Romelu Lukaku

[kellzfresh 7,226]

No Barkley had a great game because he wasn't afraid to run at Arsenal and he didn't let his head drop if things didn't come off. He has a great mentality as in he's fearless (not afraid to try difficult passes/shots/flicks, take the ball under pressure etc.), strong and most of all technically excellent. The amount of times I seen him receive the ball with his back to goal under pressure from one or two Arsenal players was incredible, the fact he always turned and beat them as well before going went forward without losing the ball in some critical areas of the pitch was even more incredible. He was the same against Manchester United, as Alan Hansen and Danny Mills said on MOTD, we seem to see that coach that out of kids in Britain, they don't want to try and be positive incase they make a mistake or lose it or whatever but Barkley didn't let that affect him once. Barkley has been the best English player in the PL after Rooney so far this season in my opinion. Next Gazza like some people have touted? I don't want to say yes or no but who knows....

His close ball control under pressure was hazard like. But you could see that the defenders never had time to stop that because they were occupied by lukaku through out

[OneMoSalah 8,616]

His close ball control under pressure was hazard like. But you could see that the defenders never had time to stop that because they were occupied by lukaku through out

Yes but Barkley had a greater influence on the game due to himself getting on the ball in various positions; in between the lines, in front of his defence, in between Arteta-Ramsey and Ozil etc. He is the main player in that Everton team right now, everything goes through him, even when Baines is in the team.

[xPetrCechx 13,548]

Anyone who watch Everton games, can see that Lukaku isn't Brilliant in a team game. he loses a lot of balls as a result of poor passes.

he scores a lot because the team is playing for him. it is like Demba ba at Newcastle.

[yuvala 2,167]

Anyone who watch Everton games, can see that Lukaku isn't Brilliant in a team game. he loses a lot of balls as a result of poor passes.

he scores a lot because the team is playing for him. it is like Demba ba at Newcastle.

based on last game atleast, they really aren't playing for him.

[Ainsley Harriott 2,732]

From this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ9Onh9EAtU

[Zoro 151]

That's the whole issue, loaning out our best striker. We don't want to recall him because he is a young promising player, we want him here because he's our best option.

Lol.

[Stats 6,982]

Game against Arsenal showed me that hes not ready to be our main striker, Koscielny and Mertesacker had it far too easy most of the game.

He still doesn't understand that if you stand behind a defensive line you are offside, he stood still a lot during the game, mostly in offside positions, he had some good moments like towards the end when he took the ball off Arteta and had an effort on goal. His link up play at times was good but also at times it wasn't. Barkley picked the ball up and plays a nice pass between Gibbs and Koscielny but he didn't make the run, he does this at times when he should make a run, its frustrating at times to watch but hes a young guy who will get better. Barkley even had a go at him hinting at the fact he should have made the run.

Martinez will make him a better player as he's going to play every week in a team that the expectations aren't as big as Chelsea's. We always complain about 2 things, either 1) we don't play young players often enough or 2) young players don't perform well when they are in our team. Its ridiculous.

But he was far from poor. We cannot judge from one game of his that "he is not ready to be our main striker". He worked his socks off for a start and while he was not excellent he caused his fair share of problems bearing in mind he played a whole 90 mins at Old Trafford and ran United CB ragged all game long. When Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-0 this season, Suarez was very average so we can't use the Arsenal game to say he is not ready for us as in most Everton games he has proved that he is more than capable of leading the line for us. I still think he looked more threatening on Sunday for Everton than all of our strikers have done against Arsenal since Drogba left and while Koscielny won a few of the tussles I am sure he knew Lukaku gave him quite a tough time.

I agree that he is thriving at Everton and Martinez is helping but I always disagree with this notion that he is simply scoring goals because teams are more open to Everton than us. It is partly true but it is not to say that teams go all out against Everton. For a start they have one of the highest rates of possession in the league already if not the highest and the way they play forces teams to sit back because it is hard for opposition teams to get the ball of them.

We have to remember he is 20 and has been playing 90 mins for the last few games and taking that in to consideration I thought he done quite well against Arsenal. His decision making could of been better but if you ask me did he look a threat I would say yes and I would take that any day of the week but my main point is we cannot use one game to say he is not capable of leading the line for us when I thought he was actually decent and in most games against lower opposition and the bigger teams he has been more than impressive contributing with goals and assists.

[Mouri_Matic 560]

Lol.

You can't argue he is better than the 3 shitty 'strikers' we have

[Zoro 151]

You can't argue he is better than the 3 shitty 'strikers' we have

Yes but I still dont believe he is the answer to our striker problem. Not yet anyway, he still has a long long way to go.

[Weckerz 3,781]

Lol.

Not sure what's funny

[Barbara 15,149]

He may be the best - as in the one that nets more balls in between the four we had. He's also the less experienced, the rawest, the one Mourinho would be less willing to give big responsibilities.

I don't like any comparison of what he would have done here (bad or good) because we'd never know. What I do know is that strikers that were successful in other clubs weren't here... and that has nothing to do with Mourinho because we had tons of managers in charge when it happened. That doesn't mean Lukaku wouldn't have worked, nor does it mean he would have. It just means we can spend 300 pages discussing it, at the end of the day it's still pointless. No one can say if he'd be able to score 10, 20 or 30 goals with us.

Mourinho made a bet. He chose experience to be ahead of a very inexperienced AM (the oldest is Mata, as Willian is expected to struggle to adapt, especially coming from Russia). Hazard, Oscar, André and Kevin are great players but we've seen them fluctuating in form this season because they succumb to pressure, to lack of motivation, lack of ambition, or whatever is the problem. The fact remains they aren't consistently performing like Lampard is, for example. Lampard has had AWFUL matches because he was tired, but you could see the experience in each of them, sometimes his legs didn't answer to the command he sent them, but the experience is there. It's a big risk to rely in an entire attack made out of very young players, that oscillate in form unpredictably... But Mourinho's bet wasn't only on giving a bit of experience with our strikers. I think he looked at all teams and managers in EPL and he saw Everton and Martinez as a team that could be dangerous to the big 6 teams because of their good players and ambitious manager. So he decided to give this team a weapon to threaten other big teams, but not Chelsea. It's a chess move that while didn't work as well as he wished for the strikers he did keep, it's been working wonders for his opponents. How many points have Everton - especially because of Lukaku - led the big teams to drop? So while he may think that he could have better strikers atm I don't think he regrets sending Lukaku to a place where he could lead Everton to take points from Arsenal, Liverpool, City, United and Spurs. It could have been a win-win situation if Torres and Eto'o didn't have so many injuries and stopped their crescendo... now we have 2 and a half players off form - as Ba never really was in form to start with.

[bushman 2,043]

Not sure what's funny

We do know what´s funny.

[Weckerz 3,781]

We do know what´s funny.

Knowing what's funny, we do*

[bushman 2,043]

Knowing what's funny, we do*

Taking English lessons, much ?

[Weckerz 3,781]

Taking English lessons, much ?

Not necessary, I feel.

[bushman 2,043]

Not necessary, I feel.

[Stingray 9,441]

Taking English lessons, much ?

Not necessary, I feel.

Right you may be, I read

[remains of the day 564]

People seem so assured that after his loan spell at Everton ends, naturally he'll come back and push for a starting spot....I guess my question is, if the club weren't willing to commit to giving him an opportunity this season then what exactly is going to change in the 10 or so months of his loan spell?

I pretty much agree that this loan at Everton is a fantastic one for Lukaku - it's the ideal loan for any young and inexperienced football player. But is it something that we're going to benefit from in the future? I highly doubt it. If anything, it's only going to be more difficult for Lukaku, when he returns, than it would have been for him this season particularly if the club goes out and signs a top striker. Even if we offload Torres or Ba, the best Lukaku will be hoping for is to be 2nd choice, and if that's the plan for him then we're back to the same question - why couldn't he have been 2nd choice this season?

I think what frustrates me with this topic is that, again and again people seem to operate from this idea that if a youngster does x, y & z then naturally he'll get his chance here. No. There's nothing Lukaku could realistically do that would prove his readiness to the club. It has very little to do with him and everything to do with the mentality and practice in this club of being overly cautious and reluctant to give good enough chances to young, unproven players. That's the elephant in the room people keep ignoring. It's the same mentality that resulted in the club squandering 50 million on a striker we didn't need at the time rather than simply sticking by Sturridge and giving him a chance; it's same mentality that lead the club to throw away 30 mil on another attacking mid we didn't need instead of giving a chance to Kevin particularly after a very successful loan spell and it's the same mentality that caused the club to believe that they would be better served to retrieve a 32 yr, former top striker from his football exile in Russia rather than just simply giving a chance to Lukaku.....there's a pattern here, yet people are still carrying on with the narrative of "this will only benefit us in the long term". Uh huh....sure it will.

...and the irony of it all is that in each of those examples, the club turned their backs on sticking by a young player and picked the "safer" route only for that to be an even bigger gamble with greater financial risks in the end.