Early on in this thread I said I’d wait until end of the year to comment on his performance etc. What did him for me was all those chances v Chesterfield and he only bags the sitter. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play this ineffectively in this league  - not at WBA, Everton or Man U. His form has fallen off a cliff especially since his unwise sky Italia fiasco. Puts TT in a bind really but I agree play Kai up top in big games & only play Rom for bottom half of prem teams. Very sad that instead of a world class striker on 20 goals already we have another  🦃 in the 9 shirt. TT must have had a say in his signing so as in the past the buck will stop with him not the person who offered to pay him 200 grand plus a week. 
 

 

19 hours ago, Sindre said:

Reminder of what Lukaku can do in a well functioning attack. Against top class defenders as well.

 

They also lost this game 3-2. 

7 hours ago, Gol15 said:

We don't have any consistency in our attack, Tuchel's main point at the start of the season before all the injuries was to rely on James and Chilwell and now that they have been missing it's evident that our attacking quality has fallen off, the backups are simply not as good and as an attacking unit our squad simply isn't consistent.

Pulisic is injury prone, Ziyech can have 1 great game and the very next one he'll waste 30 balls trying to make some epic passes, CHO is still young so by default he'll lack the consistency, Havertz has been semi sick semi injured nobody really knows what's up with him and it felt as if Werner missed 30 clear-cut chances in the past.

We focus on having high energy to press and recover the ball in order to keep the opponents from building a decent attack against us, that's all. We clearly don't focus on attacking nor on movement nor on finishing and I think that Tuchel actually doesn't even know what his best 11 is part from having Mendy on goal and the first choices of full-backs.

But all that doesn't really matter when you consider that a player like Salah for Klopp's tactic doesn't need a Mata or Fabregas in order to score 30 in a season, I actually think that the midfield of Liverpool is sh*t compared our our midfield in every department, they are just a bunch of runners part from T. Alcantara and he's made 1 assist so far in almost 2 seasons now. Yet Klopp manages to finish above us every season now...

Man City has De Bruyne that had over 30 assists in the previous 2 seasons but you can't possibly complain how we don't have a player like that because part from Man City nobody has a player like that...

 

Partially agree but next to salah they have mane and a WB trend arnold that can delivers great cross. Like Liverpool last year if their main player are injured they can’t get results.

if you look @ Chelsea now : both WB are injured do no crosses from there.beside of Kovacic no pass forward in the midfield. Our wingers can’t pass their striker and seems to run to far from Lukaku. Mount is out of form there is sometime good communication between Werner and lukaku but Werner don’t finish it. I not try to defend him but look @ what every pundits are saying : he don’t get the pass when Lukaku was ready to run. Lebouef , Sheare, Owen ,… some of them a great forwards in their times. Yeah ofcourse he shouldn’t have said that but now people blaming him for everything. If you keep changing your forward 3 every week that won’t help, you see Liverpool changing their front 3? Tuchel need to adapt the System because of the injurys putting Pulisic everywhere or Ziyech on the left and Odoi as WBR won’t help the player nor the TEAM.

49 minutes ago, Deino said:

They also lost this game 3-2. 

Please Belgium have an aging defence after Kompany they don’t have any top defenders left. Both Hazar and Kevin got kicked from Portugal match while Kevin play on but he barely can run  and Eden was out.

 

1 minute ago, Hall said:

Please Belgium have an aging defence after Kompany they don’t have any top defenders left. Both Hazar and Kevin got kicked from Portugal match while Kevin play on but he barely can run  and Eden was out.

 

A simple google search would show you Hazard played for 75mins and KdB played the whole 90 so that last part isn't true. 

And even with peak Hazard and peak De Bruyne, Belgium has never reached a final. Lukaku has played as a CF or RF for at least a decade for Belgium in 100 caps. You're telling me with peak Hazard and peak KdB at his side, with his elite speed, positioning and scoring prowess, Lukaku still can't outscore the opposition enough to get to at least 1 final? Next you'll be telling me KdB and Hazard doesn't give him enough service in the 10 years they've played together at the national level. 

I can respect defending for Lukaku but there is no data that supports him ever being this elite striker that you point to. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Hall said:

Partially agree but next to salah they have mane and a WB trend arnold that can delivers great cross. Like Liverpool last year if their main player are injured they can’t get results.

if you look @ Chelsea now : both WB are injured do no crosses from there.beside of Kovacic no pass forward in the midfield. Our wingers can’t pass their striker and seems to run to far from Lukaku. Mount is out of form there is sometime good communication between Werner and lukaku but Werner don’t finish it. I not try to defend him but look @ what every pundits are saying : he don’t get the pass when Lukaku was ready to run. Lebouef , Sheare, Owen ,… some of them a great forwards in their times. Yeah ofcourse he shouldn’t have said that but now people blaming him for everything. If you keep changing your forward 3 every week that won’t help, you see Liverpool changing their front 3? Tuchel need to adapt the System because of the injurys putting Pulisic everywhere or Ziyech on the left and Odoi as WBR won’t help the player nor the TEAM.

Excuses after excuse after excuse. I'm going to refer this comment i saw yesterday which is explaining things a lot better than I am.

https://www.football365.com/news/benitez-everton-sack-tuchel-mourinho-Chelsea-lukaku-man-city-mailbox

A few quick points I’d like to make that back up my view. Firstly, as brought up in the conclusions article, is the fact that “they’re not setup to get the best out of him”. It’s something I’ve heard frequently in his defence; that the system doesn’t suit him. How often do people make that same comment with regards to Lewandowski? Or Benzema? Or Mbappe? Or Haaland? Or peak Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez or Aguero? Even Kane? Almost never, because they continued to perform and to score goals whomever their manager was and whatever system they were playing. Why? Because they are or were genuinely world class strikers. If a striker can only play one way, or requires an entire attack to be built around their limitations, then by definition, that player is one dimensional and ergo not world class.

Secondly, the references to how he “tore it up” in Italy. Does anyone think Ciro Immobile is world class? Would Chelsea sign him for £100m? Because in Lukaku’s time at Inter, Immobile out scored him in Serie A by 10 goals in the same amount of games whilst playing for a significantly weaker side. Scoring 2 in 3 (including penalties) for the best side in a league with the highest goals per game rate of the big 5 leagues in Europe (that they’re petitioning to have reduced back to 18 teams because there’s too many awful sides getting promoted), whilst at the peak age for a player, doesn’t make a £100m striker. Serie A is not what it was; it’s closer to Ligue Un in quality than the Premier League at the moment. Don’t agree? Darmian, Sanchez and Ashley Young played significant roles in Inter’s title win. See them getting a game at City, Liverpool or Chelsea? They weren’t playing at United, and we’re really sh*t.

4 minutes ago, Argo said:

Excuses after excuse after excuse. I'm going to refer this comment i saw yesterday which is explaining things a lot better than I am.

https://www.football365.com/news/benitez-everton-sack-tuchel-mourinho-Chelsea-lukaku-man-city-mailbox

A few quick points I’d like to make that back up my view. Firstly, as brought up in the conclusions article, is the fact that “they’re not setup to get the best out of him”. It’s something I’ve heard frequently in his defence; that the system doesn’t suit him. How often do people make that same comment with regards to Lewandowski? Or Benzema? Or Mbappe? Or Haaland? Or peak Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez or Aguero? Even Kane? Almost never, because they continued to perform and to score goals whomever their manager was and whatever system they were playing. Why? Because they are or were genuinely world class strikers. If a striker can only play one way, or requires an entire attack to be built around their limitations, then by definition, that player is one dimensional and ergo not world class.

Secondly, the references to how he “tore it up” in Italy. Does anyone think Ciro Immobile is world class? Would Chelsea sign him for £100m? Because in Lukaku’s time at Inter, Immobile out scored him in Serie A by 10 goals in the same amount of games whilst playing for a significantly weaker side. Scoring 2 in 3 (including penalties) for the best side in a league with the highest goals per game rate of the big 5 leagues in Europe (that they’re petitioning to have reduced back to 18 teams because there’s too many awful sides getting promoted), whilst at the peak age for a player, doesn’t make a £100m striker. Serie A is not what it was; it’s closer to Ligue Un in quality than the Premier League at the moment. Don’t agree? Darmian, Sanchez and Ashley Young played significant roles in Inter’s title win. See them getting a game at City, Liverpool or Chelsea? They weren’t playing at United, and we’re really sh*t.

I honestly couldn't believe that second paragraph, the term "significant" made me somewhat confident that it's probably overstated but I actually went and checked...

...How in the world did Ashley Young featured in 26 league games last season?? And Alexis in 30?? Now I wonder just how weak did Serie A become after Juventus fell off WTF is this

 

4 hours ago, Deino said:

They also lost this game 3-2. 

Please Belgium have an aging defence after Kompany they don’t have any top defenders left. Both Hazar and Kevin got kicked from Portugal match while Kevin play on but he barely can run  and Eden was out.

 

13 minutes ago, Hall said:

Please Belgium have an aging defence after Kompany they don’t have any top defenders left. Both Hazar and Kevin got kicked from Portugal match while Kevin play on but he barely can run  and Eden was out.

 

Pulisic, Ziyech, CHO, Mount, Azpi, Alonso, Hazard, De Bruyne, Silva, Rudiger, Sarr, Jorginho, Kova, Kante, the Portugal national team and now Kompany off the top of my head you've either directly or indirectly name dropped to excuse Lukaku's failings.

Who next? Is it going to be Chalobah's fault for not blowing the right amount of smoke up his backside on the team bus?

Anyways we lose no matter how you look at it.

You don’t play him the team (maybe )plays better but you still having do endure big chances missing from your other Elite strikers. And still missing Reece and Chidwell + unhappy expensive player and losing a lot of money try selling him. Many draw games or losing.

The way I see it : he can score goals if you use him right all the pundits agree on this. When he feel love from the people he will play better and score you goals. The price go up and we have more chance selling him in the summer with little loss.

we end up in top 4 we play UCL other player like to come in his place.

The lukaku from Wilmot national team play like we use him in the Chelsea team now, he score you goals but he will not be nice to watch and useless in combination. After Martinez came he know how to use him and he scores a lot of goals. Koeman and Conte also did well. Many have said it you know what you bought.He is not perfect so don’t try using him in the current style because his weakness will get expose.It’s  Tuchel who decides how to use all of his players but changing setup every week won’t solve your problem.

 

Remember when we use to wonder how Hazard could show such little visible frustration when playing with the likes of Willian, Morata and Ramires? 

Now it all makes sense, he dealt with a lot worse at national level.

Edited January 18, 20224 yr by Argo

3 hours ago, Gol15 said:

I honestly couldn't believe that second paragraph, the term "significant" made me somewhat confident that it's probably overstated but I actually went and checked...

...How in the world did Ashley Young featured in 26 league games last season?? And Alexis in 30?? Now I wonder just how weak did Serie A become after Juventus fell off WTF is this

 

Serie A fell off more than any other league in Europe. Juventus can still pull off a result here and there because their reputation makes teams often give them a bit too much respect (like we did in our away game in the Champions League) but the league overall is absolute garbage these days. There are some absolute trash players that can go there and look competent at times (Bakayoko) and they have players like Giroud, Ibrahimovic, Dzeko and Pedro who can play every week and still regularly score goals.

I have been saying for a while now that I would be worried about signing any player from that league now, and that includes Chiesa before his injury. It's very hard to tell just how good a player is in Serie A these days.

At this point we really, REALLY  need to cut our losses  admit defeat and get rid, because he's not even doing it vs the decent and poor sides any more, which means you literally have nothing.

If we persist with him any longer our season will go into freefall. I've never known a player to hamper the team so much when he's on the field.

Go back to what worked so well at the end of  last season.

 

Genuinely hate this guy. I don't know how much longer I can put up with watching him standing motionless, complaining that the ball didn't come right to his feet.

To put this into a little bit of context it's the same amount of touches Gabby Agbonlahor had in one half playing for bottom of the league Villa away to Spurs (when they were good) and he was mocked on Monday Night football.

And wouldn't you just know all off a sudden as soon as he finally got hauled off we started playing like a team again. Pressing and every player involved in the build up.

The worse thing is he's even failing at what he's suppose to be good at (what even I expected he would be fine with). We were told to embrace his flaws because he would make amends with goals. He has a big chance tonight, a big chance against City and big chances in both legs against Spurs and wasted them. That's possibly/probably 5 points he's squandered us, not good enough when he offers next to nothing else.

If he's not taking those chances, what positive are we getting out of him being on the pitch? Please someone tell me what I'm missing here.

100m for this guy, what the f*ck is the board smoking?

He did ok when the ball actually came to him. There is a big problem with the system, soemthing has to change on a tactical level. Otherwise just don't play him at all.

And before anyone moans about hating or scapegoating he set his own standards, remember that.

 

 

8 minutes ago, Argo said:

And before anyone moans about hating or scapegoating he set his own standards, remember that.

 

 

He’s an effing idiot. He says he belongs to that class of strikers, right now he looks more like Chris Wood.

The man genuinely is a w*nker, no wonder the morale isn’t great and Tuchel has a problem he didn’t need. The board have truly f*cked up here but hey, what’s new?

Edited January 18, 20224 yr by dansubrosa

This guy is absolutely terrible, what a waste of money.

Bluffer.

Not excactly good but bloody Rudiger was seemingly the only one who could find him with a half decent pass tonight.

And you know you are in the sh*t for creativity when a bloody defender picks the best pass of the evening. Lukaku needs to have a proper look at himself and perhaps it's him who's ruined the dressing room already. But Mount, Odoi and Ziyech can all have a good look at themselves too.

6 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

He’s an effing idiot. He says he belongs to that class of strikers, right now he looks more like Chris Wood.

The man genuinely is a w*nker, no wonder the morale isn’t great and Tuchel has a problem he didn’t need. The board have truly f*cked up here but hey, what’s new?

What's gutting is we finally looked to be sorting recruitment.

Okay Werner, Kepa and Ziyech especially haven't worked as planned but they were identified as specific fits for the style of play we've been building (with tweaks here and there) since Sarri. Lukaku has not only buggered the system, he's a nasty piece of work who's so evidently broken a previously incredible group spirit.

I honestly though Torres would be the worst it ever got in terms of the sheer level of net negative but this guy could single handedly destroy this hugely promising new era if he hasn't already.

13 days left in this window ... trouble is Marina gave him £325K a week, and no club that might buy him could afford that. I think we are stuck with him.

Making his defenders look like mugs with each game. 

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

13 days left in this window ... trouble is Marina gave him £325K a week, and no club that might buy him could afford that. I think we are stuck with him.

If we look hard enough he's surely done something to put himself in breach of contract. He can't help himself.