🇧🇪 Romelu Lukaku

[Alabama 1,992]

Memories of when TC folks here were waxing lyrical of Arteta as the second coming of Pep....

Fraud...

[nyikolajevics 2,700]

7 minutes ago, Vytis33 said:

^^^ liked by Willian is funny.  I don't buy into much from social media but he doesn't hold back...still a Blue

Yeah.. He (or his representative) used to cover Conte’s face with a trophy emoji.. Very diplomatic moves.

[Special Juan 28,141]

I'm sure if he backed into a truck it would struggle.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,818]

 

[LAM09 7,056]

Great to have an actual vocal point upfront & someone able to bully defenders again.

Hope this was the first of many to come.

[YorkshireBlue 3,277]

You could tell the players wasn't used to a big number 9 up top today. The amount of chances they had to pass to him back to goal but they didn't, that will come with time.

[Warning_Hazard 156]

 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

17 hours ago, BluesMadLad said:

You could tell the players wasn't used to a big number 9 up top today. The amount of chances they had to pass to him back to goal but they didn't, that will come with time.

That is exactly what i noticed too. He could have scored 4 if they had spotted his runs better. Also they did not really know when to play into his feet and when to send him into open space. Hopefully this will come.

Still, he can improve his play as well. Whenever he did his signature shield, half turn and shot his shots got blocked. But ppl must be blind who say he has not improved during his time in Italy.

[Warning_Hazard 156]

1 minute ago, Magic Lamps said:

That is exactly what i noticed too. He could have scored 4 if they had spotted his runs better. Also they did not really know when to play into his feet and when to send him into open space. Hopefully this will come.

Still, he can improve his play as well. Whenever he did his signature shield, half turn and shot his shots got blocked. But ppl must be blind who say he has not improved during his time in Italy.

TT said they didnt work much on the details with him and the team so no doubt theyll be looking at that over the coming weeks n months etc

[YorkshireBlue 3,277]

21 minutes ago, Warning_Hazard said:

TT said they didnt work much on the details with him and the team so no doubt theyll be looking at that over the coming weeks n months etc

That was really encouraging what TT said. That they hadn't work on his game in conjuction with the team, TT just wanted to see him what he's about n what he can do before the fine details which is actually really refreshing to hear. 

[different level 1,056]

Just imagine us getting Lukaku in 2017 instead of Morata. How different it could've been for us. I mean we still won some very important cup trophies in the last couple of years, but I'm pretty sure our Premier League form would've been at another level with him and Hazard in his prime.

[DH1988 1,348]

10 minutes ago, different level said:

Just imagine us getting Lukaku in 2017 instead of Morata. How different it could've been for us. I mean we still won some very important cup trophies in the last couple of years, but I'm pretty sure our Premier League form would've been at another level with him and Hazard in his prime.

I disagree in part, I prefer to get the Lukaku he is today, much more mature and professional. Conte had such a massive impact on him and we are going to benefit from that. 

[nyikolajevics 2,700]

6 minutes ago, DH1988 said:

I disagree in part, I prefer to get the Lukaku he is today, much more mature and professional. Conte had such a massive impact on him and we are going to benefit from that. 

Conte was the gaffer by the time...

[Superblue 6,372]

There's a genuine argument that Lukaku needed the spell at Man United where things didn't work out as he would have liked, to give him the opportunity to re-focus and re-establish himself as a player and mature as a person.

Obviously Morata was a complete bust so it definitely would have been better to get Lukaku in 2017 instead. 

However this version of Lukaku on and off the pitch appears a completely different prospect (in an all round positive way) to the one we would have had in 2017. 

He's here now, let's just look forward and hope the Arsenal match is just the beginning of a successful time here for him.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Love this van Dijk will be equipped to stop Lukaku narrative Sky are running, even funnier considering Barnes and Wood won plenty of individual duals against him at the weekend. Hes not fully up to speed granted but I don’t think he was any better than Matip was or even that good. If Burnley had better quality and better players they could have caused more harm that they did.

[Superblue 6,372]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Love this van Dijk will be equipped to stop Lukaku narrative Sky are running, even funnier considering Barnes and Wood won plenty of individual duals against him at the weekend. Hes not fully up to speed granted but I don’t think he was any better than Matip was or even that good. If Burnley had better quality and better players they could have caused more harm that they did.

I can certainly understand the frustrations that Lukaku has experienced during his career. Even as dominant as he was on Sunday, there seems to be a focus on what Arsenal did wrong rather than on Lukaku himself.

There does seem to be almost a reluctance to give him credit which does seem to be a running theme throughout his career (Neville saying he was a fit for Chelsea but not one for United, City or Liverpool I felt was dismissive of Lukaku). Can only be a positive for Chelsea though as it'll keep Lukaku hungry and wanting to prove a point. I would love nothing more than him to put that Liverpool defence to the sword.

[DH1988 1,348]

3 hours ago, nyikolajevics said:

Conte was the gaffer by the time...

Someone else posted afterward re: United and the time away that was needed, exactly that. Lukaku has something to prove, quite funny how he is pissed at not being mentioned with Kane etc. and pundits don't mention him either in those sentences.. Maybe they will at the end of the season if he has the golden boot.

[Jype 6,398]

37 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

 (Neville saying he was a fit for Chelsea but not one for United, City or Liverpool I felt was dismissive of Lukaku).

Gary Neville also predicted Lukaku to be the PL top scorer this season so I don't think he was being dismissive at all. He just sees Lukaku as a better tactical fit for our game system as those other teams.

For example, Liverpool under Klopp play with a false-9 setup so they'd have to tweak their game system a lot to fit someone like Lukaku in, and with the amount of goals they've been scoring in the last few years with Mane-Firmino-Salah up front I don't see any reason for Klopp to change that much. Lukaku is for sure a better striker than Firmino who will barely reach 10 goals a season but in their setup it's Salah who's the main man in attack so replacing Firmino with Lukaku probably wouldn't do them much good, because Salah would need to start playing much less selfishly and start providing more chances for the striker which could be detrimental for their overall play. Last season we didn't have a goal threat anywhere near as good as Salah so it makes more sense for us to get one in Lukaku and build the team around providing him with enough chances to score a lot of goals.

As for United they already tried with Lukaku and he wasn't a good fit for them (whether it was for tactical reasons or Lukaku just not settling in at their club) so even if he has improved a lot under Conte I don't see why they'd have wanted to have another go with him, especially for the price needed to get him.

With City I have no idea. They have enough quality in their team to provide the necessary chances for a top striker to score plenty but Guardiola has usually preferred other types of strikers in his teams. To put it into perspective, he couldn't even make it work with a 28yo prime Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Barca so it's not really about the quality of the player but more the player type. Guardiola has called Lukaku a world class player before so he obviously rates him, but much like Klopp I don't really see him wanting to build his attack around a single main striker either.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

8 hours ago, Superblue_1986 said:

I can certainly understand the frustrations that Lukaku has experienced during his career. Even as dominant as he was on Sunday, there seems to be a focus on what Arsenal did wrong rather than on Lukaku himself.

There does seem to be almost a reluctance to give him credit which does seem to be a running theme throughout his career (Neville saying he was a fit for Chelsea but not one for United, City or Liverpool I felt was dismissive of Lukaku). Can only be a positive for Chelsea though as it'll keep Lukaku hungry and wanting to prove a point. I would love nothing more than him to put that Liverpool defence to the sword.

The same Neville who makes out his mate Ole is the right man for Man United and that their squad are still short/a better manager couldn’t win them the title.

Normally agree with a lot of Neville’s points but the Lukaku one was daft. End of the day, Lukaku was a success at United. He was a big part of their last team/group to win a trophy.

Even for instance, re not fitting in at Liverpool or City, a big criticism last season at times for Liverpool was not scoring enough goals outside of Salah and Mane…. so how would a strong, mobile 20+ goals a season CF like Lukaku not fit in that team? I mean he was talking like Lukaku is Peter Crouch here. 

Edited August 24, 2021 by OneMoSalah

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

The same Neville who makes out his mate Ole is the right man for Man United and that their squad are still short/a better manager couldn’t win them the title.

Normally agree with a lot of Neville’s points but the Lukaku one was daft. End of the day, Lukaku was a success at United. He was a big part of their last team/group to win a trophy.

Even for instance, re not fitting in at Liverpool or City, a big criticism last season at times for Liverpool was not scoring enough goals outside of Salah and Mane…. so how would a strong, mobile 20+ goals a season CF like Lukaku not fit in that team? I mean he was talking like Lukaku is Peter Crouch here. 

Agree, except ManUre have not won a title since 2016/17, the season before Lukaku joined.

Neville is usually close enough except for anything ManUre-related and apparently Lukaku still falls under that category for him.