Romelu Lukaku

[The only place to be 11,313]

There's building a team and then there's completely relying on kids, i have seen Arsenal teams completely crumble under that formula and even they had some form of experience with the likes of Rosicky. Remember when we started with four 22 year old's as our main attackers at Old Trafford and looked absolutely clueless going forward?

Could you imagine if we were in a top 4 fight this season we had to go to Anfield end of April 1-0 down 10 minutes left and we needed Hazard, Schurrle, Oscar and Lukaku to muster up something to get us out of the shit? Talented players with great future's, but that front four turning a loss into a win like that in the blink of an eye at a young age? If role's were reversed and we were 1-0 up in the same game, who would you be more fearful of dragging Liverpool back into it, Gerrard or Coutinho?

Ofcourse i would like to see us build a team, what i don't want to see is us turning into Arsenal of the 00's or Roy Evans Liverpool and hiding behind "it will be great in 2/3 years time" line, because more often than not, it doesn't work like that.

Modern football should just ignore all the kicking a ball around bit.

Let's just start the season by having a cheque-writing contest. Whoever can write the biggest cheque wins, because all these arguments about developing players and then having to sit through them having some bad games is just too much trouble.

And I would love to see us give those young players a chance like that at Anfield because I believe in those guys, and that's the type of environment in which they'd prove their mettle.

Relying on the old guard and not giving youth a chance is what saw us finish in sixth in 2012.

[Tomo 21,751]

Modern football should just ignore all the kicking a ball around bit.

Let's just start the season by having a cheque-writing contest. Whoever can write the biggest cheque wins, because all these arguments about developing players and then having to sit through them having some bad games is just too much trouble.

And I would love to see us give those young players a chance like that at Anfield because I believe in those guys, and that's the type of environment in which they'd prove their mettle.

Relying on the old guard and not giving youth a chance is what saw us finish in sixth in 2012.

You are correct, lack of hunger was a serious problem that season because our squad was too old, just like lack of experience would be with that front four at Anfield when we are 1-0 down and the Kop are calling them every name under the sun. It seems like we have gone from one extreme to the other in near enough one fled swoop.

I personally prefer a mix in the starting Xl - experience, peak and youth with the average age roughly 24-26, we have enough of two of those.

I actually agree and understand with your sentiments to an extent, it's just important to get the balance right.

[ParNolio7 285]

Who cares about it ? I see, many technical footballers around, but they can´t pop one goal in if their life depends on it. Is Lukaku not scoring ? His drive on the net, his physical present scares defenders.

Forget it man, we are saying the same thing.

Still I think Chelsea's tactics are not suitable for Lukaku, and it will cause for his game to drop, for his confidence to drop, for his goal scoring ability to drop ... Kick & rush is more like Lukaku, you'll never see that at Stamford Bridge (luckily).

[bushman 2,043]

Forget it man, we are saying the same thing.

Still I think Chelsea's tactics are not suitable for Lukaku, and it will cause for his game to drop, for his confidence to drop, for his goal scoring ability to drop ... Kick & rush is more like Lukaku, you'll never see that at Stamford Bridge (luckily).

I doubt you have watched Lukaku much.

Some say, Lukaku is one of the most talented strikers around. If you can not see it, we really have nothing to discuss here.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

At this point in time, we shouldn't be judging Lukaku by the number of goals he's scoring (we all know he can score) but rather if he's improving in areas that are expected of him to be able to lead the line for Chelsea. I'm looking at his back to the goal play, his link-up play, his aerial ability, his first touch and sadly he has not improved much in these areas since last year!

Now, either we give him more time and see if he can improve or we just concede that he isn't that kind of striker. He is a striker that would rather run in behind and at defences (like Old Torres) instead of a more complete striker like a Drogba (which seems to be the only type of striker that could work at Chelsea). If so, he will still have a large role to play for Chelsea but I'd reckon it'd be as a squad player (second choice) instead of first choice striker. And, I think this would have happened this very year but with Eto'o joining there just wasn't enough minutes to go around and Chelsea made the unselfish decision to let him go on loan to get him more playing time.

[The only place to be 11,313]

At this point in time, we shouldn't be judging Lukaku by the number of goals he's scoring (we all know he can score) but rather if he's improving in areas that are expected of him to be able to lead the line for Chelsea. I'm looking at his back to the goal play, his link-up play, his aerial ability, his first touch and sadly he has not improved much in these areas since last year!

I disagree. What he is at the moment in inconsistent at times, but he has phenomenal potential.

It's astounding to me that we have this talent in our club and we won't give him a chance until he's 'ready', but we've been following the same model of development for the best part of a decade and not brought anyone through.

There's an astounding lack of patience to allow young players to get minutes, make mistakes but grow and I honestly can't work out where it has come from. Maybe we're too 'successful' to bother with player development and we're nothing but a chequebook team.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I disagree. What he is at the moment in inconsistent at times, but he has phenomenal potential.

It's astounding to me that we have this talent in our club and we won't give him a chance until he's 'ready', but we've been following the same model of development for the best part of a decade and not brought anyone through.

There's an astounding lack of patience to allow young players to get minutes, make mistakes but grow and I honestly can't work out where it has come from. Maybe we're too 'successful' to bother with player development and we're nothing but a chequebook team.

I never said he's not ready. In fact in my post, I said that he would have got a lot of minutes with us had we not bought Eto'o. But I also think he isn't good enough to be our first choice striker and it's not cause I think he's not ready, it's cause I don't think he's the type of striker that would flourish in our system.

If he was 28 and in his prime, my point still wouldn't change, it all still applies. I just don't think he's the best fit at the moment and we seem to be waiting on him so he can fit but I don't think he ever will, he just isn't that type of striker. And, I mean best fit as first choice, I think as second choice he's amazing for any team, couldn't ask for any other striker to come off the bench and just run at opposing defences and just cause all kinds of troubles. But with our patient, high possession build-up he just doesn't fit imo. If we play counter-attack then he would fit imo, he'd be perfect for that type of system.

[zolayes 14,489]

I never said he's not ready. In fact in my post, I said that he would have got a lot of minutes with us had we not bought Eto'o. But I also think he isn't good enough to be our first choice striker and it's not cause I think he's not ready, it's cause I don't think he's the type of striker that would flourish in our system.

If he was 28 and in his prime, my point still wouldn't change, it all still applies. I just don't think he's the best fit at the moment and we seem to be waiting on him so he can fit but I don't think he ever will, he just isn't that type of striker. And, I mean best fit as first choice, I think as second choice he's amazing for any team, couldn't ask for any other striker to come off the bench and just run at opposing defences and just cause all kinds of troubles. But with our patient, high possession build-up he just doesn't fit imo. If we play counter-attack then he would fit imo, he'd be perfect for that type of system.

who would be the perfect fit for us ,, and who is the nearest that might be available????

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I never said he's not ready. In fact in my post, I said that he would have got a lot of minutes with us had we not bought Eto'o. But I also think he isn't good enough to be our first choice striker and it's not cause I think he's not ready, it's cause I don't think he's the type of striker that would flourish in our system.

If he was 28 and in his prime, my point still wouldn't change, it all still applies. I just don't think he's the best fit at the moment and we seem to be waiting on him so he can fit but I don't think he ever will, he just isn't that type of striker. And, I mean best fit as first choice, I think as second choice he's amazing for any team, couldn't ask for any other striker to come off the bench and just run at opposing defences and just cause all kinds of troubles. But with our patient, high possession build-up he just doesn't fit imo. If we play counter-attack then he would fit imo, he'd be perfect for that type of system.

who would be the perfect fit for us ,, and who is the nearest that might be available????

Until we find one, we'll have to make do with a suboptimal strike force and Lukaku would be part of that. Lukaku has a future here for sure, but if it's as a first choice cause we can't find a striker that suits our system then it won't be the ideal striker force but that won't stop us from competing, it hasn't before and it won't in the future either but it's still a bottleneck.

That said, imo our pivot should be higher priority. We can make do with what we have this year and Lukaku and Torres for next year isn't the worst either if we can't find someone.

[ParNolio7 285]

I doubt you have watched Lukaku much.

I very much doubt ANYONE on this forum has seen Lukaku play more than me :-)

I don't want to blame things on your nationality, but beginning to understand how Canada is not a football country. Really man, you can post a 100.000 things on this forum but you still know the least bit about football.

Or did you think you were at an ice hockey forum here?

[zolayes 14,489]

Until we find one, we'll have to make do with a suboptimal strike force and Lukaku would be part of that. Lukaku has a future here for sure, but if it's as a first choice cause we can't find a striker that suits our system then it won't be the ideal striker force but that won't stop us from competing, it hasn't before and it won't in the future either but it's still a bottleneck.

That said, imo our pivot should be higher priority. We can make do with what we have this year and Lukaku and Torres for next year isn't the worst either if we can't find someone.

in other words you have no idea who we should sign??

[Stingray 9,441]

I doubt you have watched Lukaku much.

I very much doubt ANYONE on this forum has seen Lukaku play more than me :-)

I don't want to blame things on your nationality, but beginning to understand how Canada is not a football country. Really man, you can post a 100.000 things on this forum but you still know the least bit about football.

Or did you think you were at an ice hockey forum here?

Dude, chill. Don't be so cocky youngster :-)

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

Until we find one, we'll have to make do with a suboptimal strike force and Lukaku would be part of that. Lukaku has a future here for sure, but if it's as a first choice cause we can't find a striker that suits our system then it won't be the ideal striker force but that won't stop us from competing, it hasn't before and it won't in the future either but it's still a bottleneck.

That said, imo our pivot should be higher priority. We can make do with what we have this year and Lukaku and Torres for next year isn't the worst either if we can't find someone.

in other words you have no idea who we should sign??

I can give you a list of names but I'm trying to stay on topic of Lukaku and how he fits into our team.

Don't really see a point of making a list, unless your point is that Lukaku is the best striker in the world or that there are no strikers in the world that can play for Chelsea.

As far as the list goes, I'd love any of Rooney, Lewandowski, Cavani, even Dzeko and Mandzukic would improve our striker force mabutssively. But no point discussing this right now. I would have also liked us to be in for Tevez last summer, can't believe how cheap he went to Juve. Think he would have been perfect for us for at least a few years.

[zolayes 14,489]

I can give you a list of names but I'm trying to stay on topic of Lukaku and how he fits into our team.

Don't really see a point of making a list, unless your point is that Lukaku is the best striker in the world or that there are no strikers in the world that can play for Chelsea.

As far as the list goes, I'd love any of Rooney, Lewandowski, Cavani, even Dzeko and Mandzukic would improve our striker force mabutssively. But no point discussing this right now. I would have also liked us to be in for Tevez last summer, can't believe how cheap he went to Juve. Think he would have been perfect for us for at least a few years.

thats ok enjoy your seat on the fence

[Stingray 9,441]

Lukaku ..... Ripping another one :-)

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

Nice run and cross. He's a good crosser, always puts in dangerous balls when he gets wide.

[Las7 951]

Don't really see a point of making a list, unless your point is that Lukaku is the best striker in the world or that there are no strikers in the world that can play for Chelsea.

As far as the list goes, I'd love any of Rooney, Lewandowski, Cavani, even Dzeko and Mandzukic would improve our striker force mabutssively. But no point discussing this right now. I would have also liked us to be in for Tevez last summer, can't believe how cheap he went to Juve. Think he would have been perfect for us for at least a few years.

We've got Eto/Torres/Ba and Lukaku is a guaranteed improvement over all those three players - I'd understand people rationalizing Lukaku's loan if we had signed Rooney/Cavani but when you've got three strikers who wouldn't make the benches at top clubs across the continent as our only options it's a bit of a joke that we aren't the ones playing one of the finest young talents on the planet regularly.

[Weckerz 3,781]

I very much doubt ANYONE on this forum has seen Lukaku play more than me :-)

I don't want to blame things on your nationality, but beginning to understand how Canada is not a football country. Really man, you can post a 100.000 things on this forum but you still know the least bit about football.

Or did you think you were at an ice hockey forum here?

Lol, who do you think you are?

Just keep dwelling the De Bruyne thread please.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I very much doubt ANYONE on this forum has seen Lukaku play more than me :-)

I don't want to blame things on your nationality, but beginning to understand how Canada is not a football country. Really man, you can post a 100.000 things on this forum but you still know the least bit about football.

Or did you think you were at an ice hockey forum here?

He might be from Canada, but you're the one on thin ice here. That post is racist, abusive and offensive. I'll let you off with this verbal warning this time, but this is not at all tolerated on here.

[DDA 9,937]

He might be from Canada, but you're the one on thin ice here. That post is racist, abusive and offensive. I'll let you off with this verbal warning this time, but this is not at all tolerated on here.

I'm sorry but how is that post racist? To say his post is racist because he says that the guy knows nothing about football because of the country he is from is just ridiculous!