I really understand these both arguments. He put up a good performance, specially that crucial 3-1 run. But also brehme points out stuff which didn't work.
Really tired of this epic battle regarding Lukaku in this forum. Whenever brehme points out flaws in his game, people coming in bashing hard. These points are usually correct but because it's brehme who has been against Lukaku ACQUISITION since the start, people just go apeshit whatever is said. Then again brehme downplays the good stuff Lukaku does and concentrates a lot on the negatives he does (which he does).
To me Lukaku is really a confusing player. He has his amazing moments and of course the goal scoring record. But then he has these moments of really average player fucking up shit or not understanding basic things. Confusing player definitely.
edit. Gotta add, that whole goal was really one of the best single plays Lukaku has done at Inter IMO. Specially that he takes advantage of grandpa Parolo and then passes instead of trying to shoot to setup Lautaro for the free goal. Because trying to shoot from that position would have probably ended to Reina. He barely got the pass released. brehme said it well that Lukaku should try to set up his team mates more because his finishing isn't really world class.
It's actually quite simple.
Lukaku as an acquisition, without any context, has been a positive one. He's a starter, he contributes with scoring and he essentially is irreplaceable in this lineup for whatever reasons.
Lukaku, as a transfer, has been a rather bad investment. We spent a shit load of money on him to do things that others could done with half the cost, he does not elevate our level as he fails to step up in important games and as a result, we have been thinner in our team selection since we could not afford a backup striker and we did not commit the funds on a top midfielder in the summer of 2019. The fact that Eriksen came as a present with just 20m does not rule this fact out, especially when considering that it tooks 13 months for Conte to admit that this guy is an Inter player and he has to integrate him in the squad.
Lukaku is not world class and he lost his chance to become this kind of player. He is very volatile in terms of confidence, he doesn't take advantage of his qualities, he misses too many sitters that do not come under any real pressure and his deficiencies are too extravagant to ignore. This does not mean he's a bad player. He's just not that great. If he was, no one would have been crying for wasting money on him but instead everyone would have been on board from the get go. It's a poor investment that we have to live with and hopefully the rest of the team (Barella, Eriksen, Brozovic, the defensive trio, Sanchez, Vidal and Lautaro) step up in order to maximize the team's chances at winning something.
Being a record transfer comes with certain expectations. He deserves to be under scrutiny and if he cannot tolerate it, well, it just adds to the fact that he's not been a solid investment.
Because so far the results are underwhelming. It's great that we are top of the table, but we still have almost one round of games to go. Don't let the date fool you, this is typically late January by normal scheduling. Most teams hit form in March and this year it's a mystery of what's going to happen. Hopefully we're the ones hitting form, but we've been quite streaky.