Romelu Lukaku

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Hold on, did anyone watch the whole match or just the goal? Because, the goal aside, I thought Lukaku was pretty bad and demonstrated exactly why we sent him on loan.

Apart from the goal, which he did brilliant in, he barely put a foot in right. He gave the ball away most of the time and his first touch let him down countless times. I don't know what his passing accuracy was, but I bet it was barely 50%. Defensively, he literally did absolutely nothing. There were incidents where the man on the ball was literally a few feet away from him and he just stood and stared at him. He was the reason on many occasions why Everton's high press failed. Then he went completely missing in the second half.

I don't want to discredit Romelu, he got half a chance and he did the most of it and sometimes that is more important than anything else. But Lescott doesn't make a mistake (twice) or hart saves the shot (as he maybe should have) and it would have been a terrible performance by him. It was NOT a performance that's better than anything our current strikers are capable of, in fact it just served to remind people why he needed to go on loan.

That's why I keep on saying he needs to develop his ball control and passing. If his passing was more than 55% today, then the statistics sites have made mistakes. A lot of times barkley or baines or naysmith passed to lukaku and ran for the return, he passed it away. And his first touch/ ball control let him down a lot today.

He needs to train more with the ball than the physical aspect of his game(gym)

[hjperdeath 2,226]

so u just took the best thing we have in our team (our AMs) and compared them to naismith, mirallas and barkley. and that too mirallas of today. seems legit!!!

by the way torres fans complain about the "service and final balls" being provided to him. today we saw a mid-table everton team, who got over-run by title challengers man-city to the extreme. and in those matches the opposition striker does get stranded. dont think that EVER happens to us unless we are playing barca or bayern.

I forgot to bold the part. have done it now. A lot of people also say that the trio behind the striker plays way too forward and combines way too much to bring the striker into play. Another way to look at it.

[Miguelito 459]

Only problem is, 2 days after his loan lukaku said on belgian television; Chelsea called me at 19Pm to tell me i'm going on loan again.

The program was extra time if i remember correctly. In other words, the board made him say this

You ever stopped to think that maybe he told them that if he wasn't gonna get a lot of playing time he wanted to be sent on loan. He could have told him that BEFORE we decided to send him on loan. And they called him at 19pm or whatever to tell him he was

[didierforever 7,349]

I forgot to bold the part. have done it now. A lot of people also say that the trio behind the striker plays way too forward and combines way too much to bring the striker into play. Another way to look at it.

and how is that same as "stranded". lukaku had no outlet when jagielka and distin cleared the ball to him. and yet he held the ball well enough to bring them into play.

twice lukaku got the ball and started a counter and was fouled poorly and kompany got a yellow for that and silva should have it the first half.

as for the torres discussion, our AMs play the way they are being told to play. if torres cant combine with them then it is due to his lack of quality and his shortcoming. it has nothing similar to being stranded and totally alone the way lukaku was today.

[Stats 7,059]

Hold on, did anyone watch the whole match or just the goal? Because, the goal aside, I thought Lukaku was pretty bad and demonstrated exactly why we sent him on loan.

Apart from the goal, which he did brilliant in, he barely put a foot in right. He gave the ball away most of the time and his first touch let him down countless times. I don't know what his passing accuracy was, but I bet it was barely 50%. Defensively, he literally did absolutely nothing. There were incidents where the man on the ball was literally a few feet away from him and he just stood and stared at him. He was the reason on many occasions why Everton's high press failed. Then he went completely missing in the second half.

I don't want to discredit Romelu, he got half a chance and he did the most of it and sometimes that is more important than anything else. But Lescott doesn't make a mistake (twice) or hart saves the shot (as he maybe should have) and it would have been a terrible performance by him. It was NOT a performance that's better than anything our current strikers are capable of, in fact it just served to remind people why he needed to go on loan.

First half he was an absolute handful but second half faded and is general passing throughout the match was poor but let me ask you something. Everytime we have been to the Etihad as there been one striker for us in recent seasons who done better than what Lukaku done today? I don't think so. He was playing against a very good team and overall he can be happy with his performance. Never easy against City. But to say his performance is a reminder of why he needed to go out on loan I totally disagree with.

I agree that he was not excellent but certainly was not poor. There are not many strikers who even score at the Etihad besides put in a better performance than Lukaku. RVP and Rooney come to mind but not many I can name so I don't agree to use his general performance today as a general reason why we should have loaned him out.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

and how is that same as "stranded". lukaku had no outlet when jagielka and distin cleared the ball to him. and yet he held the ball well enough to bring them into play.

twice lukaku got the ball and started a counter and was fouled poorly and kompany got a yellow for that and silva should have it the first half.

as for the torres discussion, our AMs play the way they are being told to play. if torres cant combine with them then it is due to his lack of quality and his shortcoming. it has nothing similar to being stranded and totally alone the way lukaku was today.

stranded has two meanings. one where you are completely alone and don't have anyone to pass to, as you seem to mention with Lukaku, and another where you're hoping to recieve a ball, dragging defenders away, and working hard, you don't get the ball. That's another form of being stranded.

And that's another reason why strikers can't fare properly at the club. It's not just Torres, almost everyone has that problem. Ba was so prolific at Newcastle, joins Chelsea and boom. It is no way the fault of the AM's, but the way Chelsea have tactically set themselves up. Neither of the players should be blamed.

[Goemaere 131]

My fault, I forgot we can't be critcal.

All hail josé and his great football displays of the last 10 matches.

[didierforever 7,349]

stranded has two meanings. one where you are completely alone and don't have anyone to pass to, as you seem to mention with Lukaku, and another where you're hoping to recieve a ball, dragging defenders away, and working hard, you don't get the ball. That's another form of being stranded.

And that's another reason why strikers can't fare properly at the club. It's not just Torres, almost everyone has that problem. Ba was so prolific at Newcastle, joins Chelsea and boom. It is no way the fault of the AM's, but the way Chelsea have tactically set themselves up. Neither of the players should be blamed.

as soon as i finished posting my reply to choulo, i had edited it to make myslef clear and compare him while playing to what happened to everton when kone came on.

dude, the point of having a striker in such a system then changes. today lukaku had 1 half chance which he scored, and one 25% chance in which naismith failed to trap the ball and it was him vs a joe hart, who was always going to get there first. point is does torres provide us what lukaku cant (raw physicality to get into the face of defenders, speed, to convert long balls and half chances and be a poacher in the box and to provide an outlet for our AMs and iva to cross in the box)? i honestly dont think so. and things that torres provides, we have in abundance from our AMs (fluidity, link-up play).

[hjperdeath 2,226]

as soon as i finished posting my reply to choulo, i had edited it to make myslef clear and compare him while playing to what happened to everton when kone came on.

dude, the point of having a striker in such a system then changes. today lukaku had 1 half chance which he scored, and one 25% chance in which naismith failed to trap the ball and it was him vs a joe hart, who was always going to get there first. point is does torres provide us what lukaku cant (raw physicality to get into the face of defenders, speed, to convert long balls and half chances and be a poacher in the box and to provide an outlet for our AMs and iva to cross in the box)? i honestly dont think so. and things that torres provides, we have in abundance from our AMs (fluidity, link-up play).

I've seen Torres do that actually, atleast sometimes. Apart from the raw physicality, and that's what's hurting Lukaku. I think it was kellzfresh who said it, but he spends way too much time in the gym while he should be working on his first touch. His link up play can be much much better than what it is. Actually all these could be done by Ba, until he came to Chelsea. He was physical against Villa, has decent pace., but long balls? He was caught offside how many times again? It's the way Villa defends. They won't defend the same way against Everton. Ba was also one of the best poachers in the league at the time. But as we are on the Torres debate, I agree Lukaku is better, but how better is the question. Fernando's experience pipes him up to a spot above Lukaku cause when we really need a goal, Fernando is more likely to get one in the dying minutes than Lukaku. And that's a frightful hypothesis.

Anyways, on the kind of goals Lukaku has scored, found something interesting at WAGNH -

His first goal against Newcastle came on a counter attack where the Newcastle defenders had pushed too high up the pitch and then got caught out of position. In their scramble to try and get back, they all end up out of position and nobody marks Lukaku:

His second goal against Newcastle came because the defenders pushed too high up the pitch and Howard booted the ball straight over the top of them – look at how much space Lukaku has to work with (the two guys next to him are the deepest defenders):

The goal against West Ham was just a comedy of errors – he picked up the ball on the edge of the area and I have no idea what the defenders were trying to do. I’ve highlighted the defenders in red, Everton players in purple and Lukaku in blue:

The guy by the penalty spot was the furthest defender to the right (which means nobody at all is marking the guy at the bottom of the screen) and the midfielders aren’t making any real effort to get back and help.

The defending style in each of these (and, in fact, for his goal today against City) is really not the kind of thing we see against Chelsea and certainly not at home.

[The only place to be 11,313]

I don't want to discredit Romelu, he got half a chance and he did the most of it and sometimes that is more important than anything else.

Most of the time it is. He's a striker and he scores goals. That's what he's always done and I'm firmly of the belief that he would've done that in our side whilst developing the rest of his game.

It's a shame that our club seems unwilling to take a chance on our young players and I think it's something that Chelsea supporters have to ask questions of. Too many new fans who want instant success.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

First half he was an absolute handful but second half faded and is general passing throughout the match was poor but let me ask you something. Everytime we have been to the Etihad as there been one striker for us in recent seasons who done better than what Lukaku done today? I don't think so. He was playing against a very good team and overall he can be happy with his performance. Never easy against City. But to say his performance is a reminder of why he needed to go out on loan I totally disagree with.

I agree that he was not excellent but certainly was not poor. There are not many strikers who even score at the Etihad besides put in a better performance than Lukaku. RVP and Rooney come to mind but not many I can name so I don't agree to use his general performance today as a general reason why we should have loaned him out.

Ba last season was our best player in the away game against City. He was a handful throughout the game and won us a pen when it was 0-0 that Frank missed even though we went there just to park the bus.

It has nothing to do with the opposition, his first touch and passing were very poor, that has nothing to do with who he was playing against. Are you saying that his performance today was good enough for a striker who should be starting at a club like Chelsea? If you do, then I completely disagree.

He obviously still has loads to work on and improve and those weaknesses were highlighted today. He went on loan so he can have a chance to start almost every game even when he puts in bad performances. Because, had he stayed here and he put in a performance like he did today or the second half against Newcastle, then Jose will have to bench him the following game.

[Stingray 9,441]

mirallas and osman who got subbed early on because they were shambolic

True, they sucked so bad. Lukaku could have been better too tbh.

[didierforever 7,349]

I've seen Torres do that actually, atleast sometimes. Apart from the raw physicality, and that's what's hurting Lukaku. I think it was kellzfresh who said it, but he spends way too much time in the gym while he should be working on his first touch. His link up play can be much much better than what it is. Actually all these could be done by Ba, until he came to Chelsea. He was physical against Villa, has decent pace., but long balls? He was caught offside how many times again? It's the way Villa defends. They won't defend the same way against Everton. Ba was also one of the best poachers in the league at the time. But as we are on the Torres debate, I agree Lukaku is better, but how better is the question. Fernando's experience pipes him up to a spot above Lukaku cause when we really need a goal, Fernando is more likely to get one in the dying minutes than Lukaku. And that's a frightful hypothesis.

Anyways, on the kind of goals Lukaku has scored, found something interesting at WAGNH -

His first goal against Newcastle came on a counter attack where the Newcastle defenders had pushed too high up the pitch and then got caught out of position. In their scramble to try and get back, they all end up out of position and nobody marks Lukaku:

His second goal against Newcastle came because the defenders pushed too high up the pitch and Howard booted the ball straight over the top of them – look at how much space Lukaku has to work with (the two guys next to him are the deepest defenders):

The goal against West Ham was just a comedy of errors – he picked up the ball on the edge of the area and I have no idea what the defenders were trying to do. I’ve highlighted the defenders in red, Everton players in purple and Lukaku in blue:

The guy by the penalty spot was the furthest defender to the right (which means nobody at all is marking the guy at the bottom of the screen) and the midfielders aren’t making any real effort to get back and help.

The defending style in each of these (and, in fact, for his goal today against City) is really not the kind of thing we see against Chelsea and certainly not at home.

that is a very pessimitic and prejudiced way to look at things.

the first goal that lukaku scored against newcastle was a counter with defenders out of position as u have shown but u dont take into account how that came to be. it was lukaku's ball to mirallas on the right which got him into that position.

etoo was 4 yards from the goal but could not score. his 2nd goal against everton was from a long ball from howard and a mistake from newcastle but u still have to finish them. tell me how many of everton's defensive mistake were we able to finish.

i dint watch the west ham match so wont comment on it.

the kind of goal lukaku scored today against city, has been scored many times over and over again by a special guy named DD. hell he just scored a similar one against juve in CL. a lot of times when playing city (and other big teams), our striker will find himself alone upfront and cech and the defenders will feel the need to hoof the ball to release the pressure. and at that point it is upto the striker to produce something special and lukaku did do that today. can the 3 we have do the same? i really doubt that.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Because, had he stayed here and he put in a performance like he did today or the second half against Newcastle, then Jose will have to bench him the following game.

And there in a nutshell is what I think is at the root of this issue - young players need support and he put in a fabulous performance against Newcastle, but in the next game he 'struggles' (scored a goal and I think people are being overly critical where they wouldn't with other players) against one of the best teams around so fans say he needs to be benched.

That's the same type of 'support' that Jose gets from people saying he was the wrong choice because of a few tough results at the start of the season. For most supporters the prospect of someone with Lukaku's potential is enough to stick by him and support him - we managed it with JT and other young players in the past but nowadays that seems to be asking too much of certain types of fan.

Until that is remedied then I think we're going to struggle to develop talent in any meaningful way.

[didierforever 7,349]

True, they sucked so bad. Lukaku could have been better too tbh.

everton in general were poor or rather were simply over-run and over-powered by city.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

that is a very pessimitic and prejudiced way to look at things.

the first goal that lukaku scored against tottenham was a counter with defenders out of position as u have shown but u dont take into account how that came to be. it was lukaku's ball to mirallas on the right which got him into that position.

etoo was 4 yards from the goal but could not score. his 2nd goal against everton was from a long ball from howard and a mistake from newcastle but u still have to finish them. tell me how many of everton's defensive mistake were we able to finish.

i dint watch the west ham match so wont comment on it.

the kind of goal lukaku scored today against city, has been scored many times over and over again by a special guy named DD. hell he just scored a similar one against juve in CL. a lot of times when playing city (and other big teams), our striker will find himself alone upfront and cech and the defenders will feel the need to hoof the ball to release the pressure. and at that point it is upto the striker to produce something special and lukaku did do that today. can the 3 we have do the same? i really doubt that.

Highly disagree . Looks like we've come to a deadlock. agree to disagree then . Cheers .

[Stats 7,059]

Ba last season was our best player in the away game against City. He was a handful throughout the game and won us a pen when it was 0-0 that Frank missed even though we went there just to park the bus.

It has nothing to do with the opposition, his first touch and passing were very poor, that has nothing to do with who he was playing against. Are you saying that his performance today was good enough for a striker who should be starting at a club like Chelsea? If you do, then I completely disagree.

He obviously still has loads to work on and improve and those weaknesses were highlighted today. He went on loan so he can have a chance to start almost every game even when he puts in bad performances. Because, had he stayed here and he put in a performance like he did today or the second half against Newcastle, then Jose will have to bench him the following game.

He was not much more of a handful than Lukaku was today. Also what was the main thing that was missing? A goal. My point is when we play City none of our strikers do any better than him, especially when playing at City's ground. Our strikers are isolated most games we play against them and if anything Lukaku should be happy with what he done today.

[Zoro 151]

Touch of an elephant and 4 goals in 250 minutes > touch of an angel and 0 goals in 2200 minutes.

Which one of our current strikers has the touch of an angel? Lol. Lukaku is not good enough for Chelsea, neither is any of our current strikers.