Lukaku wants to prove himself on European stage
Oliver Kay, Chief Football Correspondent
July 25 2017, 12:01am,
The Times
Lukaku believes Mourinho can bring out the best in himPROSPORTS/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
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If Zlatan Ibrahimovic, his predecessor in the Manchester United No 9 shirt, liked to portray himself as the supreme centre forward, Romelu Lukaku prefers a blunter form of self-assessment. When invited yesterday to draw comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski, prolific goalscorers in the Champions League, he pronounced himself “far from that level”.
Lukaku does not lack self-belief. What he has always demonstrated is a willingness to acknowledge — and to try to work on — the shortcomings in his game. To judge by his comments in an interview with British newspapers in Washington yesterday, on the latest leg of United’s American pre-season tour, he is aware that he has more rough edges to his game than might be expected of a player who will cost United a minimum £75 million transfer fee. He also expressed a belief that José Mourinho, who sold him three years ago, deeming him too raw, is the manager to smooth them down.
“I have improved a lot,” Lukaku said, recalling the player he was at Chelsea when he was loaned by Mourinho to Everton at the age of 20 and then sold to the same club a year later. “He [Mourinho] sees it as well, but I still have more improvement.”
In Premier League terms, Lukaku is a proven goalscorer: 85 goals (25 of them last term) in the past five seasons, which also includes a highly impressive spell on loan to West Bromwich Albion as a teenager. In that respect, he appears a safer bet than Álvaro Morata, whom Chelsea signed from Real Madrid for an initial £58 million after being beaten to Lukaku’s signature. When it comes to the Champions League, however, it is a different story; whereas Morata scored big goals in the tournament for Juventus and Real, Lukaku’s only Champions League experiences came in the play-off round as a teenager at Anderlecht.
When asked whether he can score consistently in the Champions League, like Ronaldo and Lewandowki, the Belgium forward was honest about the need, at 24, to prove that he can make the step up. “I’m a goalscorer,” he said. “I have always scored goals, even in Europe; my record in the Europa League is really good. Now I think the Champions League is the next stage where I have to prove myself.”
Is he already at that level? “No, no, no,” he said. “I’m far from that level. It’s the level I want to aim for, but it’s all about the team. I want them to win trophies.”
What does he need to do to reach that level? “Keep improving,” he said. “I just want to become the best player I can be. I’m 24. I can’t say I’m the complete package. I can’t say I’m in my prime. I always want to be better. It’s a pressure I put on myself.
“When you play for a club like United, you have to perform every week.”
Lukaku is a proven goalscorer and in that respect, he appears a safer bet than Morata, who Chelsea ended up signing after missing out on the Belgium striker
Lukaku is a highly accomplished goalscorer — one who, with the right service, should be optimistic of being the 30-goal-a-season centre forward United have not had since Robin van Persie excelled in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final campaign in charge.
The question will always be about whether Lukaku has enough subtlety to his game to take United to a level that has proved beyond them in the four years since Ferguson’s retirement; for a £75 million outlay, Mourinho has to find a way to ensure that Lukaku adds a different dimension to a forward line that looked too predictable and too ponderous last season, when the team scored only 54 goals in 38 Premier League matches.
A particular problem for United last season was their struggle to break down packed defences at Old Trafford, dropping points at home to Burnley, West Ham United, Hull City, Bournemouth, West Bromwich Albion and Swansea City among others. There have always been “flat-track bully” accusations about Lukaku’s goalscoring record, but Mourinho’s team needed precisely that approach at times last term — even if the statistics about shots taken at times glossed over a lack of subtlety and incisiveness in their attacking play.
Lukaku needs to add more refinement to his all-round game. His touch can be alarmingly heavy, as has been underlined at times during United’s pre-season matches in America, but nobody is expecting him to be transformed into Dimitar Berbatov. The greater issue will be in ensuring that his all-round game enhances the team. Mourinho’s main demand of his centre forwards has tended to be less about scoring goals or stretching defences than about hold-up play. For a big man, Lukaku is remarkably good at the other side of the game, using his pace and power, but Mourinho will demand that he improves his hold-up play.
“I’m different,” Lukaku said when asked about comparisons with Didier Drogba, his hero. “Drogba is more of a hold-up player, a target man. I prefer to have the ball to feet and to run in behind. We might have physical similarities, but we’re totally different players. I’m Romelu Lukaku. I want to create my own history.”
In him we've got an instinctive gamechanger, with a dynamite shot, ability to hold off men/evade challenges and has a quality eye for a key pass - we need him as close to the goal as a CM can get without disrupting the balance.