Well , at least I took some joy from him stinking old Trafford up, just not for us .
Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Once a donkey always a donkey
One of the shrewdest things Solskjaer (or United) did was to get him out for decent money.
I knew when he came on they wouldn't be winning the game.
Chelsea play with fluid attackers that are constantly making runs, pulling defenders out of position and creating overloads with their wing backs. Lukaku just can't do this and breaks the system. It got a whole lot easier to defend once he came on.
All I saw him doing was trying to run off the back of Varane, the last defender in the league who would let that happen.
Can't believe Chelsea paid 100M for him!!!!
One of the few things you can believe about Chelsea haha
People compared him to cr7 
I said this before they signed him, he is not the player everyone thinks he is. Obviously when you don't watch a player every week and only see the highlights of the goals, they'd look good.
His touch, attitude, workrate all was an issue before and still is. I just cant believe Chelsea fans thought he is a changed player.
His touch, attitude, workrate all was an issue before and still is. I just cant believe Chelsea fans thought he is a changed player.
Thing is, he is not even doing what he is supposed to be good at, scoring against mid to low-table sides, he has 5 goals in the league, which is meme-worthy.
Only contest for flop of the season, as far as i can see, is Grealish.
My Chelsea friend was a mess after they brought him, he was boarderline suicidal. Not sure all Chelsea fans thought he was changed.
But this is what happens with him, whenever he is dropped his attitude stinks, we had that at United when Ole came in and he wanted to train with a different club, this year with Chelsea making excuses about their style of play.
He scored 3 in first 3 games, and 2 in many months.
He's a-bit shite really.
Enjoyed the booing and jeering. All in good fun.
To think people thought it was a mistake to let him go. Then again I suppose some people still think the likes of Martial, Shaw and McT are going to come good.
To think people thought it was a mistake to let him go. Then again I suppose some people still think the likes of Martial, Shaw and McT are going to come good.
People were claiming he was the best striker in the world last summer.
One thing that bothers me more than anything about Lukaku is his aerial ability, and by that, his lack of of it.
Yes, he is a big guy who is clumsy on the ball, misplaces touches, that is to be expected, but for a guy with his physique and size, he is laughably bad at doing something productive when there are long balls coming his way, the lack of timing/anticipation, lack of jumping, his heading accuracy isn't great either.
Sure, he will trap some of those long balls, just by virtue of his size, but he is not good at it, at all.
Any other well-known big guys who are as bad at heading the ball, being a target man etc?
Yes, he is a big guy who is clumsy on the ball, misplaces touches, that is to be expected, but for a guy with his physique and size, he is laughably bad at doing something productive when there are long balls coming his way, the lack of timing/anticipation, lack of jumping, his heading accuracy isn't great either.
Sure, he will trap some of those long balls, just by virtue of his size, but he is not good at it, at all.
Any other well-known big guys who are as bad at heading the ball, being a target man etc?
Can't believe we got 74mil euros for him. Not a good fit with the PL at all. A bit of a difficult character too. Apparently still worth 85 mil euros now according to transfermarkt
Can't believe we got 74mil euros for him. Not a good fit with the PL at all. A bit of a difficult character too. Apparently still worth 85 mil euros now according to transfermarkt
Strangely, was just a fine fit at West Ham, maybe counter attacking mid-table side just suited him better.
Everton, no?
Or West Brom?
Ah that's more likely tbf
Everton, and yeah there was less pressure on him playing for a mid table side and doing his flat track bully thing. I thought he wasn't the same after his Belgium bulk, but I remember people saying he looked good for Inter.
Plenty at Sunday League level - not so at the top of the table
For me, Lukaku is a player who is victim of being too young. He would have thrived in days of a 4-4-2. Sure, he looks like a great target man but he is horrible with back to goal and hold up play. Give him a strike partner and someone to run off of and he would score a ton. Problem is nobody really plays that formation anymore. Perhaps Chelsea could play a 3-5-2 to get more out of him because again, as a lone striker in a 3-4-3 it's just not going to work...
You have to be great with your back to goal in those systems though.
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Most teams playing 442 used one target man and more mobile second striker. He would need to play that role, not the target man.
And honestly I doubt whether his work rate is good enough for that role.
Well that's the thing as you've pointed out, he's not good enough for neither of those roles.
He's an anomaly , neither here or there, I struggle to point at one thing that he would excell at.
Conte is a strange man for not only liking him but making him somewhat decent as well.
He can be a great counter attacking striker. He just isn't suited to play for a dominant team.
It's too old way to thinking, one big target man and one short striker. Plenty of teams played 4-4-2 or 2 striker system without any target man. Even at Inter, him and Lautaro played very well and wouldn't call any of them as target man.
It all depends on the 2 players who link with each other and the whole set up. Even at Chelsea, there are plays who plays close to him. It's just that he is having poor season, wouldn't put everything on 2 striker or 1 striker system. He made his name playing as lone striker.
Perhaps your right, he did put decent number for brom and everton after all.
Still I don't understand why conte loves him so much.
Right, the point is that there is a place for forwards in a 442 who aren't target men.
5 league goals this season, what's that about £20 million per goal? Great value.
A student of the game and knows 11 languages, which tells you he's a very intelligent and wise man - He KNEW he would play for Chelsea one day! He knew, which tells you something!
Jose was in an uncharacteristically experimental mood in the first half of his second season at United. One of the formations he tried was a two-up-front with Lukaku to the right of Martial. It seemed to work pretty well, particularly in a CL group match away in Moscow.
Around Christmas he started sticking with the dullest 4-2-3-1 imaginable and playing Pogba and Fellaini in deep roles that suited neither of them. It was really disappointing following his uncharacteristic boldness earlier on.
Attempting to employ Lukaku as an ersatz Drogba was a disaster for both United and the player.