Romelu Lukaku

[.h.]

so when icardi does unusual movements to score goals, he gets praised as a movement and positioning genius. when lukaku does it, its because he's lazy


lol

 

[brehme1989]

so when icardi does unusual movements to score goals, he gets praised as a movement and positioning genius. when lukaku does it, its because he's lazy


lol

Dude, are you fucking serious?

You're comparing Lukaku's movement with that of any striker that knows how to evade a defence and move off the ball?

Is that what you got from everything said? Or from watching Inter in the last 6 seasons?

Lukaku WAITS for the ball to come to the spot he got in the first place. He is offside for 90-100% of the duration of the situation.

Diego Milito used to be able to pull off being in an offside spot initially some of the times, but even he couldn't pull it off all the time.
This is the only way Lukaku anticipates the ball in the box.
His runs are usually in the wrong direction and he doesn't evade the defence. They let him be because he goes to a fucking offside position all the time!!!

What's next? Zlatan is not a world class player?

 

[Danii]

Dude, are you fucking serious?

You're comparing Lukaku's movement with that of any striker that knows how to evade a defence and move off the ball?

Is that what you got from everything said? Or from watching Inter in the last 6 seasons?

Lukaku WAITS for the ball to come to the spot he got in the first place. He is offside for 90-100% of the duration of the situation.

Diego Milito used to be able to pull off being in an offside spot initially some of the times, but even he couldn't pull it off all the time.
This is the only way Lukaku anticipates the ball in the box.
His runs are usually in the wrong direction and he doesn't evade the defence. They let him be because he goes to a fucking offside position all the time!!!

What's next? Zlatan is not a world class player?

For a player who doesn’t move around he seems to get a lot in the right place for the tap-in?

 

[Shark]

For a player who doesn’t move around he seems to get a lot in the right place for the tap-in?

Welcome to the forum Romelu. Stick around!

 

[Danii]

Welcome to the forum Romelu. Stick around!

FYI: I’m indeed from Belgium but here I support Club Brugge, and I hated Lukaku when he played for Anderlecht. Thru the years I followed him I learned to appreciate him. Here in Belgium he also used to get a lot of stick, but nowadays he established himself as our number 1 striker, being 26 and already our all time goalscorer.

Yours truly, Romelu

 

[brehme1989]

Speaking of that, most international goalscoring records will be broken from players in the 2000s onwards, it's not that great a feat. The comparison is with their peers, not in an all time context. Especially in Europe.

There's like x4 more national teams today in world football than there were in the late 80s. In the 1988 Euro Qualifiers there were 32 national teams participating and only 8 qualified. Now we have 24 teams in the actual tournament. For the record, there are 55 national teams in the current 2020 Euro qualifiers, which is almost double the amount. And most of them are crap with only 3 exceptions.

 

[delaurentis]

Imagine if any player would be put under the same microscope like Lukaku does around here. You could bitch and moan in a similar way about anyone.

What I see so far is that Inter have shown great promise in the early stages of this season, and Lukaku is a part of that team. Let that sink in for awhile.

 

[brehme1989]

Imagine if any player would be put under the same microscope like Lukaku does around here. You could bitch and moan about anyone who touches a football, oh and btw I am not even a fan of the player Lukaku.

What I see so far is that Inter have shown great promise in the early stages of this season, and Lukaku is a part of that team. Let that sink in for awhile.

I think if you make a poll about the best/most pleasantly surprising performances of the season, you'll see that the 1st half of the Barcelona away game (no Lukaku) and the last 30 minutes of the Dortmund game (when Lukaku was subbed out) would top the list. Coincidence?

 

[delaurentis]

I think if you make a poll about the best/most pleasantly surprising performances of the season, you'll see that the 1st half of the Barcelona away game (no Lukaku) and the last 30 minutes of the Dortmund game (when Lukaku was subbed out) would top the list. Coincidence?

You'll need a larger sample size to make this an objective statement.

 

[brehme1989]

You'll need a larger sample size to make this an objective statement.

Maybe we also need a larger sample size to claim that the team is showing great promise and that Lukaku is part of that as well then. Because based on the data we have, my point stands. It's not a matter of sampling, we are using the population of data anyway.

 

[Aurel]

People are always so bipolar on issues nowadays. Let's face it, he hasn't been awesome so far. Yeah he's scored, but except that screamer last week, that one goal against Sassuolo and maybe the header against Milan his goals were either penalties or tap ins. I don't watch football analytically enough to judge whether Lukaku ruins our build up play or not, but from the games I've seen he wasn't really great at passing and hold up play (I wish he could translate his physical skills into something that resembles Lewandowki's hold up play). Can't recall any noteable assist or key pass either. So yes, some credit to brehme, since his goal stats don't really reflect his contribution to the game.

On the other hand, he hasn't been terrible either and if you think that Lukaku destroys our game more than Icardi's apathetic nature at times did, then you seem somewhat biased. Let's wait an see whether he can improve some more. I can definetely acknowledge that he has been very underwhelming in the CL and could perform better in the Serie A too.

Bottom line, don't excuse him too much, but don't bash him every chance you get and downplay him to being an absolute liability. Both those ways of looking at it are very hard to argue for.

 

[tonyclifton]

I'm not a fanboy, so I'm gonna criticize his performance against Verona here.

For a man with that physique, I am pissed that he seemed rushed with his decision making at times, particularly that weak ass header to the Verona's goalkeeper.

Fucking hell, he is built like a fucking tank, yet sometimes he is fucking soft and nervous about getting challenged by the defenders, hence that fucking pathetic header.

 

[.h.]

bear in mind he's in a new league... his previous football experience has never been in a league anything like Italy... and he's still scoring quite regularly.

He needs more time, and work, but 9 in 12 league games aint bad at all.

 

[Linege]

bear in mind he's in a new league... his previous football experience has never been in a league anything like Italy... and he's still scoring quite regularly.

he was in EPL, Serie A should be like walk in the park for him

 

[CafeCordoba]

Clearly it isn't a walk in the park. In Serie A all the teams are designed to defend by default.

That's why it is also such a big risk given that we cannot know if he will ever pick it up. Scoring tap ins and penalties is one thing but being actually a cunning striker in Serie A is another matter. Famous quote of Tevez saying how Serie A is the university for strikers.

And what I mean by the big risk is that he wasn't exactly a commanding striker in United at a big team (small team performances another thing). I'm sorry I bring the cost to the discussions every time, but I think it is simply relevant because he is our record transfer. The cost will always be there in the discussions.

 

[.h.]

he was in EPL, Serie A should be like walk in the park for him

why?
the premiership is set up for stamina and strength. You can be effectively brain dead in the premiership, just super fit, and be a more than average player there.

Italy is entirely different.

 

[brehme1989]

Do people even understand what the term "getting involved" means?

Icardi played under Spalletti in a 4-2-3-1 with 2 pure wingers and the trequartista was more of a spare central midfielder than an offensive threat that would become a support striker.

That means that the build up comes from the wings and the potential people involved are:
- full back + winger + central midfielder of their side
- winger + central midfielder of his side + trequartista

The winger + trequartista + striker option means that you're already in the attack unless you're starting a counter.

When you have 2 static wingers that do not drift in without the ball and a trequartista that isn't a trequartista, ie 'run in the defensive hole', your striker moving backwards is by definition a crime against football. It's the last thing you want him to be doing. Surely, he's not going to be static up front and he's going to get a couple of brief passes back and forth, but that's not "getting involved".

Getting involved means that he does things for the team. He can chase the GK, he can chase the defenders, he can drop back to chase their playmaking DM, he can drift out wide if needed but most importantly he has to be able to pick a run or make a one-two. Essentially, the "getting involved" part means this: Help the team move the ball towards the goal. If your team refuses to do that and the only option is for Skriniar to pass to Asamoah 5 times and vice versa and you're going to blame the striker or the trequartista for "not being involved", then you obviously need to learn some of the basics of this sport. Sure Icardi, as many others in the past 2 seasons, looked reluctant to do a lot of things. The whole team was a mess since December 2018 and players were fighting each other or with the coach or with the management and so forth. Prior to that, I think most people were talking about Icardi beating Meazza in the record books and that kind of stuff. So don't pretend as if he's always been the culprit of our lack of "build up", which started from Skriniar-De Vrij last year, through Brozovic, until it was wasted from Perisic or Politano/Candreva.


Now the main difference with Lukaku (and Lautaro) and our current system is that we have 2 strikers and there's still a wide player present. One of the two strikers has to drop deeper. Our build up is mostly through the center and there's no winger so the side midfielder (Sensi mostly in the early season) would combine with a forward and the wide player. Or Barella/Brozovic from the other end. And this is why when Gagliardini plays we seem more restricted offensively. He cannot be of much assistance in the team's build up.

But what is the striker supposed to do in this type of structure? Hold up the ball and lay it to a runner or to his co-forward. Or lay it off to a central midfielder who has the view of the pitch so that he can directly ship the ball to a runner or open player. Lukaku isn't really doing that. He manages to hold up the ball lately better than before (at least based on 2 of the last 4 games) but what he does with it doesn't help with the fluidity of our team's gameplay. Lautaro has been far more effective in that aspect than Lukaku and it's insane to see that Lautaro tends to just dribble about or make some weird direction changes that makes the best pass option at the time more difficult.

Next time vs Torino make sure to pay attention to what Lukaku does when he plays with his back in the middle of the pitch. Look around (not so hard from the tv set) and see what his [realistic] options are.

But with Lukaku, my issue so far is that his playing level does not surpass that of Eder yet people seem to be enfatuated by him doing all these simple things, or wrong things.

 

[Native]

The only problem here is that his performances don't justify the price yet. They aren't what you'd expect for 80m. Even his goals were not exactly masterclass shots from tough angles or individual brilliances after dribbles, they were mostly tap ins and penalties. That's why he only scores vs. the little teams, as big ones usually don't slip up and give him such easy opportunities.
Of course scoring these easier goals is still a nice feat because there's enough examples of idiots who'd miss even those - it's just that this is not what you'd need 80m for. Not even half that to be honest. He's just nothing special (yet).

This is always the thing with Lukaku though, he scrapes these numbers together and it gets people to overprice him. He's continuing that trend here. This is nothing but beneficial though, if he keeps this up we may even sell him at a profit when we eventually do so. On a personal level I'm glad for the guy that he's now found a place where he really feels home. Perhaps coming from such a safe haven will even allow him to grow further as a player and finally convince us in big games. I doubt he's talented enough, but who knows.

Imo as a player he's doing a decent enough job, whereas just looking at his price tag it's far from being justified, though there is reason to hope that this might change.
There's no comparison to Icardi though, but there shouldn't be since Lukaku isn't the one who's supposedly worth over 100 millions at a certain point.

 

[Sassuolu]

Rewatch the first goal, one of our players pulled two players with him and Vecino got a free header.

 

[Palacio]

Rewatch the first goal, one of our players pulled two players with him and Vecino got a free header.

Good point.