Romelu Lukaku

[Choppin Onions]

There's been talk of a troublesome back too. Honestly the entire team looked mediocre, not just Lukaku. I blame the international break tbh. Brozo played 180 minutes with Croatia and he's the guy pulling the strings for us and yet you would barely know he was on the pitch today

Lukaku is gonna be a work in progress. I expect Conte to find the striker we all want him to be eventually.

 

[brehme1989]

Give him time. We gave Adri years in the hope the emperor would return, let’s give this guy at least a couple of months before we start holding him to the ratings we gave him when we signed.

It's a whole different narrative. Adriano was a young player we had, loaned away, then sold 50% of his rights only to buy him back when he was at his best. He was an immediate hit upon his return, as expected. And he was at the top of the world.

We "gave him time" only because it was a psychological issue that we tried to help him overcome. We also gave him time and space by loaning him away, then Mourinho tried to re-integrate him in the team. With partial success, but he was a lost cause. Mentally. And it's not like we bought him from Sao Paulo in 2008 and "gave him time". He didn't cost us shit to give time to.

Now with Lukaku we made a record signing. We have to expect someone who is ready and at the top of the game, otherwise all the people shouting "waste of money" are correct.

This guy is not ready, his characteristics that people want him to improve have never been there so it's not a matter of mental recovery - which is insane to consider for a record signing to begin with - but one of acquiring skills he never mastered.

He's not going to be completely useless, but he's not "record transfer" material. At least not for Inter where this was reserved for Ballon D'Or contenders throughout our history!

The main problem we have with Lukaku is that we have no one to replace him even temporarily. Lautaro is the only other proper striker we have and then it's light weight forwards like Sanchez and Politano. Heck, even Lazaro could fit that role if needed. But we may be forced to look for Ranocchia once again if we want a box striker

 

[William]

@ Brehme

I wasn’t making direct comparisons with Adri, only highlighting that we invested time in his scenario and have to do a similar thing now.

I think 100% of people here would agree that he isn’t record breaking transfer material. If anything, we broke the bank knowing there was a lot of work to put in to make him anywhere near what he was at Everton. It seems mental, that we’d break the bank, only to have to put a lot of work in, but we still did and therefore still need to offer a bit of time and patience.

 

[Ed.]

No

Mark my words he will be the biggest flop in Serie A history. What a waste of money

don't forget to stock up some cucumbers at home. you'll need them for practice.

 

[brehme1989]

To the person, yes. Lukaku must not be jeered or whatever. He is who he is.

The problem is that our team may suffer from this choice and whatever boos or crticisms come toward him will essentially be about his humongous price tag. This is money we could have brought someone like Christian Eriksen with, so the opportunity cost factor is huge here.

 

[MusicalMafia]

He is a record signing but in very weird times when it comes to transfer fees. For me, that term became meaningless. Did he cost a lot? Yes. Also bearing mind the inflation, would he cost anything close to the sum of money we paid for Vieri and the time we bought the latter? No. Different times so this tag can only put pressure and doesn't really tell the whole story.

 

[Fapuccino]

I'd rather we have Sanchez up top as a false 9, with Lukaku playing off the shoulder. I feel like he will struggle against teams that park the bus. Let Sanchez shake off the markers with his movement and technique, and Lukaku should just seek to get open.

Even Icardi struggled with 4-5 people marking him, let alone Lukaku who is used to a more open style of play.

 

[Lui]

His biggest adjustment will be his ability to play in close proximity to his attacking support. Everyother trait it is was it is. First game vs lecce was ideal for his style of play but in the two games that followed he was tightly marke, close to goal and needed to make quick passes. Lautaro is also facing a similar tactical adjustment.

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

 

[Bluenine]

Not sure what the issue is here. Lukaku is playing pretty much on expected lines, perhaps with a bit more time and fitness his performances will improve a notch. But I don't think anyone here was expecting Lukaku to turn into Ronaldo at Inter just coz we paid so much. We paid a record transfer fee for Lukaku coz thats where the market is at, and coz Conte wanted him specifically to use as a battering ram. Our friend Brehme is a bit out of sync with the current market values, so I am not surprised by his post (cue for Brehme to list some market steals this summer to completely miss the point ).

Lukaku's greatest asset for Conte is his physicality. Just by being there, he makes space for the 2nd striker and midfielders to score goals. We have already seen glimpses of this. And yes, he will also score a goal every 2 games - but it won't be spectacular. We have already seen this too. His fitness and game play will improve a bit with time, but largely you can already see why Conte wanted him.

 

[Cauet]

What the hell was with that strap he was wearing? Didn't he lose some weight already or was that all bs paper propaganda to make him look good?

 

[RickyMaravilla'sRightFoot]

Not a good game, but how many anonymous Icardi performances have we sat through? I'm hoping he puts in a good shift against Prague and Milan. I don't care if he scores or someone else as long as he helps the team play.

 

[Wobblz]

What the hell was with that strap he was wearing? Didn't he lose some weight already or was that all bs paper propaganda to make him look good?

Looks like something you'd use for warming up an aching lower back.

Old wool scarf soaked in rakia for us Balkanites

 

[nurko]

Looks like something you'd use for warming up an aching lower back.

Old wool scarf soaked in rakia for us Balkanites

Haha

It does look like those "burn belly faster" things that don't work at all and I assume Inter level fitness experts would know so much in 2019, so I guess it's for lower back support and warmup.

 

[sanand1]

It's a whole different narrative. Adriano was a young player we had, loaned away, then sold 50% of his rights only to buy him back when he was at his best. He was an immediate hit upon his return, as expected. And he was at the top of the world.

We "gave him time" only because it was a psychological issue that we tried to help him overcome. We also gave him time and space by loaning him away, then Mourinho tried to re-integrate him in the team. With partial success, but he was a lost cause. Mentally. And it's not like we bought him from Sao Paulo in 2008 and "gave him time". He didn't cost us shit to give time to.

Now with Lukaku we made a record signing. We have to expect someone who is ready and at the top of the game, otherwise all the people shouting "waste of money" are correct.

This guy is not ready, his characteristics that people want him to improve have never been there so it's not a matter of mental recovery - which is insane to consider for a record signing to begin with - but one of acquiring skills he never mastered.

He's not going to be completely useless, but he's not "record transfer" material. At least not for Inter where this was reserved for Ballon D'Or contenders throughout our history!

The main problem we have with Lukaku is that we have no one to replace him even temporarily. Lautaro is the only other proper striker we have and then it's light weight forwards like Sanchez and Politano. Heck, even Lazaro could fit that role if needed. But we may be forced to look for Ranocchia once again if we want a box striker

We could have been better off with Dzeko and Martinez for this role and save the money for SMS or a similar player, that would have gave us the team to be title material, with this guy we're not.

 

[A.l.i]

He looked a little slow and jaded tbh.

 

[rfU]

Commentators said it best, we just need to work on his anticipation and confidence to make runs ahead of play. His passing was better than the previous games (though still needs improvement) it’s just that he needs to stop reacting and start being proactive.

I imagine conte will get this up on his priority list which should also improve even just by time spent with the team and learning how the playmakers think besides getting him to focus on it.

Some things you just can't teach.

 

[Dogen]

It was indeed reported that he felt minor discomfort in his back during the pre-match warm up and Conte was quick to confirm the issue in the post-game interviews.

That didn't prevent Antonio from shouting at him and heating up on the sideline for 65 minutes, and rightly so.

Holding the waist band while applauding the crowd and walking off the pitch was a smart move by Lukaku: not only he handed hilarity on a silver platter to many, but he also earned the asterisk to put next to his performance.

 

[Demenza Senile]

Our world record signing hardly matters to me when the world record is 220 million.It only shows me how far we've fallen since the heydays of the late 90s early 00s.But that is okay and hardly a metric that worries me.Lukaku fits the Conte system and that is very important.I am hoping he can get 20 goals overall for us this season and for me that would pretty much justify the rather humble sounding 65 million when put into perspective of the world around us [Okay 80 does melt the eyes a bit more as i am sure some/one member would like to point out].I am also hoping he can give us 5-6 assists and most importantly 5-10 HOCKEY ASSISTS this season.That last metric is really what matters at the end of the day!

 

[surripere]

He looked a little slow and jaded tbh.

Conte: “Romelu had a problem during the warm-up, in his back. So, first of all, I’d like to thank him because he played and gave everything he had. Clearly his performance wasn’t very brilliant. But he had this problem..."

 

[I'mNewHere]

He is literally at like 70% form, in his third game with a minor backinjury back from an international break.

Yeah he fucking sucks LOL