Romelu Lukaku

[Goat]

He scores goals, we know this, meh.

 

[Connor]

 

[Goat]

He did tell us.

 

[paulbefc]

If he's "playing terribly" then the superb form of United has proven conclusively that the significance of his all-round game being weak is dwarfed by that of his goalscoring. This penny should really have dropped for everyone at some point during the 4 years he was here when it was made blindingly obvious, but, unfortunately, for many it didn't.

It has been proven beyond doubt that what is most important for a lone striker, by a country mile, is scoring goals.

Only a fool would continue to obsess over first-touch and back-to-goal play at this point.

 

[DanEFC92]

If he's "playing terribly" then the superb form of United has proven conclusively that the significance of his all-round game being weak is dwarfed by that of his goalscoring. This penny should really have dropped for everyone at some point during the 4 years he was here when it was made blindingly obvious, but, unfortunately, for many it didn't.

It has been proven beyond doubt that what is most important for a lone striker, by a country mile, is scoring goals.

Only a fool would continue to obsess over first-touch and back-to-goal play at this point.

?

It's just a minority (@Tubey).

 

[Prevenger17]

?

It's just a minority (@Tubey).

And me. I still think he's a waste of space

 

[DanEFC92]

And me. I still think he's a waste of space

And @Prevenger17.

Master tacticians.

 

[paulbefc]

?

It's just a minority (@Tubey).

I think he knows, deep down.

 

[Kane]

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.

The irony in your statement being that Zlatan scored plenty last season, but his perfomances weren't particularly great.

Lukaku's pace and power has actually had a better effect on those around him with RashfRashford and Martial having benefited massively from that and performing much better too boot.

 

[Kane]

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.

Again, the irony is that United have started scoring more with Lukaku rather last season where Zlatan got 28 and All the other players struggled to even get to 10.

His hold up play has been really good, he draws attention to himself leading to Rashford or Martial causing havoc with their pace. His pace also allows Mikhitaryan/Pogba plenty of assists because he feeds off his through balls.

These players have directly benefited from having Romelu in the team.

Maybe he didn't do that at Everton but he has certainly done that United.

 

[Tubey]

The irony in your statement being that Zlatan scored plenty last season, but his perfomances weren't particularly great.

Lukaku's pace and power has actually had a better effect on those around him with RashfRashford and Martial having benefited massively from that and performing much better too boot.

Sort of right - by having Lukaku on the shoulder, it's allowed Rashford and Martial to drop deeper and be more involved.

You have better players than us, so Lukaku has the potential to be a weapon for you as a certain option, particularly against poorer sides.

Ibrahimovic technically holds the ball up player and gets other players running from deep. That's the difference between the two. My view is simply the latter is much more effective on a consistent basis.

 

[Tubey]

Again, the irony is that United have started scoring more with Lukaku rather last season where Zlatan got 28 and All the other players struggled to even get to 10.

His hold up play has been really good, he draws attention to himself leading to Rashford or Martial causing havoc with their pace. His pace also allows Mikhitaryan/Pogba plenty of assists because he feeds off his through balls.

These players have directly benefited from having Romelu in the team.

Maybe he didn't do that at Everton but he has certainly done that United.

I agree with that - you're set up to benefit from Lukaku and you are doing so.

But I will repeat that I think there's a glass ceiling on that approach, and that you'll struggle to compete when you come up against the better sides and when you head into pressure games.

You'll disagree with me now, and that's fine, but the proof will be in the pudding come the end of the season. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but if it were me I'd be including Ibrahimovic heavily when he's back and using 'horses for courses'. If you do that, you'll be in with a shot for honours. If you stick with Lukaku because he's scoring and don't adapt for certain games, then it's my honest belief that you'll hit the buffers before too long.

 

[Kane]

Sort of right - by having Lukaku on the shoulder, it's allowed Rashford and Martial to drop deeper and be more involved.

You have better players than us, so Lukaku has the potential to be a weapon for you as a certain option, particularly against poorer sides.

Ibrahimovic technically holds the ball up player and gets other players running from deep. That's the difference between the two. My view is simply the latter is much more effective on a consistent basis.

Zlatan is a phenomenal footballer but his lack of pace hurts United especially because of limited wingers in terms of crossing as they are then limited to trying to walk past a brick wall in the middle of defense.

Technically Zlatan is on a different level to Lukaku but imo the latter is more clinical (Zlatan missed a lot of easy chances in the previous season) and is a better fit for United.

I think pace is something that Everton attack is missing heavily too.

 

[paulbefc]

I agree with that - you're set up to benefit from Lukaku and you are doing so.

But I will repeat that I think there's a glass ceiling on that approach, and that you'll struggle to compete when you come up against the better sides and when you head into pressure games.

You'll disagree with me now, and that's fine, but the proof will be in the pudding come the end of the season. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but if it were me I'd be including Ibrahimovic heavily when he's back and using 'horses for courses'. If you do that, you'll be in with a shot for honours. If you stick with Lukaku because he's scoring and don't adapt for certain games, then it's my honest belief that you'll hit the buffers before too long.

If they hit the buffers it'll be because Mata, Mkhitaryan, Rashford et al are nowhere near as good combined as KDB, Hazard, Silva, Fabregas etc, in the same way we finished outside the top 6 last season because Barkley, Mirallas, Deulofeu, Bolasie and Lennon weren't good enough.

United finished 5th last year with much the same squad. They will be much better this season because they've signed a superb striker who can do it every week.

 

[Kane]

I agree with that - you're set up to benefit from Lukaku and you are doing so.

But I will repeat that I think there's a glass ceiling on that approach, and that you'll struggle to compete when you come up against the better sides and when you head into pressure games.

You'll disagree with me now, and that's fine, but the proof will be in the pudding come the end of the season. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but if it were me I'd be including Ibrahimovic heavily when he's back and using 'horses for courses'. If you do that, you'll be in with a shot for honours. If you stick with Lukaku because he's scoring and don't adapt for certain games, then it's my honest belief that you'll hit the buffers before too long.

I don't think Lukaku on his own will be the difference between trophies or not.

It's what the he allows the other players to do that will be key.

As good as Lukaku has been, there will be lean spells but the difference will be what the collective does.

It's a long season though and you could end up being right so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.