One moment Sherkey says we need a winger to cross the balls in and now Mike says that we need to give him the ball to feet so he can run at players. Which if we take the latter, Solskjaer in his early games encouraged that style of play. I remember him saying he wanted players that can take risks with the ball, keep their head up and take on players. The game against Arsenal in FA Cup he even utilised Lukaku doing a similar role, albeit in a different position and he done well there.
He prefers Rashford in that forward position but ultimately they both got significant game time, it's not like Lukaku was totally frozen out and left in the changing room. Even in CL he played them both, that's not really a sign of a manager wanting to cast them out.
I'm not saying it's ALL Lukaku's fault because ultimately when a manager prefers another player you're going to have to accept that. But I don't see how we can say that it's not for long-term progression either. Solskjaer's vision is literally all about that, from the players he is bringing in and the style which will take numerous seasons to get close to perfecting.
