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Of course he can... he did it for us AND West Brom. He's just not going to thrive in a system where he's asked to do his best Heskey impression week in week out.
Carlito
Player Valuation: £40m
You could say he did in his loan season at Everton, but at West Brom he was coming off the bench and had Shane Long making space for him.
He plays in bursts. Those types aren't really suited to leading a line.
Dario Terracotta
Player Valuation: £70m
Definitely got to go two up front and change our shape to get the most out of him IMHO.
Ooooor, just pass to him. He needs through balls for his runs. Were too slow in build up.
When we're on the front foot and attacking quickly, we demolish teams, and lukaku thrives. Build up passing is slow and kills our momentum..
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ijjysmith
Calm
Defo. It's not like we give him endless amounts of chances to miss. I can only recall the header he missed on Saturday that was pretty difficult anyway.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Is there not an argument to be said that he lacked the maturity as a young player to lead the line on his own but that as he develops it is something he could add to his game?
Nah he played in a counter attacking system for both teams - but only for Martinez's transition as manager in his first few months. Ever since then he's been Heskeying the place out.
The problem isn't Lukaku; the problem is the player were forcing Lukaku to try to be (and that he's failing miserably at) because we don't get the ball in the right areas.
It's not even a case of "pass the ball more to him", as people are detailing above. The problem is where the focal point of the attack starts. We hit Lukaku to feet in a deep role, when we should be hitting a creative attacking midfielder to feet with Lukaku 10 yards further up the pitch spearheading the line. Then we can start talking about whether Lukaku gets enough service.
To add to the above, what we should be doing is treating Lukaku like he isn't this big muscular Benteke player - but imagine instead he's Francis Jeffers. Imagine that he's a slotter who is best at playing off the shoulder and needs a support network around him instead of being the support network. Maybe then we wouldn't hit ridiculous passes that bounce of his shins and allow us to be countered every single time.
Saint Domingo
Player Valuation: £90m
May as well have Messi of Ronaldo upfront, the result would be the same, he barely gets any service, when he does he's often had to come to the halfway line for it. If we played to his strengths his limitations around touch and interplay wouldn't be so obvious. We don't though so like a lot of the players he is low on confidence, unfit, and looks like a poor player.
Best I've seen him in ages were the two cup ties v Weat Ham last season when the whole team after 60 mins of the first leg just threw Martinez's shackles off and went for it. Lukaku and Mirallad ripped them apart and were brilliant. Not seen anything like that since. That's what he's capable off though. A top manager would have him hitting 25 league goals a season no question.
Best I've seen him in ages were the two cup ties v Weat Ham last season when the whole team after 60 mins of the first leg just threw Martinez's shackles off and went for it. Lukaku and Mirallad ripped them apart and were brilliant. Not seen anything like that since. That's what he's capable off though. A top manager would have him hitting 25 league goals a season no question.
ultra
Player Valuation: £15m
Our turgid slow-motion football means he is always playing with his back to goal, added to which we are incapable of playing any through balls to him. He must be totally fed up (so are we!)
If RM played with TWO wingers he might get the ball played in front of him where he is lethal: however, I am not holding my breath....
If RM played with TWO wingers he might get the ball played in front of him where he is lethal: however, I am not holding my breath....
Carlito
Player Valuation: £40m
Doesn't change the fact that he had a partner at West Brom.
I agree that he suits a counter-attacking system, so I don't know why Martinez saw fit to spend £28m on him.
AaronTheBlue
Player Valuation: £60m
won every header that was hoofed up to him, not his fault that we don't play to his strengths and he is isolated nearly 90% of the time
We clearly need someone who will link the midfield and Lukaku together so Lukaku doesn't have to try and do it himself because that's not his game. We were getting some good balls in from the wings on Saturday which is great and if we do that every game he will get a fair few goals over the season but when trying to create through the middle we were appalling!
My brother was there on Sat big rumours were Lukarku played with a pain killing injection - it was obvious he looked unfit!
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