Romelu Lukaku | Match Discussion thread 2017/18

Status
Not open for further replies.
He's still a human being though and he's got a sulk on we all have days where we're in a foul mood and it filters over into our work, money doesn't make you immune to feelings.

He's also a hired gun no footballer will ever love the club like the fans do unless they grew up as a huge fan and these guys are few and far between now.

Hopefully he cheers up but it does seem that he's unhappy and while they didn't show it on the highlights he was walking a pretty thin line in terms of getting a red card with a few of his challenges it seems like he was on a bit of a mission to rough them up a bit having had that bit of his character questioned vs City.
 
It's got nothing to do with being loyal to united. Bar City and Liverpool if I played football for a club at top level you wouldn't be able to stop me smiling. If I was getting panned I wouldn't sulk I would try harder so I didn't stop doing what I loved.

And if he is trying to get sent off he shouldn't start.
 
My issue with Rom is he just comes across as being so god dam lazy, never chases anything, when the ball bounces of him he just shrugs his shoulders, for the size and power of him he should be holding it up but I have never seen a striker so bad at holding onto the ball, the last two games nothing has stuck and he has no idea how to be pro active, he just sits and waits for the ball to land on his toe or head,.

I would be able to accept the missed chances and the bad first touch etc if he looked like he actually gave a sh*t
 
It's got nothing to do with being loyal to united. Bar City and Liverpool if I played football for a club at top level you wouldn't be able to stop me smiling. If I was getting panned I wouldn't sulk I would try harder so I didn't stop doing what I loved.

And if he is trying to get sent off he shouldn't start.

You can't prove that though can you because you've never actually done it, I'd put good money on you or me if we were footballers having days or games where we hate our job it's a natural human thing.

It's all weird with Rom because he's had Mourinho in the press saying fans are getting on his back and booing him which never actually happened, he had those unwanted headlines about that chant which was more of an online viral video than an actual terrace chant, he's also currently without a boot sponsor which for a £75m striker at Man Utd is just weird and he's only just settled that issue from the summer with the LAPD over the parties at his rented house.

I think he's always been a bit sulky it's just the way he is but I think in the ground the fans have stuck with him and will continue to stick with him it takes a lot for the Utd fans to turn on a player but if he is one of these guys who reads his own social media he probably thinks we all hate him.

If we could afford to take the gamble I'd give him the weekend off and tell him to go and get some sun on his back and switch off from football for a week because he's not happy at the moment.
 
yeah, he'll come good again. He just just needs remember how lucky he is.
 
Premier League: West Bromwich Albion v Manchester United - 17th December 2017

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
League Cup: Bristol City 2-1 Manchester United - 20th December 2017

Decent cameo. He was bright.
 
Premier League: Leicester City 2-2 Manchester United - 23rd December 2017

His hold up and link play was very good. He could easily have had two assists to his name.
 
He was excellent. Shame that Martial and Lingard missed two straight forward chances. But it’s promising that his hold up play and general play was the best I’ve seen.

Still not quite sure how we dropped points. We should have won 5-1 with the chances we had at the end. Rashford looked scared when he went into the box. If we had any hope of catching City we had to be clinical and we simply weren’t.
 
Premier League: Manchester United 2-2 Burnley - 26th December 2017

Another incident of poor defending from a set piece.
 
FA Cup: Manchester United 2-0 Derby County - 5th January 2018

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Good to see the big man get a goal think he needed it and from the highlights his link up play was also good and he worked the goal well with Martial.
 
Premier League: Manchester United 3-0 Stoke City - 15th January 2018

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Thought the goal capped off a good performance granted against one of the worst defensive teams in PL history but his link up play was good and he bullied them for that goal.
 
Saw him moving about and dragging centre backs around for the first time in a long time, which is exactly what he needs to be doing. Took his goal well but there were a few other half chances for him that a better touch he could got something more out of the situation.
 
He did fluff one golden chance with a terrible first touch but his goal was all his own, well worked and made no mistake in sticking in the back of the net with power. I thought he looked a bit isolated at times again, he drifted in and out the game and I was particularly concerned when he kept popping up on the wing but it worked out ok for him in the end. He actually did some good work from out there but its not where we need him really.
 
He did fluff one golden chance with a terrible first touch but his goal was all his own, well worked and made no mistake in sticking in the back of the net with power. I thought he looked a bit isolated at times again, he drifted in and out the game and I was particularly concerned when he kept popping up on the wing but it worked out ok for him in the end. He actually did some good work from out there but its not where we need him reall

He took that chance really well. Like you say he was so powerful and strong and did the work all by himself.

The point about the wing I sort of get what you mean, he was sticking crosses in when he should be in there getting on the end of those crosses instead. But I dont mind him starting out there to begin with and making his runs from there. Arriving at a center back at full pace on his left peg is the way to get the best out of him.
 
Problem with no.9's drifting out onto the wing is when a chance is created there is no one there to stick it in the net. We had this last season with Ibra constantly looking to pick the ball up from midfield as he wasn't getting any service and Rooney has a long history of doing the same. We cant seem to shake this isolation for the cf, which then leads them to frustration of not being involved then being out of place when a chance occurs. Van persie never did this, he was always in the right place at the right time, same with Van Nistelrooy. Hopefully with Pogba now having more freedom, IF Sanchez arrives he will add more creativity and assits too, Lukaku might get some decent serive and do what he does best, score goals.
 
He was at his powerful best last night, no-one could even get near him. His overall play was very impressive and only Pogba trumped him for man of the match.

Thing with Lukaku, his touch is sometimes going to let him down, don’t think that is ever going to change but when he’s on it he’s unplayable. He doesn’t have a whole lot of finesse but in terms of brute strength and power there isn’t anyone better.
 
Thought he done really well last night, seemed a lot more interested in the game and seemed to love it when he scored which was good to see, one thing I did notice was he was always going out to the right hand side when going to the wing, probably due to Mata always coming inside and if Valencia wasn't providing the width then that right hand side was a bit isolated.

I know Sanchez comes inside as well but I don't think he would do it as often as Mata, so with Martial one side hopefully Sanchez the other, Rom can do his work in and around the 18 yard box, always be there when the ball comes in and concentrate on scoring goals.

Far better from the big man, want to see him get that aggression back, bully, out muscle and just love being United's No. 9
 
Loved it when he squared upto Martins Indi in the second half (think he got booked for it too). He looked huge lol. I like to see that bit of aggression in a forward. To be fair to Martins, the dude didn't flinch at all. Think I would have lol.
 
Problem with no.9's drifting out onto the wing is when a chance is created there is no one there to stick it in the net. We had this last season with Ibra constantly looking to pick the ball up from midfield as he wasn't getting any service and Rooney has a long history of doing the same. We cant seem to shake this isolation for the cf, which then leads them to frustration of not being involved then being out of place when a chance occurs. Van persie never did this, he was always in the right place at the right time, same with Van Nistelrooy. Hopefully with Pogba now having more freedom, IF Sanchez arrives he will add more creativity and assits too, Lukaku might get some decent serive and do what he does best, score goals.

As a centre forward you have to drift wide sometimes but when you do it's the job of the attacking midfield players to attack the space you've left, this is something Lingard does really well when he plays central, the issue last season with Ibra and previously with Rooney was when the ball wasn't coming to them they'd come deep to get on the ball which doesn't really hurt the defenders as they're happy for you to drop off. Lukaku doesn't really do that he either stays on the defensive line or looks to run in behind them he very rarely comes short as he knows he can't really hurt teams that way.

One thing I like about Lukaku that I didn't realise he had in the locker is he whips in a lovely cross which we maybe don't exploit as much as we could because none of our other attacking players are particularly good in the air.
 
FA Cup: Yeovil Town v Manchester United - 26th January 2018

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Manchester United - 31st February 2018

He doesn't do enough in the big games. He needs to step up or replacing. I wonder how many winning goals he's scored.

I know he cost a bomb, but if we want to challenge city next year, we need a striker we can rely on. If he deosn't improve I'd be throwing 150m at Kane and shipping him out.
 
Agree mate, United and Spurs played the same formation last night, Kane/Lukaku played the same position and their respective teams needed them to hold it up, bring people into play, create chances and bully defenders, jesus christ one looked like a chuckle brother and the other looked like his usual Harry Kane self, the difference between the two was ridiculous!
 
Kane has so much more to his game than Lukaku who is basically a poacher a massive fox in the box like Chicharito create a chance for him and most of the time he finishes it or forces a good save from the keeper but in terms of everything else you're not getting much from him.

He's an easy target his job is to score goals and he's getting terrible service in these big games, hopeless long punts that barely go near him if it does then he has to fight vs 2 defenders to keep it, 2 decent CB's can handle that against pretty much anyone only Drogba & Costa I think in PL era have ever bossed 2 good centre backs on their own. something he's never been good at and probably never will be, is he even being coached how to do it? We put in so many aimless crosses in that again good defenders eat up very rarely do we cut it back to him on the floor for a tap in or put in a cross that's actually aimed at him.

I don't want to sound defensive of him but he never set that price we knew what we were signing and he is playing to the same sort of level he was at Everton so why are we really surprised? If we want to get the best out of him we need to get much better at crossing the ball and we need to bring the ball up the pitch to get to these positions to create chances for him.

People assume he's the new Drogba because he's big and built like a tank but he's nothing like him he's basically a Chicharito type striker in Drogba's body.

People expect him to be superman and blame him for some of these results when we play to his weakness in big games and the defence let in stupid goals.
 
My issue with him is he is lazy as sh*t, he doesnt chase, doesnt close down, half the time last night he didnt even challenge for the ball, waiting to see if it would drop to him, he was static, never moves defenders, hardly makes any runs. I am not asking for the touch of Messi or the skills of Ronaldo here, simply asking for effort, commitment and to look like he actually gives a sh*t about the shirt.

Theres a difference between not having the skills and not having any desire, which he was short of in abundance last night.

He doesnt even bother with the basics and looked last night like there was no fight in him, the difference between him and harry kane is alarming
 
My issue with him is he is lazy as sh*t, he doesnt chase, doesnt close down, half the time last night he didnt even challenge for the ball, waiting to see if it would drop to him, he was static, never moves defenders, hardly makes any runs. I am not asking for the touch of Messi or the skills of Ronaldo here, simply asking for effort, commitment and to look like he actually gives a sh*t about the shirt.

Theres a difference between not having the skills and not having any desire, which he was short of in abundance last night.

He doesnt even bother with the basics and looked last night like there was no fight in him, the difference between him and harry kane is alarming

The point is he never did that at Everton and it might be as simple as he doesn't have the fitness to do it takes a lot of energy to move a frame that big and Zlatan barely lifted a finger up top unless the ball was right to him.

I think comparing him to Kane is harsh it's obviously Kane is a much better player than Lukaku it's not even a contest based on the last 2-3 seasons but we couldn't get Kane so we had to go for something else and I think Lukaku was the next best prem striker who was available in the summer.

It might be that in big games going forward it's Rashford or Sanchez up the middle and Lukaku on the bench but last night there was no fight or desire in anyone apart from Sanchez & Pogba no one wanted that ball and they all sh*t themselves every time they got it as they knew the Spurs players would be swarming after them. Be some nasty brown stains in the pants in that dressing room I hope the kit man doesn't have to wash them undies for the platers.
 
I think it's right to compare him the Kane, and Aguero and whoever else is playing the same position for a rival.

It is beginning to look like a big error. I don't really know what he can to turn it around. He does ok against the weaker teams, perhaps because he has more chances. It's up to him to adapt his game in the tighter games to get into better positions or hold the ball up more, and make the most of fewer chances. But he just doesn't seen capable of that next step.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Login or Register

Forgot your password?
or Log in using
Don't have an account? Register now
Back
Top