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neil999
Player Valuation: £80m
We have no chance, do we?
dont worry mate, i know he scores loads of goals, has great strength, pace, tactical awareness and adaptability..BUT occasionally he has a poor first touch, which will NEVER EVER improve so hes not worth bothering with
Anderlecht have won the league 33 times and never finished outside the top 6 of that league since 1940 odd. It is a league very similar to the scottish league - that is not decent.
When he was 16 he was already a fully grown 6ft 3 and weighed 14 stone. Did Mike Tyson punch harder when he was 28 versus 20 years old? No. Lukaku was very advanced for his age.
A similar player to be considered that way was Rooney, only last week Paul Scholes stated that his early physical maturity will contribute to him peaking at 26 instead of 29.
Freddy Adu must be some player now...
Baines' left foot
Player Valuation: £90m
Who gives a nat's arse hole if he's got a fairly poor first touch. The only stat that matters for a striker is 1 in 2, which he has already achieved so far.
Not in a possession based team, his 1 in 2 stat is fine, I would have backed many decent centre forwards to achieve that for us this season.
I do overall like him, of course I do, but people have gone way OTT in their appraisal of him.
Away performances were poor, 5 goals. Many of these games he seemed half arsed 65% pass completion, 39% of duels won... 11 chances created. Basically half the level of his home games. In many away games he frustrated the life out of me, allowed his marker to get the upper hand, looked subdued and for a lad his size and speed that is not good.
Check his possession stats, for a lone striker they really just arent good enough, the ball needs to stick or the other team can counter attack which we are vulnerable to with our set up.
We can look at 15 goals and wax lyrical all day long about them, but to me I look at the 5 games in a row where he didn't score and his performance level was just not good enough. He whinged about us not playing to his strengths, the reality was he was being penalised for his weaknesses by defenders. Look at comments in and January - people wanted him benched as he was that poor.
I'm not sure of the point you're making - I've just had three large Hienekens - but Standard Liege, a Belgian club, is a team we've struggled against in recent years.
When Rom didn’t return for WBA after his loan spell, the goals dried up, they dropped like a stone in the EPL and the manager lost his job. That won’t happen to us of course but I bet WBA fans wished they had him back the next season.
Strikers who can hit the net on a regular basis are like gold dust, they help the other strikers and give belief to the rest of the team that they can go out and give anyone a match.
I wouldn’t like to be in Bobby’s shoes this summer.
Strikers who can hit the net on a regular basis are like gold dust, they help the other strikers and give belief to the rest of the team that they can go out and give anyone a match.
I wouldn’t like to be in Bobby’s shoes this summer.
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I'm sure we may have struggled to beat Rangers and Celtic at some stage, doesn't mean that their strikers never scored hat tricks for fun against the no mark teams that pad out the rest of their league. Anderlecht score on average around 2.5 goals a game - that's in line with Celtics record last season where they won the league by 29 points.
In short, playing for anderlecht and scoring goals is like fishing with dynamite.
I don't think we've ever lost against Rangers or Celtic. Not the point you're making, I know, but I think using a perceived weakness in the Belgian league to demean a very young Lukaku is a poor argument.
He is inconsistent, but at his best he's lethal, and at 20 years of age I'd expect him to become more consistent with experience. I'd gladly risk 20 million if that was the price.
A concern is that Lukaku should really be the player that Diego Costa is. If Mourinho is willing to sell him then that says alot.
neil999
Player Valuation: £80m
and diego costa is an example of a player getting better with age...
Kendall's Dream
Player Valuation: £10m
Deal. Fair price imo.
His link up play and ability to hold the ball up was always there - thats why he has played as an attacking midfielder, its that tactical side and physicality where he has developed and matured.
With Lukaku its his touch and passing (both come from co-ordination) that is missing - it is not there and in my opinion will never be there if it ain't now.
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