10 hours ago, JPH said:

It was clear that we should have paid what ever it was demanded to get Haland to the team. We have not had a good striker in the team for ages. And without that we can't dream of winning PL.

I got stick on here and elsewhere for saying exactly the same thing. Everybody saying Lukaku was good vfm at 100m.

He’s a flat track bully, always has been, and that’s fine if you accept that level of performance, but he was brought in to be that goal scoring missing link to get us to the title again. Not even close. 

1 minute ago, Blue Exile said:

I got stick on here and elsewhere for saying exactly the same thing. Everybody saying Lukaku was good vfm at 100m.

He’s a flat track bully, always has been, and that’s fine if you accept that level of performance, but he was brought in to be that goal scoring missing link to get us to the title again. Not even close. 

Haaland is a player with the same characteristics though. He would likely also struggle against teams that park the bus and he's best with space in behind.

Lukaku may come good for us. Few teams park the bus to the extent West Ham did yesterday really. 5-10 years ago it was the tactic of nearly every poor or mediocre team when they faced the big teams but these days most try to play a bit more football. Yesterday it was hoofball from the 90s from West Ham, unfortunately it worked for them.

I suppose we bought Lukaku thinking that he has developed but it doesn’t seem so. Maybe it was Conte’s system that was good and suited him well?

Edited December 5, 20214 yr by JM7

Lukaku has now played 690 premier league minutes for 3 premier league goals.

Pulisic 235 minutes for 2 goals.

Havertz 771 minutes for 2 goals. 

Ziyech 395 minutes for 1 goal.

Werner 471 minutes for 1 goal.

CHO 584 minutes for 1 goal.

It's not exactly very good from our forwards across the board !

I've got to be honest and believe the dreaded chelsea striker curse has happened again,I wasn't over keen on tammy but he is probably better than lukaku 

8 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Lukaku has now played 690 premier league minutes for 3 premier league goals.

Pulisic 235 minutes for 2 goals.

Havertz 771 minutes for 2 goals. 

Ziyech 395 minutes for 1 goal.

Werner 471 minutes for 1 goal.

CHO 584 minutes for 1 goal.

It's not exactly very good from our forwards across the board !

Think we need another statistic like assists too.

Havertz is very unselfish.

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Lukaku has now played 690 premier league minutes for 3 premier league goals.

Pulisic 235 minutes for 2 goals.

Havertz 771 minutes for 2 goals. 

Ziyech 395 minutes for 1 goal.

Werner 471 minutes for 1 goal.

CHO 584 minutes for 1 goal.

It's not exactly very good from our forwards across the board !

To be fair its not easy when you play one week then you don't play for 2 games, then you play one game then you don't play the next 3 games. It's hard to get into any rhythm.

12 hours ago, JM7 said:

Chelsea truly is the graveyard for strikers. We can’t sign good forwards at all

You just know if we sell someone like Werner to whoever he will bang them in for fun.

Just how our luck with forwards go.

18 hours ago, Bob stark said:

You clearly don't understand how klopp want to play 

You do realise Klopp had a similar type striker when he took over called Christian Benteke and he couldn't wait to get rid of him.

Under Tuchel we predominately play in the oppositions half, that's 21 players in one half of the pitch, even our center backs come up to play in the other half, so much so that Rudiger has as many chances on goal as Lukaku. It's completely different to how every other team in the league plays, bar City, and most of the time it works and win, just lately the blame for the recently 5 dropped points is simply down to 2 individual errors from Jorginho and Mendy.

Lukaku does not fit into that system, HUGE dilema for Tuchel, change the system to fit Lukaku ? That would be insane.

 

1 hour ago, coco said:

Under Tuchel we predominately play in the oppositions half, that's 21 players in one half of the pitch, even our center backs come up to play in the other half, so much so that Rudiger has as many chances on goal as Lukaku. It's completely different to how every other team in the league plays, bar City, and most of the time it works and win, just lately the blame for the recently 5 dropped points is simply down to 2 individual errors from Jorginho and Mendy.

Lukaku does not fit into that system, HUGE dilema for Tuchel, change the system to fit Lukaku ? That would be insane.

 

He might have to. You don’t ask for, and pay £92m for a 28yr old forward without an idea of how to maximise his output. We just need to move the ball quicker & be a more direct, instead of the endless passes.

3 minutes ago, ducavis said:

He might have to. You don’t ask for, and pay £92m for a 28yr old forward without an idea of how to maximise his output. We just need to move the ball quicker & be a more direct, instead of the endless passes.

Those endless passes are key to how we play though, same as city, that's why were the best defensive units in the league. 'Being direct' is a bit vague, do you mean route one football ? that would be going backwards.

The only way i see Lukaku flourishing is in the 6yd box, a poacher who has the ability to predict where he should be to score, i think Tuchel was expecting the same, but Lukaku has not shown any poachers instinct so far.

3 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Lukaku has now played 690 premier league minutes for 3 premier league goals.

Pulisic 235 minutes for 2 goals.

Havertz 771 minutes for 2 goals. 

Ziyech 395 minutes for 1 goal.

Werner 471 minutes for 1 goal.

CHO 584 minutes for 1 goal.

It's not exactly very good from our forwards across the board !

IMO it shows that our tactics don't work. It's very strange that you spend so much money and that nobody can perform, we won't win the league relying on our CBs and full-backs scoring that's for sure.

Tuchel must make a deadly trio up top in attack or change his tactics and formation. You don't buy a world class talent like Havertz and a top striker like Lukaku only to dread the day Chilwell or James won't be available.

 

17 minutes ago, coco said:

Those endless passes are key to how we play though, same as city, that's why were the best defensive units in the league. 'Being direct' is a bit vague, do you mean route one football ? that would be going backwards.

The only way i see Lukaku flourishing is in the 6yd box, a poacher who has the ability to predict where he should be to score, i think Tuchel was expecting the same, but Lukaku has not shown any poachers instinct so far.

At the start of the season when he was fresh he was bullying whole Arsenal where he also scored in that first game of his, he had 2 shots blocked against Liverpool and then scored twice in the game after that against Villa and also scored against Zenit away in the first CL game, that means that at the start of the season his goals brought us 3 clean wins.

Then came the drought against Spurs, Man City and Southampton and he got injured at Brentford. Prior to his injury Tuchel was playing him non stop so there was a clear sign that he is our best striker, Werner couldn't get a sniff prior to Rom's injury.

He has shown his ability, actually one of his goals someone posted how it was 99% identical setup like he scored while he was in Inter, if I remember correctly it was him working with Kovacic for that goal and maybe someone else but that could mean that Tuchel didn't really work on our attacking phase with his new player but that Lukaku single-handedly replicated something that he was already doing while in Italy.

Edited December 5, 20214 yr by Gol15

1 minute ago, Gol15 said:

At the start of the season when he was fresh he was bullying whole Arsenal where he also scored in that first game of his, he had 2 shots blocked against Liverpool and then scored twice in the game after that against Villa and also scored against Zenit away in the first CL game, that means that at the start of the season his goals brought us 3 clean wins.

Then came the drought against Spurs, Man City and Southampton and he got injured at Brendford. Prior to his injury Tuchel was playing him non stop so there was a clear sign that he is our best striker, Werner couldn't get a sniff prior to Rom's injury.

As far as I'm concerned the ball is in Lukaku's court, it's down to him more than the manager or the team, he is the one that needs to step it up a few gears, we don't have space for a luxury player.

1 hour ago, ducavis said:

He might have to. You don’t ask for, and pay £92m for a 28yr old forward without an idea of how to maximise his output. We just need to move the ball quicker & be a more direct, instead of the endless passes.

I think it will depend on largely the results. If he's demoted Rom to squad player but as a result we're making a massive play for the big two I doubt the board will be that pissed.

For example there's were constant noises around 18 months ago that Marina was annoyed that we weren't doing everything we can to maximise Kepa's chances of success, we don't hear any of that anymore.

Appreciate he's just returning from injury but an absolute waste of space yesterday - Werner or Pulisic up front would have at least run the channels. If he doesn't bang in the goals I wouldn't disappointed if we replaced with Calvert-Lewin next summer.

Just now, the special one said:

Appreciate he's just returning from injury but an absolute waste of space yesterday - Werner or Pulisic up front would have at least run the channels. If he doesn't bang in the goals I wouldn't disappointed if we replaced with Calvert-Lewin next summer.

What's the obsession with directly replacing him with another out and out 9?

Replace him with a wide forward and keep Kai as false 9.

1 hour ago, coco said:

Those endless passes are key to how we play though, same as city, that's why were the best defensive units in the league. 'Being direct' is a bit vague, do you mean route one football ? that would be going backwards.

The only way i see Lukaku flourishing is in the 6yd box, a poacher who has the ability to predict where he should be to score, i think Tuchel was expecting the same, but Lukaku has not shown any poachers instinct so far.

Well neither Pep nor Klopp would have bought Lukaku as he is a box forward which won’t work for their systems. With the current system the service will have to be perfect for him to score with 17 other teams sat deep in their box.

21 minutes ago, Argo said:

What's the obsession with directly replacing him with another out and out 9?

Replace him with a wide forward and keep Kai as false 9.

I guess I never really perceived Calvert-Lewin as an out and out 9 - if transfermarkt is anything to go by he's played deeper as a second striker or out wide - or in other words he could rotate positions with Mount/Havertz? With Lukaku we're stuck with needing to adapt to him as a #9. If he bangs in the goals it may be a moot point but if he doesn't I'd take a striker who adapts to the team around him any day of the week (e.g. Firmino).

Edited December 5, 20214 yr by the special one

23 minutes ago, Argo said:

 

For example there's were constant noises around 18 months ago that Marina was annoyed that we weren't doing everything we can to maximise Kepa's chances of success, we don't hear any of that anymore.

Frank just denied that in a recent interview with Neville

 

 

 

I Feel To Get The Best Out Of Lukaku You Need To Change The System For Him, He Flourished In A 2 Striker System, Yes It Was In Serie A, But Still He Had Lautaro Running Into Channels And Creating The Space For Lukaku To Work

With The Current System It Doesn't Allow For Lukaku To Be In That Space He Wants

 

We saw the improved Lukaku once, at Arsenal. He came deeper, got involved in the play, bullied them. Was great. 

Then he became a target man and the rest is history.

Lukaku is the giant stone around TT neck pulling him to the abyss, our other forwards are the blunt tools he is trying to free himself with but could not cut through butter.

And AC and Rudigers contracts are the Hatchetts taking out his legs.

He has been set up for failure imo.

8 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

We saw the improved Lukaku once, at Arsenal. He came deeper, got involved in the play, bullied them. Was great. 

Then he became a target man and the rest is history.

Lukaku is the giant stone around TT neck pulling him to the abyss, our other forwards are the blunt tools he is trying to free himself with but could not cut through butter.

And AC and Rudigers contracts are the Hatchetts taking out his legs.

He has been set up for failure imo.

we shall see. Although Lukaku has basically missed the last 2 months and will need a few games to get back to speed. If he is still struggling by January then I agree it becomes a much bigger problem for Tuchel.

3 hours ago, coco said:

As far as I'm concerned the ball is in Lukaku's court, it's down to him more than the manager or the team, he is the one that needs to step it up a few gears, we don't have space for a luxury player.

He has the chance in the following games, I hope he'll take his chances because he'll get them.