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Premier League: Manchester United 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers - 22nd September 2018

He was poor again.
 
No movement off the ball. Didn’t move unless ball was right night to him. Poor performance
 
Think he’s tired post World Cup?

Plenty using that excuse for Kane well Lukaku has the exact same workload and no pre season.

Needs to sit out the league cup game.
 
The rumoured Arnoutivic signing all laughed at doesn’t look such a terrible idea now!
 
The rumoured Arnoutivic signing all laughed at doesn’t look such a terrible idea now!
You know what it really doesn't! Trouble is if Lukaku is off his game then we have no alternative.
 
I said in the summer we need a backup striker similar in style to Lukaku if we want to go for the league.
 
In Lukaku Sanchez and Martial we have a £200m front line. We’re getting the £20m version of them at the moment. Lingard has been non existent since the season started. Rashford stupidly got himself sent off. I blamed our midfield at times last season but I actually feel the 3 behind them are playing well including Fellaini.
 
Yeh midfield seem to be upping their game more than last season, the front 3 just aren't doing it, same as last season.
 
Lukaku's poor form and inability to link play is hurting United's attacking play, however he has still managed to score 4 goals in 4 starts and one sub appearance.
 
The problem with Lukaku is he isn’t clinical, that’s strange to say because he does score lots of goals but I feel if his finishing was better then we would be in better shape for sure. He has his qualities but I feel like he still stunts our play, like Ibra did. Wonderful on occasion but I feel like we would be a lot more cohesive without him.

We need someone off the bench that can do something different, the fox in the box if you will. Someone like Chicharito or Solskjaer would be ideal right now.
 
Lukaku’s 4 goals.

One was off his stomach
A ball from Sanchez left him an easy header
An open goal after a Lingard deflected shot
A tap in from a deflected Luke Shaw shot.

I don’t believe any of them have come from outside the 6 yard box. If they’re his redeeming features I think he’s Another that could do with dropping. He’s missed more big chances than the rest of the team combined. I believe Mitrovic would have more goals in this United squad this season with the chances Lukaku has had and he’s known as a wild/poor finisher.

It’s also 5 starts and 1 sub appearance. The record sounds good but when you break down his goals realise he hasn’t taken a single touch before the finish can be applied shows the type of goals he’s getting and the stats are certainly padded by the ease of opertunities he’s scored when considering those he’s missed. (An open goal for instance)
 
I am not sure you can knock a striker for the quality of his goals. Obviously I would prefer a Kane but we probably got the best available. I would also like a better contribution in both goals and overall play, but tbh I tend to think our problems lie elsewhere. His stats wouldn't look too bad if he was flanked by mane and saleh, or sterling and mahrez. We also have very few goals from midfield.
 
His contribution? Other than the 4 tap in’s what has he contributed bar losing the ball every time it’s played in to him? EDIT: Sorry I misread your post. I read it as his contribution making up for his poor finishing

As I said he’s missed more big chances than he’s got goals so I’m not sure he’d have more goals at the moment regardless of whose alongside him he’s just seriously off of form. It’ll come back as he’s a player who goes through purple patches where he looks like one of the best in the world and one of those is due
 
As I said I would like to see him contribute more in open play. But I would like to see everybody around him to contribute goals.
 
Yeah I edited my post sorry I misread your first post.

I don’t think we can knock the defence and midfields contribution so far this season. Minus the three pens it’s 2 goals for the midfield 2 goals for the defence. It’s the front 3 in Sanchez Lukaku and Lingard that need to step up. We’re all crying for consistency and that’s what we’ve got but perhaps it is time to try Martial/Rashford down the middle/left and Mata back on the right. Or just some good damn movement between them. I’d say we’ve had 135 good minutes football out of our front 3 this season.
 
I personally think you can try any combination of the front three from six but ultimately I don't think the quality is there. Alexis is in the slide. Rashford I am still not convinced about. Mata doesn't really fit the formation and is probably also on the slide. Martial doesn't have the drive. Lingard actually does all the right things but needs better quality and lukaku we have already spoken about. There are some good squad players in there but we need a couple of top quality players.
 
Put it this way do fans of any of our direct rivals look at our attackers and think wish he was in our team? The answer is no I doubt any of our rivals watch our attackers and think he’d improve our starting XI.

An out of touch rusty looking Lukaku is still scoring he’s doing the work it’s just not coming off for him and if he had his eye in he’d have at least 2 more goals arguably 4. Brighton, Spurs and 2 vs Burnley are the ones that come to mind.

I’m not convinced he’s an A grade striker but he gets you 25-30 a season which is the minimum you want from your main striker.
 
I think that was my point really. I haven't done the stats but i suspect city and Liverpool got about 40 goals from their wide areas against probably 10/15 from ours. Lukakus goals stack up nicely then. He isn't an absolute top striker but he was comfortably the best available.
 
I think that was my point really. I haven't done the stats but i suspect city and Liverpool got about 40 goals from their wide areas against probably 10/15 from ours. Lukakus goals stack up nicely then. He isn't an absolute top striker but he was comfortably the best available.

Better than Aubameyang? Better than Icardi? I don't know if we'd been able to tempt Icardi but Aubameyang was on the market last summer.

Just chucking a few names out there like you say Utd had to buy a striker and Lukaku ticks a lot of boxes but he wasn't the first choice that was Griezmann but that deal fell through. Being at Everton meant he was available but we all had reservations about him being able to step up that level.

He's a physically dominant striker but he's not technically brilliant he rarely provides moments of individual magic to change a game I think to be the main man at a top club you have to have that magic in your locker where you pull something out of absolutely nowhere. We all know what a Lukaku goal looks like it's either getting on the end of a cross or using his strength in the box to create a shooting angle to power home he's never really does something that surprises you.

Can your wide guys score 20 each when they're in the team to supply Lukaku with crosses? Is his link play good enough to help create chances for them look at guys like Benzema, Giroud, Firmino who play than central role but help create for their partner more than score for themselves can Lukaku play that way? You often find teams who have wide players who score a lot of goals have a striker who doesn't score loads and vica versa.

I do think we need to cut the big man some slack he's rushed back from a world cup to make the start of the season and he's looking rusty but from what I can tell he's working hard up top things just aren't coming off for him and on Saturday he just came up against a team who are very good at starving the opposition of chances.
 
I do think it's about time he got dropped, as a wake up call. Hazard had to have a go at him at the WC

I would like to see Martial, Sanchez, Rashford.
 
I think he should sit out tomorrow nights game shame we can't see that front 3 vs Derby as Rashford finishes his ban but Lingard Sanchez Martial would be interesting to see as long as they had Dalot and Shaw going outside them to provide width.

I don't think he needs to be dropped he's the only one scoring and I don't think it's fair to say he's the one holding other people back but it would be nice to have some sort of alternative for when he doesn't play.
 
Think we dropped the ball not bringing in a back up striker really. Lukaku has no one pushing him, he knows he will be in the team week after week.

I don’t get it when people say drop him and put Rashford up top? He’s as raw as they come and I don’t think he ready to lead the line for us. I know there were murmurs of a back up coming in and I do think we will regret it. We have one fully fledged striker and two or three that could play up top. That’s not great when we want to challenge on all fronts.
 
Sanchez could do it though. and it might kick start him. Flanked with the pace of Martial and Rashford.

the squad is weak for sure
 
The thing is though, you can say that Sanchez flanked by Martial and Rashford could work but there is no evidence to suggest it would. On paper yeah ideal if it did work however Sanchez has been very poor since he arrived, Rashford or Martial seem to get lost out on the right. Lukaku may be having some issues but he’s the best we’ve got and no-one else scores regularly for us.

It was clear to see we needed someone to come in on the right but that didn’t happen for whatever reason. It’s amazing the squad is still weak. There is numbers but not enough quality.
 
I don't think it's a lack of pressure that is resulting in some poor performances from Lukaku just think he's out of form Rooney was the same he'd have runs where his touch was off and he was missing chances then boom he'd get 10 in 10 just the way he was and Lukaku is the same and was the same at Everton.

Sanchez is hardly doing his job on the wing so why should Lukaku be benched before he is? Lukaku is at least sticking a few in the net even if they're tap ins that is what he's there to do so the thought of dropping him to me sounds ridiculous. Give him a rest maybe but dropping him is crazy talk at this point.
 
I think when not playing well, Sanchez at least still looks for the ball and tries to create. Lukaku just stops running and stands still. Our forward line, for me, is too static when he is playing, he seems to never to go wide to look for the ball and create space in the middle. And I just don't like him :), a a player, seems like a good chap though.
 
Be good to see Sanchez up top. He might just click into gear. I won't hold my breath tho lol.

I'm not sure what is going on with the forwards, all of them. They are so static.
 
It's always hard to tell is the lack of movement because they're told to stay in position and wait for the ball to come to them or is the lack of movement because they don't know where to move or worse they've stopped because they know the ball won't come. I think Lukaku is told to stay central as that is where the manager wants him and Wolves didn't give him the chance to run in a channel because the space wasn't there to attack from the bits of the game I saw.

The lack of movement up top is a problem but the build up speed in general is quite poor takes a long time for us to bring the ball forward and generally it's done slowly as all the midfielders seem to like an extra touch on the ball very little pass and move going on.

The ball comes forward so slowly must be hard to find space as teams are back in shape by the time the ball gets up to them and if it does come forward quickly it's pumped at Lukaku's head and you can't really build from that as a header vs the centre backs the ball could go anywhere.

Still think we look like a team that isn't being coached on how the manager wants us to attack
 
Champions League: Manchester United 0-0 Valencia - 2nd October 2018

This guy needs some competition up front. He’s so in his own comfort zone. He really needs pushing hard for his place
 
Scholes has criticised Lukuka's off the ball movement in BT Sports post match analysis.
 
Looks like the guy we saw around Xmas last year not the guy who finished the season looking like a guy who could lead this team from the front.

Needs to be dropped for Newcastle go away with Belgium and get his head out of his backside right now he looks like he’s running on zero confidence this big missed chances are weighing on him and the team is suffering.
 
Lukaku is terrible at everything not in the box, should never have bought him
 
Someone said before it’s like playing with 10 when Sanchez is on the pitch. At the moment Lukaku seems like the only unstoppable player and he’s quite clearly not capable of performing. It’s like he’s playing with a broken leg. I’d rather have a 52 year old Cantona upfront at this moment in time.
 
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