10 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Can I also just add Havertz looked like a complete kid in his short cameo yesterday? Lukaku at least gave the Brighton defenders a fight, Havertz may have had a short cameo but that was an obvious boys v men situation when he was on.

So it's not like we have a lot of options to Lukaku right now.

Maybe he did but either way the minute that change was made we were as team suddenly pressing high, forcing Brighton into mistakes and looked like we actually had 11 men in the build up.

No one is saying Havertz as F9 will suddenly turn us into City's equal, personally I'll settle for enjoying games again right now because that's what even worse than the current results for me, Lukaku as the focal point makes us genuinely so sh*t to watch.

If he's to even remotely justify his inclusion he simply has to do the one thing he's suppose to be good at, he had three big chances in the last two games that had he took we'd likely have 4-6 points instead of a 1 from these. Drogba and Diego Costa made a difference in those key moments, that's the standard.

Edited January 19, 20224 yr by Argo

3 hours ago, coco said:

 

Can you please explain to me what the 2nd tallest player in our team is doing there ? Whats his thinking on his positioning ? 

That wasn't Lukaku's man to mark but tbh Lukaku shouldn't be there anyway. 

He's the last person you want in your own box. He can't judge fast aerial balls and he has been on the end of some comical own goals 

1 hour ago, IliyaKrostin said:

Sometimes I feel that Morata has offered us more.

Whoa that's a bit too far.... Lukaku has a family man.

46 minutes ago, Argo said:

Maybe he did but either way the minute that change was made we were as team suddenly pressing high, forcing Brighton into mistakes and looked like we actually had 11 men in the build up.

This is actually the underlying issue with Lukaku situation. So we as a team play worse with him in the starting XI, but it's not because he's bad. At our best under Tuchel, we press high and are very aggressive - aiming for high ball recovery. We create more than enough chances so that whenever there was a bad patch, the solution in everyone's mind was: just buy a goal scorer. But there are different ways of creating chances. You can do it through technical precision (Fabregas, KDB, Hazard) or through aggression if you lack the former (which we obviously do). Now you pop Lukaku in the team and we lose much of the aggression and high ball recoveries. You need the technical precision to make the most of his abilities but as I've said many times before, these guys can barely weight a pass correctly (again as evidenced by the Lukaku-Ziyech argument at half time).

52 minutes ago, Argo said:

Maybe he did but either way the minute that change was made we were as team suddenly pressing high, forcing Brighton into mistakes and looked like we actually had 11 men in the build up.

No one is saying Havertz as F9 will suddenly turn us into City's equal, personally I'll settle for enjoying games again right now because that's what even worse than the current results for me, Lukaku as the focal point makes us genuinely so sh*t to watch.

If he's to even remotely justify his inclusion he simply has to do the one thing he's suppose to be good at, he had three big chances in the last two games that had he took we'd likely have 4-6 points instead of a 1 from these. Drogba and Diego Costa made a difference in those key moments, that's the standard.

I think you're too invested in this at this point. We should just accept that some people will defend Lukaku unconditionally.

If a fan is ok with a player (much less the 2nd highest wage earner, 100m transfer) touching the ball just 8 times in a game, any sensible discussion is out the window. 

15 minutes ago, venom2011 said:

Whoa that's a bit too far.... Lukaku has a family man.

It's got to the point i'd genuinely have Morata back if it's one or the other.

I don't usually subscribe to the "less worse" logic but this is where were at now.

6 minutes ago, venom2011 said:

 You need the technical precision to make the most of his abilities but as I've said many times before, these guys can barely weight a pass correctly (again as evidenced by the Lukaku-Ziyech argument at half time).

Ziyech's pass was literally to Lukaku's feet. And furthermore he is the last player in this squad that has any right to moan about mis passes and mis control. The brass neck on this guy is something else.

4 minutes ago, Argo said:

It's got to the point i'd genuinely have Morata back if it's one or the other.

I don't usually subscribe to the "less worse" logic but this is where were at now.

Morata scored 11 goals in his first PL season, went to La Liga on loan and ended with 12 goals and last season in Serie A he scored 11 goals too. His max input in any league is around 10-15 at best, I still don't understand why Tuchel never wanted to give Tammy a real chance.

15 minutes ago, Deino said:

I think you're too invested in this at this point. We should just accept that some people will defend Lukaku unconditionally.

If a fan is ok with a player (much less the 2nd highest wage earner, 100m transfer) touching the ball just 8 times in a game, any sensible discussion is out the window. 

Maybe but i can't help myself.

It's bad enough what he's doing let alone being defended, or worse his teammates being blamed for his ineptitude.

27 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

I still don't understand why Tuchel never wanted to give Tammy a real chance.

Right now, I'd take a straight swap :-) 

26 minutes ago, Argo said:

Maybe but i can't help myself.

It's bad enough what he's doing let alone being defended, or worse his teammates being blamed for his ineptitude.

Definitely. They just don't see how poisonous Lukaku is to the team. 

Lack of workrate, 2nd highest wages, publicly disparages the manager, teammates, the club and fans then having the ego to actually complain even when Ziyech scored the goal. 

Lukaku does all that and yet he still gets an automatic start lasting 75mins to the full 90.

A workplace like that won't have the same team spirit as last year

6 hours ago, Gol15 said:

He's usually like that, remember his reaction when he scored a goal against us...

It wasn't just Ziyech's reaction though.  The whole goal 'celebration' looked muted and downbeat from all the players involved.  It was very noticable to me.

Out of all his managers since leaving us the first time the only one that has used him in a way appropriate to his ability level is Solskjaer (and he then ofcourse turned into a w**ker and leaked confidential records), absolutely crazy.

I feel Lukaku is having the same effect that Ronaldo had at United. Star player on obscene wages who completely changed the dynamics of the team. It led to Ole's demise at United, hopefully he still comes good here...

5 hours ago, Sindre said:

Can I also just add Havertz looked like a complete kid in his short cameo yesterday? Lukaku at least gave the Brighton defenders a fight, Havertz may have had a short cameo but that was an obvious boys v men situation when he was on.

So it's not like we have a lot of options to Lukaku right now.

Maybe if Havertz had more than 10 minutes to completely change a game (we looked miles better after the subs too) after having to watch his ‘rival’ for his position do absolutely f**k all of note for the last two games he’d have performed better? He worked harder in those 10 minutes that Lukaku had for the previous two games too. 

41 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

Maybe if Havertz had more than 10 minutes to completely change a game (we looked miles better after the subs too) after having to watch his ‘rival’ for his position do absolutely f**k all of note for the last two games he’d have performed better? He worked harder in those 10 minutes that Lukaku had for the previous two games too. 

I hate when managers throw attacking players on for 10 minutes to win or draw a game, it's ridiculous and unfair on the player. 

2 hours ago, RomansRoubles said:

I feel Lukaku is having the same effect that Ronaldo had at United. Star player on obscene wages who completely changed the dynamics of the team. It led to Ole's demise at United, hopefully he still comes good here...

Even so Ronaldo at 36 years old has 14 goals and 3 assists in 21 games for Man U. this season. Lukaku couldn't outshine him in Serie A and it looks like he can't do it here either even when time and age is heavily favoring him.

He came back from injury and had 1and a half good game but now in the last 2 games he looks like he's tired already, 0 effort 0 contribution. 

Edited January 19, 20224 yr by Gol15

I've just thought if he scores against Plymouth he's so going to do a Maguire vs Albania and cup his ears, isn't he?

5 hours ago, venom2011 said:

This is actually the underlying issue with Lukaku situation. So we as a team play worse with him in the starting XI, but it's not because he's bad. 

Us being worse as a team is not because Lukaku is bad. He just happens to be bad and we are worse off as a team with him in it because he doesn't suit our style of play. 

Leicester have been absolutely sh*t yet Patson Daka has still managed to score a big goal.

How has that happened? I thought it's impossible for strikers to score if the service isn't on point.

I championed Patson  Daka in the summer. While he is no Drogba he works a lot harder than Rom and would have been a good signing for us. Alas we had to go for the name brand that is rotten.

2 minutes ago, Argo said:

Leicester have been absolutely sh*t yet Patson Daka has still managed to score a big goal.

How has that happened? I thought it's impossible for strikers to score if the service isn't on point.

Too right Argo. We have to have star names right? Lukaku and Saul, that worked out great.

At least Saul did not destroy our team spirit and become a cancer to our squad.

Only way he gets dropped and sold is if we give him what Rafa got times 10. 

Roman will have no choice is the bridge is all against Lukaku game after game.

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Too right Argo. We have to have star names right? Lukaku and Saul, that worked out great.

At least Saul did not destroy our team spirit and become a cancer to our squad.

Saul will leave with my respect, he's out of his depth but he's never stopped trying and if we win in Wembley he'd have played his part, especially vs Spurs.

Funnily enough I've never seen any posts trying to shift blame for his poor performances onto anyone else. If he cost £100m you just know a way would have been found to deflect the blame onto Jorgi and/or Kova, possibly even Kante.

8 hours ago, Deino said:

That wasn't Lukaku's man to mark but tbh Lukaku shouldn't be there anyway. 

He's the last person you want in your own box. He can't judge fast aerial balls and he has been on the end of some comical own goals 

Isn’t he supposed to judge a cross whether it’s to score or to clear. If he can’t judge a cross surely that’s a major issue?

The Press didn’t pick up on TT comments criticising Lukaku and the other forwards publicly.

This should have been left for the dressing room.  Lukaku complained publicly about team and was pulled up on it.

I hope the group chat instead of a celebration last night isn’t a divide between coach and players.