Romelu Lukaku

[Pizy 17,860]

6 minutes ago, Leif said:

why does it have to be the next best thing instead of the hundreds of strikers who'd easily get 20 goals a season but cost 10m since they're 29 and don't have marketing power?

why would you ignore all the brilliant players who simply don't have the star names?

nobody who studies this game and its players seriously, dismisses them. i'm talking players who do *everything right consistently*, not these hot and cold players who only do 1 thing to an extreme. maybe football's just changing in other ways other than money too. the fans.

Who do you suggest? There are a dozen midfielders who United could've signed that barely got any assists and barely scored any goals but they paid £90m for Pogba. For around the same money we get a player who adds so much more productivity and is around the same age. True, the fee is shocking but that's just the way it is now.

We can look back in 5 years and say that Lukaku was a bargain if he continues scoring at the same pace as he has been in far worse teams than Chelsea. And why wouldn't he with much better players around him? 

Honestly, what does Diego Costa offer that Lukaku doesn't? 

[The Skipper 20,593]

7 minutes ago, Clockwork said:

Morata is going to Milan? Seems like he definitely said he will not play in Italy next season, heavily linked United. 

I get your and others preference for Lukaku, but this is not a good argument against Morata.

it appears Morata and Lukaku are getting similar interests.

He's just been properly linked with United today (Jose is the one who gave Morata his chance tbh), but all reports before had him going to Milan on a 60m euros deal. We'll see - apparently Milan are moving on to Costa which is quite interesting.

[mashimaru161 77]

1 minute ago, The Skipper said:

He's just been properly linked with United today, but all reports before had him going to Milan on a 60m euros deal. We'll see - apparently Milan have moved to Costa which is quite interesting.

Morata has denied milan rumour

[mashimaru161 77]

23 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Even when they bought him back it was only because Real knew they could get more for him than it would cost to buy him back. Easy transaction... The fact Juve have yet to show any interest in him is quite telling to me though

But juve did wanted to bring him back, at first. They then decided it's better to suck their rival dry, went on to pay 90m for a guy who disappears in final. Served them right.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

1 hour ago, The Skipper said:

If Morata is so good, and if Conte really prefers him (I would love to know how you know), why is he going to AC Milan? Why aren't the likes of PSG, Chelsea, United, City all pushing for him?

Conte brought Morata to Juve, Morata said he would love to work with Conte one day. It seems logical, no?

How do you know he is going to Milan? And yes he has been linked alot with Chelsea and United lately, so there is definately interest (or at least papers say so).

But to inform you, he said he wants to stay in Madrid in interview after final.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

11 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

I respect your opinion, but when you start pointing out stats of how much Morata or Lukaku dribble, Im not sure what to think of that. Morata is miles better in ball control. Dribbling doesnt mean anything if there is no context. Watching both players in games gives you context. For example Adama Traore has most dribbles of all players, but he is average player at best. 

Same for chances created. Its clear as day Morata has better vision and pass even if stats dont show it.

Then you say Lukaku is extreme hardworker and question the same for Morata...

Lukaku is not half the worker Morata is. Perhaps you have Madrid Morata on mind where he indeed doesnt have extensive need of tracking back (unlike he did in juve), because Real is much more free flowing team and Morata is main striker there unlike in juve when he was partnered up front, but even then he is still very hardworking. 

I think Lukaku has football style of powerful striker (obviously given his size), but he doesnt use it to max potential. One thing is to bully smaller sides, something else to bully top sides which he hasnt yet. 

Just wondering would you prefer Inzaghi over Drogba? Man, even for strikers, goals are not everything. 

Both Lukaku and Morata are good strikers, you fancy one, I fancy the other, based on their styles and mentality. 

We will see how things end up at Chelsea and hopefuly it works for us whoever it is, because thats most important.

I respect yours as well, I would hope you would know how to extrapolate what the hard stats mean in the context of one's evaluation of a player. Obviously anyone whose watched them both play knows Morata has the better ball control. What the stat shows is Lukaku, perhaps through being more isolated, has improved in his ability to go at players 1 v 1. He's not exactly a donkey when in possession and also has a heightened sense of awareness as to when to release the ball to players in better positions.

There is nothing clear as day that illustrates Morata has better vision. I think you're formulating opinions that suit the idea you have in your head for Morata. 

What I said was you can't determine how hard one works by comparing them in two different set ups. I also said Lukaku works hard on his game because he always comes back a better player than the year before.

And you are correct most powerful strikers learn how to use their size later on which is what makes Lukaku even more intriguing. He's still figuring out how to make the best use of his body yet he's still scoring 20+ goals meaning he's not just relying on his physicality to score.

I'm biased... Drogba to me was the most complete striker I'd ever see play. On his day he was the hardest striker to deal with. Left foot, right foot, headers, in the box or outside it, pace, power, decent technique. Inzaghi, if I remember correctly was more of a fox in the box type. Clinical inside the 18, great header of the ball but hardly scored any absolute golazo's

Morata needs to score more on a regular basis for me to see him as our striker for the future. Lukaku seems like the type that will do anything to score for Chelsea and at the age of 24, I can't think of many available strikers who combine passion for the club and finishing.

[AK-3001 286]

Real madrid reject Manchester United's 52 million pound bid for Morata. Real Madrid want 78 million pounds for him.

-Sky Italia

 

If United are going after Morata, that means it's Chelsea for Lukaku, pretty much.

[AK-3001 286]

1 hour ago, The Skipper said:

Why do you think Belotti is better than Lukaku btw? Why is he? What does he do better? I want to hear some opinions on this. I wouldn't mind the club signing Belotti btw.

I know someone that watches Serie A a lot and he is of the opinion that Belotti is better than Lukaku. HIs overall gameplay is much better and he knows how to score goals. Has good pace and is a threat in the air as well.

 

100 million Euros is a lot though, imo, for someone we didn't know about 1-2 years back.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

8 minutes ago, AK-3001 said:

Real madrid reject Manchester United's 52 million pound bid for Morata. Real Madrid want 78 million pounds for him.

-Sky Italia

 

If United are going after Morata, that means it's Chelsea for Lukaku, pretty much.

Sky Italia is as terrible as Sky Nigeria... real talk.

[Thor 2,122]

I don't see how he fails here... he is coming to our team where he will have 10 times better service than that of Everton. Costa manages to get 20 a season and he isn't as clinical as Lukaku.
As for attitude somehow separating Lukaku and Costa... I don't see it. Costa wasn't anything special in big matches. In fact I think Lukaku has put in more against top opponents this season... with Everton players feeding him the ball.

He is better in the air by a country mile as well as being a more clinical finisher. The whole not a hard worker and attitude points are moot until we see him play here. Going by facts though, he is more clinical and multi faceted than Costa. The rest is conjecture as of now.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[AK-3001 286]

Just now, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

Sky Italia is as terrible as Sky Nigeria... real talk.

I know, it's all over Twitter though, various sources have reported in the last hour. 

 

The likes of Fabrizio Romano, Alex Shaw, DiMarzio..

 

Too much smoke to not catch attention.

[AK-3001 286]

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

I don't see how he fails here... he is coming to our team where he will have 10 times better service than that of Everton. Costa manages to get 20 a season and he isn't as clinical as Lukaku.
As for attitude somehow separating Lukaku and Costa... I don't see it. Costa wasn't anything special in big matches. In fact I think Lukaku has put in more against top opponents this season... with Everton players feeding him the ball.

He is better in the air by a country mile as well as being a more clinical finisher. The whole not a hard worker and attitude points are moot until we see him play here. Going by facts though, he is more clinical and multi faceted than Costa. The rest is conjecture as of now.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

Honestly, I'd choose Costa over Lukaku still any day. If we were lettng go of Costa and getting Lukaku to replace him, I'd have been a bit sad, but since it looks like we might be keeping Costa too, this would be an absolutely amazing signing. 

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Everton want a 100 million for Lukaku who hasnt even played a Champions League match. For fucks sake. We sold him 2 years ago to them for 28 mil, he couldnt possibly be more than two times better than he was at the time (that would mean maximum 55-60 mil). Realistically his value is around 40-45M.

On the other hand Madrid want 78 mil for their second/third choice striker. The bloke who had one above average season at Juventus, but nothing more than that. Never lead the line to anything big, not in the national team even.

The football market has gone absolutely bonkers. I am glad we are not yet a part of this and as much as we fucked up with the Torres deal I think the club learnt a big lesson from that mistake. Hopefully we can make a few smart signings and remain competitive next season. 

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

24 minutes ago, AK-3001 said:

I know, it's all over Twitter though, various sources have reported in the last hour. 

 

The likes of Fabrizio Romano, Alex Shaw, DiMarzio..

 

Too much smoke to not catch attention.

DiMarzio is on it... say no more its on!

[BlueLyon 9,359]

31 minutes ago, Chelsea Legend 11 said:

I respect yours as well, I would hope you would know how to extrapolate what the hard stats mean in the context of one's evaluation of a player. Obviously anyone whose watched them both play knows Morata has the better ball control. What the stat shows is Lukaku, perhaps through being more isolated, has improved in his ability to go at players 1 v 1. He's not exactly a donkey when in possession and also has a heightened sense of awareness as to when to release the ball to players in better positions.

There is nothing clear as day that illustrates Morata has better vision. I think you're formulating opinions that suit the idea you have in your head for Morata. 

What I said was you can't determine how hard one works by comparing them in two different set ups. I also said Lukaku works hard on his game because he always comes back a better player than the year before.

And you are correct most powerful strikers learn how to use their size later on which is what makes Lukaku even more intriguing. He's still figuring out how to make the best use of his body yet he's still scoring 20+ goals meaning he's not just relying on his physicality to score.

I'm biased... Drogba to me was the most complete striker I'd ever see play. On his day he was the hardest striker to deal with. Left foot, right foot, headers, in the box or outside it, pace, power, decent technique. Inzaghi, if I remember correctly was more of a fox in the box type. Clinical inside the 18, great header of the ball but hardly scored any absolute golazo's

Morata needs to score more on a regular basis for me to see him as our striker for the future. Lukaku seems like the type that will do anything to score for Chelsea and at the age of 24, I can't think of many available strikers who combine passion for the club and finishing.

Good post, I just wanted to point out that stats you mentioned show just a little bit of who they are. On paper it seems to be clear that Lukaku has the upper hand in dribbling and passing, however that is not entirely true. Many times the dribbling stats are misleading, like with Adama. Its not how many times certain player dribbles, but more when he does it. Verratti and Bakayoko have very similar dribbles per game, and we both know that Verratti is much much more composed player in tight areas. Morata and Lukaku are similar in that aspect. For example, Lukaku makes a dribble with no end result. In stats he racked that dribble, but they wont tell you those dribbles were rather useless. And as of now I havent seen him dribble in a way to create chance for himself out of nowhere against better teams. Morata, having played with better players, learned when to release the ball in order of fluid football. He knows he is not the only good player on team and needs to cooperate to win. Lukaku on other hand has status of main player at Everton and everything there is orchestrated for him. If he wants to shoot, he shoots. If he wants to dribble, he dribbles. And it works against smaller sides, but against more organised teams with better individuals, it doesnt work. And he doesnt have that passing, ball control ability to break such opponents with his teammates.

What happens after the dribble is quite more important than dribble itself. And IMO Morata here acts as more mature player. Knows when to dribble, when to pass. If we talk about stats, Morata has much better pass percentage, which further confirms he is more composed player.

Dont get me wrong, on medium level Lukaku is nearly your perfect striker. But I wonder if he can perform at the highest level which is obviously the whole point. I dont want another striker who will break every third attack with attempted dribble or shot.

Lukaku is ambitious but not in the right way. He believes he is brilliant player already and tries one thing too many, but thing is he is not yet such good player and for team as whole, thats not realy a good sign.

I see what you meant with his hardwork. Indeed he is improving every season and works hard to get better. But on the pitch, he doesnt track back enough and help his teammates. Im not sure how will this pan out with Conte. Dont forget the bust up with Williams, which was the very same situation we will try to avoid once we sell Costa.

Whoever will work out better, I hope Conte gets his man. Be it Lukaku or Morata. The last thing we need is board signing and forcing Conte to work with someone he doesnt want to, because our striker needs whole support from coach to improve.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

12 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

Good post, I just wanted to point out that stats you mentioned show just a little bit of who they are. On paper it seems to be clear that Lukaku has the upper hand in dribbling and passing, however that is not entirely true. Many times the dribbling stats are misleading, like with Adama. Its not how many times certain player dribbles, but more when he does it. Verratti and Bakayoko have very similar dribbles per game, and we both know that Verratti is much much more composed player in tight areas. Morata and Lukaku are similar in that aspect. For example, Lukaku makes a dribble with no end result. In stats he racked that dribble, but they wont tell you those dribbles were rather useless. And as of now I havent seen him dribble in a way to create chance for himself out of nowhere against better teams. Morata, having played with better players, learned when to release the ball in order of fluid football. He knows he is not the only good player on team and needs to cooperate to win. Lukaku on other hand has status of main player at Everton and everything there is orchestrated for him. If he wants to shoot, he shoots. If he wants to dribble, he dribbles. And it works against smaller sides, but against more organised teams with better individuals, it doesnt work. And he doesnt have that passing, ball control ability to break such opponents with his teammates.

What happens after the dribble is quite more important than dribble itself. And IMO Morata here acts as more mature player. Knows when to dribble, when to pass. If we talk about stats, Morata has much better pass percentage, which further confirms he is more composed player.

Dont get me wrong, on medium level Lukaku is nearly your perfect striker. But I wonder if he can perform at the highest level which is obviously the whole point. I dont want another striker who will break every third attack with attempted dribble or shot.

Lukaku is ambitious but not in the right way. He believes he is brilliant player already and tries one thing too many, but thing is he is not yet such good player and for team as whole, thats not realy a good sign.

I see what you meant with his hardwork. Indeed he is improving every season and works hard to get better. But on the pitch, he doesnt track back enough and help his teammates. Im not sure how will this pan out with Conte. Dont forget the bust up with Williams, which was the very same situation we will try to avoid once we sell Costa.

Whoever will work out better, I hope Conte gets his man. Be it Lukaku or Morata. The last thing we need is board signing and forcing Conte to work with someone he doesnt want to, because our striker needs whole support from coach to improve.

Impossible to disprove what you're saying here, most of this is highly subjective. I mainly was saying what the stats show me about Lukaku's game. Comparing players has become the norm with stats but truly its not the best measure because its mostly about deployment and system. Morata hasn't shown me enough to bid 78m for him... Seems like a ludicrous number for a guy who hasn't played a lot of football. His game seems polished but not effective. You said you want a guy who can win you a game and lead the line, I just don't see him as that type of player and there's no evidence to suggest he is.

What happens after the dribble is also about what is happening in the game. Lukaku like to play on the shoulder of defenders and beat them with pace. A lot of the times he dribbles and opens up for a shot which is precisely how I think a striker should utilize a dribble. He does that countless times and has had loads of success with it. I wouldn't say Morata is more mature, I'd say he's more refined/polished. He has loads to learn if he wants to lead the line for a big club. 

You're not going to get the striker you're after mainly because those types either don't switch or go to the absolute big boys. Morata doesn't come close to fitting the bill, he too is a medium striker if you ask me.

Very hard to discern what type of player Lukaku can be in a real team with a system in place. I can't say with any certainty that he's one way or another, all I know is he loves chelsea and has scored a ton of goals in the premier league which is extremely hard to do.

The bust up with Williams was nothing compared to what you get with Costa and the system dictates how you play. How do you know Koeman wants his striker to prevent teams from playing out from the back? He seems like the type of manager that can definitely get his players to play his football, if he wanted Lukaku to close down more I'm sure he would.

 

[King11Didier 916]

This boy went to Everton, because was scared from the grandpa Eto'o for 1st place in the team I don't really rate him and I'm more against this transfer. Why?
I believe we can try to sign some others strikers that I'd prefer them in Chelsea - Morata/Aubameyang/Belotti(eventhough he might be a risk for such a big sum).
I don't think he worths the money that Everton ask for, I haven't actually seen reported sum about the transfer, but I don't believe it will be below 50-60mln. If we are ready to pay big sum for Lukaku, we better do it for someone else mentioned above from me.
On the other side, it might be interesting, the boy will probably come motivated and ready to prove himself this time and perform well with us and I really hope that will be the case if he actually signs for Chelsea, also will bring dangerous in the air, something we are totally missing with Costa and we really need. There are also still a lot of questions about our forwards for the next season - is Costa leaving, are we gonna play with two strikers (Lukaku, Bats partnership could be interesting), is Bats staying or leaving? A lot of important choices in fron of Conte and I hope everything is gonna be clear as soon as possible so we can have beneficial pre-season.

[Yeboii 1,844]

26 minutes ago, King11Didier said:

 

This boy went to Everton, because was scared from the grandpa Eto'o for 1st place in the team

 

Remember the "grandpa" your talking about is Samuel Eto'o. One of the most legendary strikers ever to play the game. Eto'o did really well for us, and it was evident he was going to play.