Romelu Lukaku

[blue_order]

When you're up top on your own, hold up play is vital. Lukaku's attempts to control the ball and move into a threatening position was sub standard at best. Also, trying to shoot through the legs of two defenders against the best goalkeeper in the world from outside the box ain't going to work mate.

 

[Bally8]

He will be ready for a top 4 team but not this summer not at all.

 

[paulbefc]

Conversely, the argument can be made that if we replace Lukaku with a striker of decent quality, then we can play front foot football with these new top six quality players without the ball breaking down when we try it against good sides and being forced to play a counter attacking game because we're terrified of charging forward and relying on Lukaku not to ping pong the ball 20 yards off his shin and expose us.

As we bring in more quality, Lukaku's weaknesses will be exposed further if anything. That's why he's not at a top club now - because top clubs don't play that type of footballer up top.

He's not at a top club now because we no longer need to sell players to stay afloat and he's (obviously) worth far more to us than he would be to them. It's been reported the sticking point in contract negotiations has been us wanting the release clause to be £90m. Almost a world record fee. We've made it clear we have no intention of entertaining any offer that isn't ridiculous because he's irreplaceable and letting him go without absolutely fleecing the buyer would look terrible.

I get your point about weaknesses exposed, but in games such as last night we needed a cooler head than Barkley and a player of higher quality than DCL. The lad had 4 or 5 golden opportunities to look up and find Lukaku early to kill the game but had an awful cameo. Better quality and more goals in the positions alongside/just behind him will mean teams can't simply focus on man-marking him knowing there's a good chance we won't create for him. It won't improve his first touch, but we rightly won't care if we're getting another 5-10 goals a season.

 

[Eggs]

I thought he was culpable in us not securing an easy 3 points eggs. Between Ross not picking the pass time and time again and him not making the runs to be an outlet for a final ball about 20 times and also taking pot shots from 40 yards they reminded me of 2 kids on a playground trying to outdo each other on how not to play as a partnership.

I said last night if that was any of the other top sides facing utd they would have steamrolled them about 5-1 given the amount of times we countered them.

He definitely kept the cb's busier than Saturday but his decision making last night was pretty dreadful imo

....I think that's fair, he didn't utilise situations but I'm sure if we'd have played one or two of those correctly he'd have punished United. For once I thought he led the line well and played his part. It wasn't a fancy performance but it was a gritty performance which is what he needs to do more often. I was happy with him last night.

 

[TheCount]

Mad the way people who bang on about the school of science actually like him. Anti football

 

[Mountfield1985]

Mad the way people who bang on about the school of science actually like him. Anti football

More mad the way moaning old gits on the internet actually hate the best striker we've had in 25 years.

Mad the way everyone would be praising a solid display in a brilliant team victory, if not for Williams' brain fart.

 

[applecrumble]

Goal machine..... But his first touch is still as bad as ever.

 

[ashwuk76]

How many other teams would be moaning like this about the current premier league top scorer in thier team? I think we all need to chill a bit and take stock of things...

He's a goal scorer no doubt, yes he can't trap a bag of cement, his link up play could be better... but he's still only 23... yes 23... still young and time to learn more... he's scored more goals quicker for his age than most.

We need to keep him and get better players around him that's for sure, and I hope we go someway to getting those players in the summer.

 

[Eggsyblueskin]

Mad the way people who bang on about the school of science actually like him. Anti football

I presume this post is intentionally ironic? Otherwise describing arguably one of the top two goalscorers in our league as 'anti football ', a term used to describe negative overly defensive play , is odd to say the least.

 

[Adam-GOTTV]

I get people are trying to play the 'him hushing Williams thing' down, and I get that players fall out on the pitch, but for me, it was quite disrespectful.

The whole finger-on-lips “don’t talk to me because I’m above you” reaction was infuriating. Does he think he’s above criticism or something? If he disagreed with Williams then fine: tell him why he’s wrong. But don’t be a bad tit, Rom.

Look, he’s very important to us and I won’t knock his record. I want him to stay but you have to pull your weight and I’m not sure if he did that last night (or on Saturday). This would be fine if he didn’t think he was better than us, but he does, so it leaves him open to blame. Sorry.

 

[TheCount]

More mad the way moaning old gits on the internet actually hate the best striker we've had in 25 years.

Mad the way everyone would be praising a solid display in a brilliant team victory, if not for Williams' brain fart.

I'm not even that old. Just like moaning cos his touch makes me cringe

 

[TheCount]

I presume this post is intentionally ironic? Otherwise describing arguably one of the top two goalscorers in our league as 'anti football ', a term used to describe negative overly defensive play , is odd to say the least.

No, deadly serious. But not that arsed cos he's gone soon and we've just bought the Liver bird.

 

[flibbyflob]

Last night he was absolutely superb in comparison to Saturday. Still nowhere near good enough but the difference in effort at times last night to the weekend was massive. He will probably score at the weekend and the crowd will sing his name and all will be forgotten.

 

[matty1878]

Your thick to complain about him when he scores our goals. Do u really want kone up front? No don't think so!

 

[Eggsyblueskin]

No, deadly serious. But not that arsed cos he's gone soon and we've just bought the Liver bird.

He will still be here next season banging in goals 100% certain. Suck it.