Romelu Lukaku

[MoroccanBlue 5,378]

It’s time for him to show his worth these next several games. It’s what he was specifically bought for. 

[Tomo 21,751]

What worries me is he appears to be untouchable.

Record signing or not he shouldn't be immune to being rotated or brought out of a match.

[MoroccanBlue 5,378]

6 minutes ago, Tomo said:

What worries me is he appears to be untouchable.

Record signing or not he shouldn't be immune to being rotated or brought out of a match.

Don't think he was the issue today.

The set up neglected literally everyone's ability to transition considering City's press, which led to some horrid show performances. Hindsight is a bitch but the fact Tuchel continued on with this until City scored is ever so worrying. 

The must not lose bug that ate Mourinho and Conte alive may have landed on Tuchel...

[robsblubot 3,595]

2 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Don't think he was the issue today.

The set up neglected literally everyone's ability to transition considering City's press, which led to some horrid show performances. Hindsight is a bitch but the fact Tuchel continued on with this until City scored is ever so worrying. 

The must not lose bug that ate Mourinho and Conte alive may have landed on Tuchel...

Wasn’t the issue? He did not show up. I mean his first touch didn’t show, which means he did not either. Really poor showing by mr lukaku.

this is what I was afraid of: against city at least, we appear weaker than last season and by a long shot.

[laura90 556]

Those pics from Porto, posted in the match thread,  would have never been taken had Lukaku led our line. We are weaker and will be against City, Liverpool, United.  We play with ten men, Lukaku is isolated. And maybe even Brentford , West Ham, Soton, basically every team in the PL that has very good defender able to pocked him.

He disrupted our build up play, offering very little except goals. Which is fine, when he scores and we win. He was moaning, pointing and sulking  today, sometimes hard to even watch. This type of behavior doesn't do any good for the rest of the team. Played six games, scored in three. Needs to do it more often or he will become:

Kepa Arizzabalaga II. 

For Chelsea football club.

Because everything he can offer except his goals is so negative and ugly that can place him right beside Kepa in the stands. 

Edited September 30, 2021 by laura90

[Mário César 1,246]

23 minutes ago, laura90 said:

Those pics from Porto, posted in the match thread,  would have never been taken had Lukaku led our line.       We are weaker and will be against City, Liverpool, United.  We play with ten man, Lukaku is isolated. And maybe even Brentford , West Ham, Soton, basically every team in the PL that has very good defender able to pocked him.

He disrupted our build up play, offering very little except goals. Which is fine, when he scores and we win. He was moaning, pointing and sulking  today, sometimes hard to even watch. This type of behavior doesn't do any good for the rest of the team. Played six games, scored in three. Needs to do it more often or he will become:

Kepa Arizzabalaga II. 

For Chelsea football club.

Because everything he can offer except his goals is so negative and ugly that can place him right beside Kepa in the stands. 

"everything he can offer except his goals?"

i repeat

except his goals

just goals, right? eheh

what is the purper of football? score goals, right?

[MoroccanBlue 5,378]

1 hour ago, robsblubot said:

Wasn’t the issue? He did not show up. I mean his first touch didn’t show, which means he did not either. Really poor showing by mr lukaku.

this is what I was afraid of: against city at least, we appear weaker than last season and by a long shot.

If you think Lukaku was the highlight of our defeat as you’ve abundantly made clear then I’m sorry because that’s something I won’t ever agree with. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

7 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

If you think Lukaku was the highlight of our defeat as you’ve abundantly made clear then I’m sorry because that’s something I won’t ever agree with. 

Agree to disagree then. 👍

For me he killed so many counters with both bad, or lack of, movement as well as poor touches. He was completely absent in the build up, which does affect our overall performance esp going forward.

[MoroccanBlue 5,378]

4 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Agree to disagree then. 👍

For me he killed so many counters with both bad, or lack of, movement as well as poor touches. He was completely absent in the build up, which does affect our overall performance esp going forward.

Think the abysmal performance of our midfielders and the lack of open space to properly transition the ball mixed in with Tuchel’s poor tactics to counter Ciry’s press was the main reason but to each their own mate. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,803]

It is hard to have it both ways. Lukaku didn’t get involved in the build up much because he and Werner were isolated from our midfield from most of the game. His role is to finish, which he does really well. We had our midfield and wingbacks so far back most of the game, we hardly ever got into attacking positions. I don't know how people are pointing fingers at Lukaku when we rarely got the ball into situations for him to effect the game. The problem was the 3-5-2 got pinned back almost the entire game. I love Giroud, I have no doubt if Giroud was in today, it would have looked exactly the same. 

[MoroccanBlue 5,378]

You can see Mounts importance considering Rodri had a field day against us. Mount always presses the holding midfielder. 
 

 

[robsblubot 3,595]

1 hour ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Think the abysmal performance of our midfielders and the lack of open space to properly transition the ball mixed in with Tuchel’s poor tactics to counter Ciry’s press was the main reason but to each their own mate. 

They were overwhelmed because of the way city plays, by constantly outnumbering our players in all areas of the pitch.

50 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

It is hard to have it both ways. Lukaku didn’t get involved in the build up much because he and Werner were isolated from our midfield from most of the game. His role is to finish, which he does really well. We had our midfield and wingbacks so far back most of the game, we hardly ever got into attacking positions. I don't know how people are pointing fingers at Lukaku when we rarely got the ball into situations for him to effect the game. The problem was the 3-5-2 got pinned back almost the entire game. I love Giroud, I have no doubt if Giroud was in today, it would have looked exactly the same. 

Hate to break it to you, but then we are not contenders. City (and Guardiola) secret sauce is exactly that every player is constantly involved in the build up. Or a more fair way to say it, they have more players involved in the buildup than other sides. Even their goalie was handpicked because he can pick a pass. And that's why we were able to match them last CL, because we also did that. If now we have a immobile striker who needs the ball at his feel, well, then we are fucked.

Besides, those unacceptably poor first touches have little to do with how the team played and more to do with, well Lukaku's lack of skill. Lukauku's first touch is very popular on twitter right now, and I have to say deservedly so.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,803]

Pep is not our manager. He has his style of play, but it is not the only style of play. Our problem today was the way the formation was set up and the ultra conservative approach. It was easy to see the plan was to absorb City and knick a goal to win. That works until it doesn't. It didn’t work today. It has not been our game plan most of this year. Tuchel had it wrong, it happens.

[laura90 556]

3 hours ago, Mário César said:

"everything he can offer except his goals?"

i repeat

except his goals

just goals, right? eheh

what is the purper of football? score goals, right?

When he doesn't score his lack of skill and poor first touch are the object of ridicule. His antics on the pitch. His behavior on the pitch and of the pitch. If he, God forbids,  gets into not scoring series, it gets into his head and he becomes very awful persona. On and of the pitch. Unlike other misfiring strikers we have seen.

[robsblubot 3,595]

40 minutes ago, laura90 said:

When he doesn't score his lack of skill and poor first touch are the object of ridicule. His antics on the pitch. His behavior on the pitch and of the pitch. If he, God forbids,  gets into not scoring series, it gets into his head and he becomes very awful persona. On and of the pitch. Unlike other misfiring strikers we have seen.

yeah he did not work hard enough, which was really disappointing to me at least. And I'm just waiting to see what he will do when subbed off -- throw a tantrum?

Although it seems the only way he gets off the pitch is on a stretcher.

@ZAPHOD2319 I hope you are right, I truly do. Just don't see us beating them in the PL, sorry to say. Think we lost what made us difficult for them. One could say that the players who sit for lukaku are better than him... better footballers. I certainly think Kai is.