Romelu Lukaku back to Chelsea - and gone again!

[ducavis]

1 hour ago, enigma said:

How the hell does he get supplied better chances to score at Inter Milan, opposed to here. Boggles my mind. Maybe it's the league, I don't know, but Serie A is supposed to be a toughest league to score in, so Lukaku should be banging them in here soon. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Plain simple Inter don’t setup with 5 defenders and 3 CMs. It’s nuts and not the right way to get the best out of a £100m forward. Inter used the same formation but played either Young/Perisic as LWB, ex wingers with good delivery, Hakimi as the RWB, 2 of Barella/Eriksen/Brozovic who can pick a pass from deep in the middle, and a tricky Martinez next to him. He simply isn’t getting the service here.

[coco]

15 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Plain simple Inter don’t setup with 5 defenders and 3 CMs. It’s nuts and not the right way to get the best out of a £100m forward. Inter used the same formation but played either Young/Perisic as LWB, ex wingers with good delivery, Hakimi as the RWB, 2 of Barella/Eriksen/Brozovic who can pick a pass from deep in the middle, and a tricky Martinez next to him. He simply isn’t getting the service here.

We were giving Werner plenty of chances last season with the same defensive formation. Everyone was saying the same thing, we just need a striker who can convert those chances, but now it's pretty clear that Werner's mobility was the reason he was getting those chances. Lukaku either needs to stay central and win his battles, or get a lot more mobile.

We can't just completely tear up last seasons winning blueprint to get more goals from Lukaku, can you remember those horrible defeats under Sarri when we we softer than a marshmallow? Now were a proper hard team to beat, and top of the league becasue of it,  even city could only thrash us 1-0.

[LongtimerLurker]

It's not so much the system but, the personnel imo why Rom isn't getting the service he needs. I think Mason Mount is a big part of this, on the one hand we can't play him every game as we need to make sure he doesn't get overloaded. 

In the same breath he is one of the players so far alongside Kovacic who has worked up a good understanding with Lukaku. Timo is another who seems to slowly but, surely be building chemistry with Rom. 

Lukaku can do more to make himself available but, make no mistake he isn't getting nearly as many early balls in behind the defense as he should. Its the same issue Timo had last season. It must be so frustrating to want the ball played in early and to not get it consistently. For whatever reason this midfield don't play nearly enough early through balls and it's why we struggle to break teams down.

Players like Ziyech, Werner, Kai, Mason, Pulisic and Callum are the ones I expect to unlock Lukaku. It's why people want us to play with an extra attacker because at least then we know we will have more creativity.

The current system lacks creativity not because of the formation but, the personnel imo and I will keep saying this until Jorginho, Kovacic, Ruben and whoever else is in midfield learns to pass earlier. 

Even Alonso and Chillwell can be caught lacking in terms of playing the early ball same with Azpil who will often times choose the side ball instead of the through ball (ofc this isn't always the case).

I'm not sure if this is an issue that can be coached or if we need to buy that creative spark who can play the eye of the needle pass I just don't know. Either way to win everything this season we will need to get the attack going because this squad is capable of winning at least 3 trophies this season. A reminder we have already won one.

Edited October 18, 2021 by LongtimerLurker

[axman2526]

Starting to believe @abramovich was right on this deal sadly.

[Gentian]

2 hours ago, ducavis said:

Plain simple Inter don’t setup with 5 defenders and 3 CMs. It’s nuts and not the right way to get the best out of a £100m forward. Inter used the same formation but played either Young/Perisic as LWB, ex wingers with good delivery, Hakimi as the RWB, 2 of Barella/Eriksen/Brozovic who can pick a pass from deep in the middle, and a tricky Martinez next to him. He simply isn’t getting the service here.

Exactly that. We set up with 5 defenders. Thats why Tuchel has tried both Hudson Odoi and Pulisic on the right of the wingback but unfortunately they look average there. Also explains the fact why we were after Hakimi who is the best wingback in the world in my opinion. 

[axman2526]

12 minutes ago, Gentian said:

Exactly that. We set up with 5 defenders. Thats why Tuchel has tried both Hudson Odoi and Pulisic on the right of the wingback but unfortunately they look average there. Also explains the fact why we were after Hakimi who is the best wingback in the world in my opinion. 

Then our first port of call should be finding the next best thing to Hakimi. After that, Alfonso Davies.

[petre ispirescu]

I trust Lukaku and I have no complaints so far, but for does who have, I think maybe we should wait until the end of the season before drawing any conclusions. 

A lot can happen during a season and let's say he will explode during March-May when we need his goals the most and we end up winning major trophies. We would look like complete fools for knocking him down back in October, wouldn't we?!

Best is yet to come from Lukaku IMHO.

[Gentian]

41 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Then our first port of call should be finding the next best thing to Hakimi. After that, Alfonso Davies.

Not necessarily. I think James has great potential. Than again am sure Tuchel is 10 steps ahead of us and am sure he is trying to figure out how he can play the attacking talent he has under his disposal. 

[Drogba1]

Maybe we should've just paid the extra 50 or so million for Haaland, a better player with way more room for improvement.

[Argo]

1 hour ago, Drogba1 said:

Maybe we should've just paid the extra 50 or so million for Haaland, a better player with way more room for improvement.

Haaland was never realistic, the wages would have absolutely destroyed our structure.

I felt we were onto something really good with Kai as false 9 but we'll never know now.

[Drogba1]

9 minutes ago, Argo said:

Haaland was never realistic, the wages would have absolutely destroyed our structure.

I felt we were onto something really good with Kai as false 9 but we'll never know now.

How much is Lukaku earning? I'm pretty sure it's one of the highest at the club

[nonotnowjim]

Just want us to try, just for once, our midfielders getting their head up, and playing a forward pass early!

All this debate, lazy, wrong system, wrong formation etc....yet, we can count on one hand the number of times over the past 5 games we have played the ball forward quickly to him.

Tuchel needs to instruct our players to stop with the sideways/backwards crap, and get the ball forward quickly. But given this was the same as with Werner last season, I doubt it will happen. We simply seem unable to pass it forward at pace with any regularity.

 

[Argo]

1 hour ago, Drogba1 said:

How much is Lukaku earning? I'm pretty sure it's one of the highest at the club

A lot but it's not in the same stratosphere at the package that would have been required for Haaland.

23 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Just want us to try, just for once, our midfielders getting their head up, and playing a forward pass early!

All this debate, lazy, wrong system, wrong formation etc....yet, we can count on one hand the number of times over the past 5 games we have played the ball forward quickly to him.

Tuchel needs to instruct our players to stop with the sideways/backwards crap, and get the ball forward quickly. But given this was the same as with Werner last season, I doubt it will happen. We simply seem unable to pass it forward at pace with any regularity.

We're talking about a bunch of players that created chances at will under Tuchel last season. Granted the vast majority were wasted but we were still creating a series of high quality openings.

[Munkunku]

8 hours ago, coco said:

Your'e going to need some cognitive therapy because Broja will be in our team next season.

[JM7]

Not sure I can cope with another endless  Torres or Shevchenko debate. 

[axman2526]

47 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Not sure I can cope with another endless  Torres or Shevchenko debate. 

You may have to if those sitters vs Saints, Juve and Brentford being missed are anything to go by.

[charierre]

 

[Bob stark]

On 19/10/2021 at 00:44, Drogba1 said:

Maybe we should've just paid the extra 50 or so million for Haaland, a better player with way more room for improvement.

If you provide him with no service, you will also complain about Haaland. 

[Deino]

8 hours ago, charierre said:

 

What's Flemish? 

He'd probably be a pundit after retirement

[Valerie]

2 hours ago, Deino said:

What's Flemish? 

 

Mock-Dutch 

[ducavis]

On 18/10/2021 at 19:35, nonotnowjim said:

Just want us to try, just for once, our midfielders getting their head up, and playing a forward pass early!

All this debate, lazy, wrong system, wrong formation etc....yet, we can count on one hand the number of times over the past 5 games we have played the ball forward quickly to him.

Tuchel needs to instruct our players to stop with the sideways/backwards crap, and get the ball forward quickly. But given this was the same as with Werner last season, I doubt it will happen. We simply seem unable to pass it forward at pace with any regularity.

 

They don’t have the ability to find that pass regularly though, that is the issue. You stick someone like Foden in the middle of the park for us, and we are a different side.

[erskblue]

Hopefully that injury tonight isn’t serious.

[axman2526]

Shame for him he is not out for a while off the back of 7 games without a goal. Adds more pressure for when he returns.

[jack_super_class]

On 18/10/2021 at 18:47, Argo said:

Haaland was never realistic, the wages would have absolutely destroyed our structure.

I felt we were onto something really good with Kai as false 9 but we'll never know now.

Could you hand on heart though think this guy might get us 20 goals to win us the premier league?.

I think without buying a striker we would off been in another battle to get top four.

[coco]

1 hour ago, jack_super_class said:

Could you hand on heart though think this guy might get us 20 goals to win us the premier league?.

I think without buying a striker we would off been in another battle to get top four.

Last season City won the league and Gundogan top scored with 13. We have plenty of goal scorers (14?) who will contribute towards our goal tally. It's not like Romelu was guaranteed 20 goals this season the way it was going before the injury.