Romelu Lukaku vs Alvaro Morata 2017/18

I reckon it'd be huge news if we dropped Lukaku at any point, let alone in one of our biggest games of the season.

And wonder how he feels. Surely these are the games he signed for.

He’ll have a different manager next year so he needn’t worry.
 
Pretty simple in my opinion... United got the better ST for the EPL. I was in the Morata camp myself last summer but clearly United got this one right. Well done Mou and Ed....

Lukaku > Morata
 
I reckon it'd be huge news if we dropped Lukaku at any point, let alone in one of our biggest games of the season.

And wonder how he feels. Surely these are the games he signed for.
Jose won't have the balls to drop him, no matter how bad he gets.
 
Lukaku?

25 PL goals last season, so some people saying he's been underwhelming isn't a mystery.

Well, no, it isn't a mystery. He played for a different coach with a different approach to the game.

He's under a new management and 100 times more pressure to produce. How many players do you know who move up a step and reproduce their form from their previous club. It's Lukaku not Ronaldo. I'm not quite sure what people were expecting. I'm not underwhelmed by him at all. In fact I'm happy with his overall performances and I'm confident he will build on this season.

Its not as if we signed Carroll from Newcastle who totally shat his begs for Liverpool.
 
I think people, quite rightly, expected him to at least come close to his toal for last season. Yes he's playing for a new coach in a new setup, but he's also playing for United, not Everton. You'd expect him to get a lot more chances playing for us.
 
I think people, quite rightly, expected him to at least come close to his toal for last season. Yes he's playing for a new coach in a new setup, but he's also playing for United, not Everton. You'd expect him to get a lot more chances playing for us.
He's just a limited player.
 
Or could score more goals while vastly improving other areas of his game.
It isn't easy to manage the two
 
Then you'd understand why some people think he's been underwhelming?

No. I don't. I manage my expectations about Lukaku. Didn't he assist Martial against Spurs and I know he played well against Arsenal.

Could he do better? Of course! But do I find him underwhelming as a signing? Absolutely not.

The guy is doing relatively well for us. It's enough for me to think he can improve.
 
No. I don't. I manage my expectations about Lukaku. Didn't he assist Martial against Spurs and I know he played well against Arsenal.

Could he do better? Of course! But do I find him underwhelming as a signing? Absolutely not.

The guy is doing relatively well for us. It's enough for me to think he can improve.
This is all true, but he does have his limitations as a striker and this is why people have a bit of a underwhelming feeling towards him. He has an awful first touch, theres no other word for it, and this causes problems when the defense around him is so tight. The technical side of his game lacks that consistency needed to be a world class striker, and it doesn't seem like it's something that will improve over time.
 
I think people, quite rightly, expected him to at least come close to his toal for last season. Yes he's playing for a new coach in a new setup, but he's also playing for United, not Everton. You'd expect him to get a lot more chances playing for us.

Then we should feel our creativity is underwhelming, not Lukaku. Everton while not better than us or create bucket load of chances, they are built to support him well. We on the other hand, many times didn't play to his chance well. The service is both not sufficient or outright lack any kind of quality.

This is all true, but he does have his limitations as a striker and this is why people have a bit of a underwhelming feeling towards him. He has an awful first touch, theres no other word for it, and this causes problems when the defense around him is so tight. The technical side of his game lacks that consistency needed to be a world class striker, and it doesn't seem like it's something that will improve over time.
Then people have false expectation to begin with. I meant if you know he has been like this at his previous club and need to improve with time, why would you expect big improvement in this area in his first season here? You set yourself up for disappointment
 
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But he isn't. Tell me how he's a limited player when he's 3 goals short of 100 PL goals. It's fecking bullshit.

Emile Heskey hit 100 PL goals. As have a few players who really weren't good enough for the top level.

Now...obviously Romelu Lukaku is far, far better than Heskey, and I don't exactly think he's been bad for us, but I can understand the frustrations of some...he's someone we brought in to be a prolific 25-odd PL goals a season player, and as it stands he'll maybe hit 20. If we're lucky. All that added into the fact he's often been left wanting in bigger games, produced much of his best form at the start of the season, and has sometimes been left wanting in his overall play.

I don't think he's been bad, and I'd certainly be very wary to write him off at all yet, but compared to the top strikes of other clubs like Kane and Aguero (or even Salah) he's not been to their level at all. Not even remotely. Which is a problem, because that's ideally where we need him to be. Morata (since he's also the key figure of this thread) is similar - not been awful, but not been at the level of expected of a massive marquee signing who's expected to be the main goalscorer for a title contending club.
 
This is all true, but he does have his limitations as a striker and this is why people have a bit of a underwhelming feeling towards him. He has an awful touch, theres no other word for it, and this causes problems when the defense around him is so tight. The technical side of his game lacks that consistency needed to be a world class striker, and it doesn't seem like it's something that will improve over time.

Well would you not say that every player has their limitations? I mean how many players do you know who are his size who have his pace, physicality, his finishing. It's only natural to have so trade off. Lukaku is a battering ram and when utilised properly he's close to unplayable. As mentioned in other threads, he's not a hold up striker or the guy who could push the back 4 back. You feed the ball into scoring position and he's devastating. It's not his fault Jose is trying to make Drogba out of him.
 
Emile Heskey hit 100 PL goals. As have a few players who really weren't good enough for the top level.

Now...obviously Romelu Lukaku is far, far better than Heskey, and I don't exactly think he's been bad for us, but I can understand the frustrations of some...he's someone we brought in to be a prolific 25-odd PL goals a season player, and as it stands he'll maybe hit 20. If we're lucky. All that added into the fact he's often been left wanting in bigger games, produced much of his best form at the start of the season, and has sometimes been left wanting in his overall play.

I don't think he's been bad, and I'd certainly be very wary to write him off at all yet, but compared to the top strikes of other clubs like Kane and Aguero (or even Salah) he's not been to their level at all. Not even remotely. Which is a problem, because that's ideally where we need him to be. Morata (since he's also the key figure of this thread) is similar - not been awful, but not been at the level of expected of a massive marquee signing who's expected to be the main goalscorer for a title contending club.

Well there you go. Lukaku is one of the fastest players to hit 100 goals in the PL. I'm assuming he will, of course!

And I still stand by my opinion that we're not playing him right. We're feeding the ball into him... well of course he's not going to turn on a six pence and leave the defender for dead. In short, we shouldn't be expecting Lukaku to create chances for himself or even half chances. Play the ball into him when he's expecting to abuse the defender with his pace and physicality. It's not his fault he's been asked to do a job where hes quite clearly average.
 
People want Lukaku to be Kane but the reality is Kane will cost double Lukaku for a reason.
 
Well there you go. Lukaku is one of the fastest players to hit 100 goals in the PL. I'm assuming he will, of course!

And I still stand by my opinion that we're not playing him right. We're feeding the ball into him... well of course he's not going to turn on a six pence and leave the defender for dead. In short, we shouldn't be expecting Lukaku to create chances for himself or even half chances. Play the ball into him when he's expecting to abuse the defender with his pace and physicality. It's not his fault he's been asked to do a job where hes quite clearly average.
The ball is played into him directly many times, and it's a 50/50 chance whether the ball is gonna bounce right off his foot and effectively lose the possession. For me that's a pretty big problem, especially when we're playing Chelsea or Man City away and he's on his own vs 2 centrebacks.

We get the best out of him when the ball is played on the ground in front of him and he can run onto it, which makes me think we should give him a shot at playing right wing. The best I've seen from him technically is when he's bombing down the right flank with space in front of him to run into. Martial on the left, Sanchez as striker and Lukaku on the right would be a great set up in my opinion.
 
Well there you go. Lukaku is one of the fastest players to hit 100 goals in the PL. I'm assuming he will, of course!

And I still stand by my opinion that we're not playing him right. We're feeding the ball into him... well of course he's not going to turn on a six pence and leave the defender for dead. In short, we shouldn't be expecting Lukaku to create chances for himself or even half chances. Play the ball into him when he's expecting to abuse the defender with his pace and physicality. It's not his fault he's been asked to do a job where hes quite clearly average.
That's what top strikers are supposed to do though. All strikers rely on service to some degree but the best ones will be able to make space and chances for themselves and influence the game in other ways than scoring. I don't see this often enough from Lukaku to suggest he's a top calibre striker. He's a good player and being 24 has time on his side, but I doubt he will ever be the catalyst or gamebreaker in the big moments that we need him to be.
 
The main one feeling underwhelmed is Lukaku. He thought that moving to a big club would mean he would be able to eat up the goals because the team will create lots of chances. But now, he has realized that we give him feck all service. In his final year at Everton he took more shots per game than he does at United now.

We don't have a crosser or playmaker in the team. People talk about Kane scoring a lot more goals, of course Kane is the better striker, but he gets crosses from Trippier and Eriksen every game and gets fed by Eriksen who is a fantastic playmaker. Lingard does very little to help Lukaku, rather he is a goal threat on his own and helps out in midfield. Martial and Mata are always cutting inside and rarely ever cross.

Lukaku scored from a Mata cross when Mata was on the left for a period of a game. That type of play should be bread and butter for our team, but it's very rare for someone to go wide and whip a cross in.
 
Did any of you think he was on Lewa, Kane, Aguero etc level before we signed him? I'm guessing not so how has he been underwhelming by not being at that level after he's signed for us?

As i see it, we signed a striker who was a tier below the top ones because we couldn't get a lewa/Kane and that's exactly how he's been here. Also, his overall game whilst needing improvement has been fine and something that seems to be improving. There's little point saying he was below par in most games as something exclusive to him unless you missed how below par we were as a team.
 
The main one feeling underwhelmed is Lukaku. He thought that moving to a big club would mean he would be able to eat up the goals because the team will create lots of chances. But now, he has realized that we give him feck all service. In his final year at Everton he took more shots per game than he does at United now.

We don't have a crosser or playmaker in the team. People talk about Kane scoring a lot more goals, of course Kane is the better striker, but he gets crosses from Trippier and Eriksen every game and gets fed by Eriksen who is a fantastic playmaker. Lingard does very little to help Lukaku, rather he is a goal threat on his own and helps out in midfield. Martial and Mata are always cutting inside and rarely ever cross.

Lukaku scored from a Mata cross when Mata was on the left for a period of a game. That type of play should be bread and butter for our team, but it's very rare for someone to go wide and whip a cross in.
Good post. The service to him has been lacking as well, its not as if he's been missing a bucket load. As much as he needs to improve, we need to do more as a team too.
 
Good post. The service to him has been lacking as well, its not as if he's been missing a bucket load. As much as he needs to improve, we need to do more as a team too.

The manager saw this and wanted to get Perisic. I personally blame LVG for our lack of crossers because he was obsessed with holding the ball and going through the middle. He bought Di Maria who is a fantastic crosser and killed that part of his game by playing him as a midfielder instead of an attacker. He got rid of Nani and Evra who were still good players and by doing that he changed the way our younger players developed; could you imagine Luke Shaw being mentored by Patrice Evra; it would do him a world of good.
 
Emile Heskey hit 100 PL goals. As have a few players who really weren't good enough for the top level.
but compared to the top strikes of other clubs like Kane and Aguero (or even Salah) he's not been to their level at all. Not even remotely. Which is a problem, because that's ideally where we need him to be. Morata (since he's also the key figure of this thread) is similar - not been awful, but not been at the level of expected of a massive marquee signing who's expected to be the main goalscorer for a title contending club.

why compare him to kane or aguero in first place ? kane would cost minimum 200m quid , probably more since we are on the same league and a direct rival , aguero is 29 years old cnut playing for hateful city , if you are united fans you wouldn't want him here
Nobody expect salah to score that much , not even him , would you believe if anyone told you that salah will score more than 30 goals before march in the last summer ?

lukaku is the best we could possibly buy last summer so i am glad we get him
he started from being compared with morata and lacazette but now everyone start comparing him with kane and aguero , that fact itself means he is already successful here even from rival fans POV

but i believe lukaku can score just as much as kane or aguero, his game/goals is better than them for belgium NT with proper support behind
 
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The manager saw this and wanted to get Perisic. I personally blame LVG for our lack of crossers because he was obsessed with holding the ball and going through the middle. He bought Di Maria who is a fantastic crosser and killed that part of his game by playing him as a midfielder instead of an attacker. He got rid of Nani and Evra who were still good players and by doing that he changed the way our younger players developed; could you imagine Luke Shaw being mentored by Patrice Evra; it would do him a world of good.
I wouldn't blame LVG for it. Wingers were actually the ones who had the most freedom in his setup. It's just that the personnel we had via Martial and Mata are always going to prefer moving in and playing off the central players than whip crosses in. I think evra was done and Nani whilst being good was hardly someone you regret letting go of. Perisic would have been a good capture but signing him would have an adverse effect on martial unless we changed the setup so I'm not that arsed. In any case, I've always believed that the width needs to come from the FBs in a good team. Shaw and Valencia are both lacking in terms of quality of delivery. Young is our best bet in that sense.
 
I'm not concerned about him, He's still young and is already scoring loads.

He's not Lewa or Kane nor did I expect him to be as good as them when We bought him. I thought of him as a potential than a ready made star.
 
I wouldn't blame LVG for it. Wingers were actually the ones who had the most freedom in his setup. It's just that the personnel we had via Martial and Mata are always going to prefer moving in and playing off the central players than whip crosses in. I think evra was done and Nani whilst being good was hardly someone you regret letting go of. Perisic would have been a good capture but signing him would have an adverse effect on martial unless we changed the setup so I'm not that arsed. In any case, I've always believed that the width needs to come from the FBs in a good team. Shaw and Valencia are both lacking in terms of quality of delivery. Young is our best bet in that sense.

There isn't a rule in football that fullbacks need to provide width. In fact, Man City use their attackers and midfielders to provide width and the fullbacks help out in midfield. City when they are chasing the game push their fullbacks up; but it leaves them more vulnerable to the counter attack. More often than not, it is one of Sane, Silva, Silva and KdB putting crosses in, not the fullbacks.

We have one good crosser in the team, and he's a bloody right winger at left back :lol: so he has to cut inside all the time which makes him predictable. IMO, our team is ready made for a natural right footed winger to play on our right wing (Willian would have been great for that :p).
 
There isn't a rule in football that fullbacks need to provide width. In fact, Man City use their attackers and midfielders to provide width and the fullbacks help out in midfield. City when they are chasing the game push their fullbacks up; but it leaves them more vulnerable to the counter attack. More often than not, it is one of Sane, Silva, Silva and KdB putting crosses in, not the fullbacks.

We have one good crosser in the team, and he's a bloody right winger at left back :lol: so he has to cut inside all the time which makes him predictable. IMO, our team is ready made for a natural right footed winger to play on our right wing (Willian would have been great for that :p).
I never said it's a rule. For us, it'd be much easier and better to find FBs who can cross than get our attackers to do that. I do agree with the RW point mind but again, I'm of the view that we should look for an upgrade on Valencia and move to a 4-3-3 with Sanchez and martial as the wide attackers.
 
I thought not playing Morata was a mistake, when Morata played against Bayern for Juventus he was unstoppable with his pace an dribbling ability when Bayern played very high line. Barca plays the same way. Morata with Pogba were very good in that game.

Maybe he is injured but I remember him coming on as a sub in last 2 games, so he can't be that bad. It sort of worked for Chelsea with Willian playing so well but Morata would have added a lot to their side with so much space behind the CBs.
 
I thought not playing Morata was a mistake, when Morata played against Bayern for Juventus he was unstoppable with his pace an dribbling ability when Bayern played very high line. Barca plays the same way. Morata with Pogba were very good in that game.

Maybe he is injured but I remember him coming on as a sub in last 2 games, so he can't be that bad. It sort of worked for Chelsea with Willian playing so well but Morata would have added a lot to their side with so much space behind the CBs.
its always a risk to rely on one match. I have seen little of Morata's unstoppable dribbling this season
 
People want Lukaku to be Kane but the reality is Kane will cost double Lukaku for a reason.
Totally agree. Kane, from last season onwards, will require a small nation's GDP to be pried away from Spurs.
 
Have you watched him in any of our big games this season?

If you think Lukaku was bought for his big game performance then thats a problem for yourself. If we wanted a striker that elevates his performances against the top 6, we would have got Jamie Vardy.

The main reason behind signing Lukaku was for the fact that he scores goals and 21 of them this season would suggest that the decision has, thus far, been vindicated. Hes hampered by the fact that we rarely create for him and if you were to take a look at the stats, hes scored half the amount of goals as Salah and Kane have from the half the chances. So what does that say about him?