That doesn't count as they class that as a friendly the Lukaku haters
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Romelu Lukaku
- Thread starter marsh
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That doesn't count as they class that as a friendly the Lukaku haters
Again, you're confusing goals with playing well.
I know Lukaku scores goals. He's one of the best in the world at it.
But the problem is against top sides it's not enough to basically play with 10 men, and that happens with Lukaku. They lost that game because they couldn't contain Madrid, largely because Lukaku was anonymous in general play.
Lukaku scoring today doesn't surprise me. But simultaneously, the fact he was actually terrible today also doesn't surprise me.
Again, goals don't equal performance. Against a better team, he gets nullified, maybe scores with one chance, but the opposition dominates the game because they're allowed to. That's what we have to wait for to see if United can deal with that issue, or if Lukaku has eliminated it from his game.
Kane
Player Valuation: £225k
That is simply not true.
Its goals in the big games that matter.
It seems the goal posts are always changing for Lukaku. It was previously his lack of goals that was the criticism. Especially that he scored in lumps.
I don't get the bitterness. If he is as poor as his detractors claim, surely they would just be happy that he is gone .
I am happy he's gone.
And goals were literally never the criticism of Lukaku. That's just insane.
Kane
Player Valuation: £225k
He was criticised on here for scoring a lot of goals in a few games and going on droughts.
Also heavily criticised for scoring goals after the game was won. .e that his goals didn't count for much.
Lukaku certainly has deficiencies in his game but to be happy that Everton sold him is strange, but I respect your opinion on it.
Would sacrifice about 15 of his league goals last year for him to just play very well against the top 6?
Oh, goals in patches - yeah that was a criticism, but not in the way you mean. He was often a 'flat track bully', but to be honest that was a case of Everton not being in the same class as a team so he scored as expected in my eyes. Along with the rest of the team, they weren't good enough to challenge the top sides.
No, goals were never the issue for me. Being able to play as a team consistently and as a unit was the big one.
That's why I'm happy he's gone. In the short term, obviously we're paying horrendously for our crap transfer window, but the reason I'm happy he's gone is because there was a glass ceiling on what we could achieve with a Lukaku up front - if you're relying on him poking one in to scrape a 1-0, then if he doesn't score you're drawing or losing those games. It's a glass cannon approach to football and it's too easily nullified - I want a more diverse attack based on technical talent.
So I'm not "bitter" - I held the exact same views when he was an Everton player. I also respect that people value a 20+ a season goalscorer a lot more highly than I do, and I understand some think I'm mad for my views, but I think you achieve more building a side that has three 10+ goalscorers in instead, because it isn't nullified as easily. Lukaku doesn't improve those around him, because he isn't technically good enough in general play.
No, that's the wrong question - I'd sacrifice Lukaku for a striker who scored 10-15 fewer but enabled our attacking unit to score 15-20 more in different ways, because you then challenge the better sides with a bit of variation in your play.
As Koeman says, we need more "productivity" to do that, but we were far too often easily nullified in important/pressure games because Lukaku either didn't score, or wasn't good enough to get the team forward as a whole and impose our game as a unit.
Mourinho has played a blinder at bringing back Ibrahimovic. I think he'll play the key fixtures more often than not for the exact reasons above.
Grfirestorm
Player Valuation: £950k
When you win three one, it's easy to say the third goal didn't matter, but that's crap, at 2-1 the opposition thinks they have a chance and we could have lost the game. How can anyone be happy to lose a 30 goal a season striker and not replace him?
We've had the same problems against the big teams before Lukaku arrived and the same now hes gone im not sure thats down to just the striker is it?
Nope, but you're always meant to want to improve. Comparing Lukaku to what we've had in modern history isn't showing ambition, because Everton's modern history isn't one of ambition.
If I was happy with Everton finishing around 7th every year, then Lukaku is one hell of a safe bet to achieve just that, because he's an incredible goalscorer.
But that's not what I want. I want us challenging for honours, and that means building a side the right way and breaking the glass ceiling. I know it seems counter-intuitive to say a 20+ goal striker is hamstringing that ambition, but the only way I can explain my view is that I want to replace that 20+ goal striker with a team that scores 20 more than that collectively.
Kenshin
Player Valuation: £40m
I'd love yo have a striker here that scores even when they don't play well
Considering we struggle to get a shot on target currently
Yeah, I'd rather have Lukaku than an unproven kid, a past it adulterer and an overpriced Spurs reject too.
But I'd also rather have something better again. I'm not comparing what we have now to what we had with Lukaku - I'm looking at what we should be aiming at having; a dynamic, multi-faceted attack so that we can challenge the top four reliably without being shut down with embarrassing ease against the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool.
I want the same but Lukaku upfront then players around him who get 10 plus goals like spurs have was my ideal situation but it wasn't to be
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