🇧🇪 Romelu Lukaku

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

1 hour ago, Clockwork said:

Lukaku is a runner, give him space to run into and on the counter he is pretty good. That is his game it fits an Everton or WBA. Or a reactive manager. 
 

But at Chelsea, opposition gives us much more respect they play deeper and the spaces get tighter. He would have to play to his weaknesses, where has to make combo passes and make intelligent runs with bodies everywhere. 
 

Anyway I hope I am wrong. I will root for him to succeed.

And teams in Italy dont play like that against Inter Milan? Or other national teams against Belgium? No? 

I mean we created a lot of chances under Tuchel IIRC just didn’t convert them so I think he will be fine. Plus you’ve got him occupying central defenders which also means players like Havertz or Werner don’t have to.

Edited August 8, 2021 by OneMoSalah

[milka 3,393]

Psg will anounce Messi    earlier than Chelsea will anounce  Lukaku .

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

24 minutes ago, milka said:

Psg will anounce Messi    earlier than Chelsea will anounce  Lukaku .

This is true, we always take forever announcing a player. All the wheels are in motion and Inter are already spending the money.

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

19 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

This is true, we always take forever announcing a player. All the wheels are in motion and Inter are already spending the money.

Is big rom even in England yet? 

[Clockwork 1,794]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

And teams in Italy dont play like that against Inter Milan? Or other national teams against Belgium? No? 

I mean we created a lot of chances under Tuchel IIRC just didn’t convert them so I think he will be fine. Plus you’ve got him occupying central defenders which also means players like Havertz or Werner don’t have to.

No it’s not the same. Anyway I feel like I have made my point over the years why we shouldn’t sign Lukaku. His signing is inevitable, and he is in his prime so it won’t take long to find out his worth. 
 

we don’t really create enough big chances though, we are pretty much middle of the road in that aspect. Chances created data is very misleading, it fails to consider the quality of it.

in Carlo second season at Chelsea, a slumping Malouda created most chances in the EPL. No one would have believed it from watching  though.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Clockwork

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

44 minutes ago, BluesMadLad said:

Is big rom even in England yet? 

From what I see on twitter he is having his medical on Monday in Belgium. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

41 minutes ago, Clockwork said:

No it’s not the same. Anyway I feel like I have made my point over the years why we shouldn’t sign Lukaku. His signing is inevitable, and he is in his prime so it won’t take long to find out his worth. 
 

we don’t really create enough big chances though, we are pretty much middle of the road in that aspect. Chances created data is very misleading, it fails to consider the quality of it.

in Carlo second season at Chelsea, a slumping Malouda created most chances in the EPL. No one would have believed it from watching  though.

I dont go off data for chances created i go of my eyes, I watched us create loads with no end product hopefully big rom gives us that end product 

[Blue Armour 4,448]

@Tomo since Lukaku is more or less guaranteed to start every game, what do you forsee happening? 

Do you think Tuchel might revert to a back 4 to accommodate an extra attacker?

If not, who from Havertz-Mount-Werner do you see dropping to the bench?

[Tomo 21,751]

2 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

@Tomo since Lukaku is more or less guaranteed to start every game, what do you forsee happening? 

Do you think Tuchel might revert to a back 4 to accommodate an extra attacker?

If not, who from Havertz-Mount-Werner do you see dropping to the bench?

I'm hoping he will rotate the four depending on tactics/opponents.

[Superblue 6,372]

Lukaku is almost certainly coming in to play the majority of games, but he can't play all the time. 

Assuming Tammy leaves we're looking at 6 players in attack - Lukaku, Werner, Havertz, Mount, Pulisic and Ziyech (I think Tuchel will look at CHO more as an offensive minded wing back). The first 5 all played for their countries this summer and Ziyech plays in the AFCON mid season. We have a packed schedule with the World Club Cup, we could easily play 55-60 games throughout the season. There will be rotation and I think all 6 will have plenty of gametime.

The best part too is the versatility of the other 5 players will give Tuchel multiple options throughout the season to set up differently. Tuchel can play 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 and even in games where we're likely to be dominant or we're chasing a goal he could just play one midfielder such as Jorginho or Kante and then play two of Mount, Ziyech or Havertz as two number 8's alongside 2 strikers.

I wasn't particularly in favour of Lukaku, but having had time to think about it, I do think his inclusion within our squad makes us look much stronger.

[Jype 6,398]

2 hours ago, Clockwork said:

we don’t really create enough big chances though, we are pretty much middle of the road in that aspect. Chances created data is very misleading, it fails to consider the quality of it.

Chances are divided into two categories though, the first one being 'chances created' which counts every pass that leads to a shot and then there's also 'big chances created' where the expectation to score a goal is much higher (ie. a player being one on one with the keeper or getting a shot inside the six yard box) so they definitely consider the quality of the chance too.

In the first category 'chances created' Chelsea as a team created 450 chances during the last league season, which was only behind Man City and Liverpool (both at 457). Manchester United for example only created 414 chances according to the statistic.

In the second category 'big chances created' the team recorded 62 last season, while Man Utd got 68 and both Liverpool / City had 79. Sure you can see that those three teams had a slightly higher percentage of their total shot-creating opportunities recorded as big chances, but to say we were 'middle of the road' in that aspect is just wrong when there were 16 teams in the league who had a lower 'big chances created' number, with the majority of the teams not even close in the stats (Leicester and Spurs were the only ones not far behind). 

Another decent metric for goalscoring chances created is the xG statistic, which definitely considers the quality of the chances created. For last league season Chelsea were third in that aspect (68.6 xG), again only behind Liverpool (72.2 xG) and Man City (77.7 xG). Man Utd on the other hand placed lower in this table, having only 63.1 xG. On the xG table you can see that in the Premier League only Fulham, Brighton and Sheffield Utd underperformed their total xG by more than Chelsea, which would imply that the problem was definitely not creating the chances but rather putting them away.

Of course statistics never tell the whole story but having watched all our games and a good amount of rivals' games as well, I'd be inclined to come to the same conclusion as the statistics that creating good goalscoring opportunities was not the team's biggest problem and we'd have got much more goals if the players knew how to finish. Having a good goalscoring striker like Lukaku will definitely help with that, and if players like Havertz and Werner can start finishing with a better conversion rate having had a full season to fully settle in the team then that should help a lot as well.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Jype

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

36 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

It's only 4 years ago but he looked so much younger back then... Management really has not been good to him lol

Anyway.... Lamps is usually right about recognizing a player's abilities. Let's hope he is right once more.

[Nero 1,874]

 

[OhForAGreavsie 6,077]

On 08/08/2021 at 22:30, Magic Lamps said:

It's only 4 years ago but he looked so much younger back then... Management really has not been good to him lol

Anyway.... Lamps is usually right about recognizing a player's abilities. Let's hope he is right once more.

This was before ManU decided Rom wasn't good enough for them. It also predates the time many posters here point to as the period when Rom made his supposed improvement at Inter. I believe Rom will score goals and I believe he will also frustrate us. Let's hope there are enough of the goals to keep the frustration from boiling over.

Meanwhile I simply am not excited about this move and I would be lying if I pretended otherwise.

Edited August 10, 2021 by OhForAGreavsie

[milka 3,393]

 Looking like Chelsea T-shirt 

[DH1988 1,348]

1 hour ago, Patrick Bamford said:

 

I would play this before a game, we know he has a chip on his shoulder already about his name not spoken in the same light as Kane etc. Hopefully that plays to our advantage in terms of hunger and desire. 

[milka 3,393]

 

[BXL70 396]

I also have some doubt about Lukaku and transfer fees is insane.

But who else? Mbappe and Haaland are not for sale. Lewandowski and Benzema are aging and not for sale either. Spurs won't let go Kane unless for a much higher amount.

Lukaku knows the PL and he has a proven track record. 

If we want to compete for the title and CL, we need a top striker, and Lukaku can play that role. He is 28 only, at the best of his career, he did not suffer significant injuries, he will bully the defenders. 

I agree with comments. But again, who else as a top class striker?

Edited August 9, 2021 by BXL70

[Fulham Broadway 17,330]

Left the clinic. medical over, on a flight to Heathrow with his agent. (Reuters)