Lukaku. I find the Morata transfer very underwhelming.

Never got the negativity surrounding Lukaku. He's a beast. His goal record speaks for itself and he's consistent.

 

[Rhyme Animal]

I'd be more than happy with Lukaku. I find the Morata transfer very underwhelming.

Never got the negativity surrounding Lukaku. He's a beast. His goal record speaks for itself and he's consistent.

Totally agree with you both, I'd love it if we signed him.

 

[RDCR07]

Ferguson believed in four forwards, don't see why this is impossible from that perspective, but not like Chelsea to balls up a transfer.

Well for the nth time we don't play with two strikers every game.

 

[The Don]

Totally agree with you both, I'd love it if we signed him.

Yeah. He's been accused of being a flat-track bully but we'd have been challenging for the title last season with his goals against so-called weaker teams. When you consider how many times we drew very winnable matches due to poor finishing, maybe a flat-track bully is what we need.

 

[Amadaeus]

Lukaku is the safe option. Guaranteed goals if he comes here just like when we signed Zlatan.

 

[Adnan]

I expect us to sign two strikers and I believe it will be Lukaku and Morata.

 

[Rolandofgilead]

Never got the negativity surrounding Lukaku. He's a beast. His goal record speaks for itself and he's consistent.

I'm with you on this. If we can somehow do a deal that sends Rooney to them and Lukaku to us then i will be delighted.

 

[RedCurry]

This is just Mourinho helping his buddy Riola in my opinion. Drive the price up a little and higher salary for Lukaku but at the end of the day, he'll end up at Chelsea I have little doubt.

 

[Turamb]

I'm a bit worried Real is stalling the transfer of Morata just to pull out at the last second as payback for De Gea

Having Lukaku as an alternative would be smart

 

[Camy89]

I'm a bit worried Real is stalling the transfer of Morata just to pull out at the last second as payback for De Gea

Having Lukaku as an alternative would be smart

I don't think they'd shoot themselves in the foot - they need Morata sold to fund their new toy Mbappé.

They're assholes, but their not stupid assholes.

 

[D2Z]

I'll fecking shoot myself.

Thats a bit of an overreaction mate.

 

[Chip]

Lukaku and Morata would be brilliant. We haven't got a single out-and-out striker in our squad.

 

[Turamb]

I don't think they'd shoot themselves in the foot - they need Morata sold to fund their new toy Mbappé.

They're assholes, but their not stupid assholes.

Eh, I don't think Mbappé is moving until next summer

 

[lem8sh]

Thats a bit of an overreaction mate.

Not serious. Do think he's a donkey however.

 

[ti vu]

Sound to me like we're posturing to pressure Madrid for a lower price. If we're that interested we should have been more aggressive until now. Only few days till pre season to start a serious interest in a big money transfer.

 

[Hanky panky]

Sound to me like we're posturing to pressure Madrid for a lower price. If we're that interested we should have been more aggressive until now. Only few days till pre season to start a serious interest in a big money transfer.

This is what i thought first.

 

[ricky-romeo]

signing Lukaku is us getting back to those days of signing PL proven strikers (cole, yorke, teddy, saha, berbatov) which is probably the safest and best option out there. Lukaku and Harry Kane are the only 2 young strikers in the PL that have been scoring 20 plus goals for 2/3 seasons now and we all know Kane is very much unavailable at this moment.

originally i wasn't keen on Morata but after watching clips of his game style then i just got a feeling he got a pretty good high ceiling that he can reach and turn to be a top class striker at united. plus he has that more than just a traditional number 9 to his game that would be fantastic to our current team. but given the difficulty to deal with real at this moment, turning on to lukaku is probably just the right thing to do.

would not mind getting both of them though. we desperately need goalscorers.

 

[Loon]

Well for the nth time we don't play with two strikers every game.

Well, you didn't have to bother then, did you? Maybe it'll be fine and dandy for the games when we do need two strikers to avoid another draw?

 

[Z_Wolf]

I am baffled by the notion that more no. 9s in a starting 11 will necessarily result in more goals scored. Just because we struggled to score goals last season we should lump 2 strikers up front? I think it would be insane to sign both Lukaku and Morata considering neither wants to play second fiddle.

For me, last season we lacked more than just goals last season. Firstly, we had nobody capable of providing width. Almost all of our wingers tend/like to cut inside rather that hug the touchline and stretch defenses. This wouldn't have been a problem if we had fullbacks capable of recognizing the space the wingers leave or create and exploit it. Our fullbacks, including Valencia tbh are poor going forward. Secondly, our transitions were usually slow or sloppy. Again I blame partly our fullbacks. They are simply poor in carrying the ball and driving forward with it. Valencia can drive forward but he almost always has to pause for 5 secs before doing it. His crosses are usually either under hit or not accurate too. For me, Shaw is the most complete and has the potential to be an excellent fullback but he's been here for years and has yet to fulfill his potential.

My point is, these two problems among others need to be addressed and spending 160m on Lukaku and Morata simply isn't smart imo. We have multiple positions that need upgrading.

 

[Member 58925]

Or Everton feeding stories to make Chelsea cough up?

Or us feeding the press stories to wind up Morata so he puts pressure on Madrid?

 

[Paxi]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Matt+Lawton

Lawton's previous articles are very encouraging. He doesn't post transfer hoopla etc. It must have been very well sourced. My guess is - it's from Kenwright himself. I can't see Riola using English media tbh. I'd say he would use Italian press.

The question is: why would Kenwright use United knowing that the Morata deal is imminent? I'm sure Chelsea know something about how far along our deal for Morata is? Considering Conte wanted him. It would be diligent to at least monitor the situation.

Also, what do Everton actually get out of leaking Lukaku to United? For Chelsea hurry up and pay up? I don't buy it. Everton have an investor now with decent amount of funds. Add the TV money and I'm not even sure they're looking to offload Lukaku at all. It's completely viable for a club like Everton to spend 100 million now without selling anyone. So why would Everton leak this? Im asking this after thinking about it and realising that this is not Riola's work for a number of reasons.

 

[RRCE]

I don't think Lukaku will happen, but not due to the prospect of spending such a vast amount of money on two strikers. As many have pointed out, we need to replace both Zlatan and Rooney. Moreover, we've now had a few consecutive seasons of goal scoring futility, one of which Jose witnessed personally. There's no way Jose's plan didn't include significantly upgrading our attack. The plan was obviously to bring Griezmann in, but that's been delayed by a year, if not scuppered permanently. Even had Griezmann agreed to make the move, I have to think that Jose would have brought in another striker. He holds Rashford in high regard, but he's very young and not yet ready to lead the line week in and week out. Martial has yet to fully convince. Particularly once Zlatan went down, I believe that the plan was Morata and Griezmann. Could it be Morata and Lukaku? Maybe. It wouldn't function in quite the same way, but it could be effective. I'd love to see it happen, but I'm not buying into these recent reports.

 

[Ronaldo's Mum Eh?]

I expect us to sign two strikers and I believe it will be Lukaku and Morata.

Even if it will cost us around 170 million?

 

[manutd7]

Lukaku is the best available in my mind. Really would love to sign him. He would be the physical presence of Zlatan, but with much more pace. I feel his work ethic will drastically improve with the Champions League and Premier League ambitions we have. Morata was the next option in my mind, as I wouldn't disapprove of him coming but I feel Lukaku is a better signing.

Lukaku would be a 30+ goal scorer for us. These latest rumors are really getting me going. Havent been this interested since the Thiago and Lucas sagas

I personally would rather spend 80-100 mil on Lukaku than the 70-80 mil on Morata.

 

[Varun]

Sound to me like we're posturing to pressure Madrid for a lower price. If we're that interested we should have been more aggressive until now. Only few days till pre season to start a serious interest in a big money transfer.

Given Real don't want to sell, I don't see how that works.

 

[Redplane]

Or us feeding the press stories to wind up Morata so he puts pressure on Madrid?

Not saying that in particular may be true but it's funny how a lot of folks seem to think we re the ones who are taken to the cleaners all the time when it comes to playing the press - I'm pretty sure United has some very capable news spinners on staff.

 

[RedCurry]

Even if it will cost us around 170 million?

We'd spend that much on two strikers who are both primarily target men and neither is named Aubameyang. I just wouldn't do that.

But if it's down to Morata or Lukaku, I'd take Lukaku any day.