I don't mean to interrupt you two but it's not that far out there to suggest his technique didn't improve much from 24 on. He learned to be more efficient and effective sure, and his movement improved tenfold, but his actual technique on the ball didn't change much. If anything he learned to spend less time with it.
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.
I don't mean to interrupt you two but it's not that far out there to suggest his technique didn't improve much from 24 on. He learned to be more efficient and effective sure, and his movement improved tenfold, but his actual technique on the ball didn't change much. If anything he learned to spend less time with it.
Imo, Ronaldo's best years were the first 2-3 years he spent at Madrid. That's where he struck the best balance between goalscoring taken to a new level and fantastic overall play.
Agreed. Not worth your time though. You’re more likely to get some shit green smiley non sequitur reply than any actual logic backing up any supposed point.
He's been banned so not much of an interruption.
Oh drag.
His movement in and around the box improved dramatically. His ability in the air, with his back to goal, and his finishing all went up a level.
Again, it's not like he was bad at any of these things whilst at Man United (or that he's even remotely comparable to Lukaku in any of these aspects) - the simple fact is that he improved upon moving to Madrid in his mid 20s.
Ronaldo with the #9 jersey was a beast.
Sorry don't have much time past few days - doing some renovating at my parents home.
How's that more important than clipping Lukaku gifs? You're slacking. I'm disappointed.
Poor again today. That’s five straight matches now without a goal. Same old Lukaku.
Shouldn't have taken the 9 shirt...
Seriously though, I thought he was OK yesterday. Couple of wrong decisions, like taking the ball off Chilwell when offside. Havertz definitely didn't do any better.
Will need time for us to play to his strengths better.
Seriously though, I thought he was OK yesterday. Couple of wrong decisions, like taking the ball off Chilwell when offside. Havertz definitely didn't do any better.
Will need time for us to play to his strengths better.
He made plenty of great runs across or in behind his markers, but I was a bit frustrated with the midfielders hesitancy when they see the gap he's created and the lack accuracy when they attempt to find him. The pass KDB played him against France was on multiple times, but the pass just either didn't come or if it did it was nowhere near him.
Time is for up and coming players, not for 100 million strikers, they are bought to perform immediately.
Lukaku doing Lukaku things
It's difficult to see all these posts from up here on top of the league.
He's not done that badly, but Chelsea seem to have some sort of curse on big money strikers - Shevchenko, Werner, Torres, Morata, Batshuayi. Only Drogba and Costa have ever really clicked there of big name arrivals.
Winning games as a team is what actually matters though. Of all the €100m+ transfers, only Ronaldo to Madrid in 2009 can be classed as a total success. Quite a few of them have been totally disastrous.
Lukaku adds a different dimension to us as a team. How exactly we play to be the most effective with Lukaku, Tuchel is still figuring out though. 352 kind of works, can't fit Mount in the team as the main problem.
We're top of the league anyway so far, if Tuchel gets it all to glue we can improve a lot still.
Anelka was more of a second striker most of the time, but he still counts and he was fantastic. Crespo was pretty decent in the short time he was here, but yeah we do have a laundry list of failed strikers.
Lukaku won't be one of them though. He hit the ground running, then hit a bit of a dry patch, but as I mentioned he's doing a lot of good things that goes unrewarded at the moment.
Fancy that. Only seven months to go.
It won’t last duffy
We will never concede another goal. We are top forever.
No! Don’t go full duffy! Never go full duffy!
Started out this season rooting for him but watching him semi-regularly has turned me into a hater. Does anyone actually enjoy watching Lukaku? Not highlights, or those fleeting moments where he turns into the player everyone imagines him to be, but actual full matches? He's the same frustrating player he's always been. A lumbering, uninspiring oaf 95% of the time who, if he doesn't score, just ambles around and barely does anything to help his teammates but point in a vague direction and moan when the pass doesn't reach his cement feet between the three defenders surrounding him because he hasn't moved. Hardly even bothers making runs in behind any more unless there's a counter, instead he wants to post up with his back to goal like it's 1990's NBA and he's Hakeem Olajuwon. Plays more like Andre Drummond.
Doesn't press, still terrible at hold up play, barely jumps for long balls. All he wants to do is score without putting any real effort into actually creating opportunities through his movement. The margin of error is so tight with a striker like this, everything coming into him has to be precise and if there's one thing this Chelsea team is lacking, it's that precision from their forwards (and also a bit of magic you get from the KDB, Salah, Bruno types). And yet, with these same players behind him, it feels like Werner gets about 3 to 4 great chances a game. He makes a mess of all of them, of course, but it shows that this team is not incapable of creating good chances.
I thought Chelsea's main problem last season under Tuchel wasn't creating chances, it was finishing them. Now they barely do either. Of course it's early days and it feels like Tuchel is still trying to figure out the right combination of his many talented but flaky forwards to put behind Lukaku (and their least flaky/most consistent one in Mount being off-form/unfit has been a huge loss), but Lukaku is a huge part of the problem. He almost always is, despite his numbers.
Looks very dangerous the other 5% of the time when everything is going right for him though, gotta give him that. World class.
Doesn't press, still terrible at hold up play, barely jumps for long balls. All he wants to do is score without putting any real effort into actually creating opportunities through his movement. The margin of error is so tight with a striker like this, everything coming into him has to be precise and if there's one thing this Chelsea team is lacking, it's that precision from their forwards (and also a bit of magic you get from the KDB, Salah, Bruno types). And yet, with these same players behind him, it feels like Werner gets about 3 to 4 great chances a game. He makes a mess of all of them, of course, but it shows that this team is not incapable of creating good chances.
I thought Chelsea's main problem last season under Tuchel wasn't creating chances, it was finishing them. Now they barely do either. Of course it's early days and it feels like Tuchel is still trying to figure out the right combination of his many talented but flaky forwards to put behind Lukaku (and their least flaky/most consistent one in Mount being off-form/unfit has been a huge loss), but Lukaku is a huge part of the problem. He almost always is, despite his numbers.
Looks very dangerous the other 5% of the time when everything is going right for him though, gotta give him that. World class.
Mount is shite anyway tbf
6 and he is mentally tired. Souness will probably still describe him as R9 though.
https://www.skysports.com/football/...kaku-is-mentally-tired-after-being-overplayed
Hugely impressive by him and Kovacic.
very impressive. I wonder when he is cursing out his teammates for missing a passing opportunity, what language does he choose?
They've missed out Lingala as well - that takes him to 9.
Genuinely curious whether there are more professional footballers or more people who can speak 9 languages! I think I think the latter is probably more scarce but not sure?
Thumb language.
Tuchel inventing reasons to drop him already.
They did list both Dutch and Flemish, which are the same (it's like saying you speak English and American) though.
8 is still pretty good off course
They did list both Dutch and Flemish, which are the same (it's like saying you speak English and American) though.
8 is still pretty good off course
Ah fair point! Totally overlooked that, great shout - definitely a bit odd to list both as you say!
Also, they haven't listed Havertz as speaking English - perhaps they want to avoid him saying feck on live TV multiple times again!
Looking at that list really puts it into perspective how lazy us English are.
Does even the players who play/played abroad speak a different language?
Does even the players who play/played abroad speak a different language?
Uno, dos, tres
There was one for Real Madrid, which listed Bale's languages as just English. I've heard him do an interview in Spanish years ago.
Now that I think about it there's probably some input from the players - that'd make sense as they're the ones who'd be interviewed!
Pointing language
Anglo people don't need to learn a second language(unless they live abroad for several years), so it's understandable why most only speak english.Even when you travel abroad as tourist, you can speak english to the hotel service room and in some tourist areas, they will understand in most cases.
I speak 3 languages, but i wouldn't have learned them if i wouldn't need them tbh.
It's all about needs, and anglo people isn't forced to learn a second language, the most relevant stuff out there it's in english.