Romelu Lukaku

[brehme1989]

Sacramento were the last NBA team I woke up for in 3 am to watch.

There's pretty much nothing to see ever since. Well okay, until maybe the 2005 finals.

It's been free throws, time outs and three pointers at most ever since. Mostly free throws. And now mostly three pointers. And free throws, did I mention free throws?

 

[este19]

13 rings to 9 though.

Firstly not that big a difference, secondly it ignores context. The Jordan/Pippen Bulls played muuuuuch weaker competition that Wilt running into the 60's Celtics meat-grinder. Put Wilt in Russell's spot and he'd have 13 by himself.

I stand by my point that is better to have the chemistry and camaraderie than not. It's not meaningless. Us adding Lukaku's positive presence, and getting rid of the Icardi/Peresic pettiness, is a positive for this team on the field.

Think about how many more rings it would be if the goat did not retire in his prime twice!!!
Also it s not like jordan was an a hole to everybody there s multiple dudes on that Bulls team he s still very close friends with. To me those players were not neccesarly a-holes but they are guys that will do everything to win. And if they feel like your not doing your part they ll call you out. I mean it s well documented that jordan and rodman did not like eachother but they both knew what they bring to the floor so there were little problems on the field.
Also i d argue a player of the class of Jordan has to have a bit of an asshole attitude how else are you gonna take over a game and be like i m gonna win this for us? First of true professionals put personal feelings aside when they re on the field cause all that counts is winning.

Honestly i d rather have a a-hole whos gonna put the team on his back when it matters most(Jordan/kobe) than having a unselfish player that is loved by everybody but because of that also does not take over games like he could if he was more selfish.

Imho only true a-hole move jordan made was keeping Thomas out of that Dream team.

Myth. Jordan was too marketable at the time, and the mainstream media did everything they could to make people think the Bulls would keep winning had he not retired.

Their tune is a little different now that he's no longer a money-maker:
https://www.papercitymag.com/cultur...ush-michael-jordan-housto-rockets-nba-finals/

...which anyone paying close attention to his career could also have told you at the time. Interesting that Jordan is supposedly the GOAT, but never won anything at NC, obviously a much smaller pond than the NBA, after James Worthy left (James Worthy being easily the best player on the NC champion team... Jordan was an afterthought by comparison). And, Pippen did better on a Jordan-less Bulls than Jordan did without Pippen. Why did the Bulls only drop 2 games after Jordan's first retirement? My favorite is how people like to forget that Jordan came back in '95 but got crushed by the Magic (spoiler: because the Magic had taken Horace Grant off the Bulls), who were summarily swept by the Rockets. Look at what Hakeem did to Robinson and Shaq that year. I feel embarrassed on Luc Longley's behalf just thinking about that matchup in the finals.


...but to get back to the point, once again. Lukaku's positive locker-room presence is a good thing.

 

[Shark]

Please go to the basketball thread.

You guys are annoying people all over the world.

 

[K.I.]

Please go to the basketball thread.

You guys are annoying people all over the world.

Good :slick:

 

[uzhang]

Mod please do something

Sent from my vivo 1718 using Tapatalk

 

[Candreva Crosses]

For the love of god. There is off topic talking about Icardi on a Lukaku thread but fkn basket? Ban worthy

 

[este19]

Apologies, I didn't even know there was a basketball thread, and more importantly only brought up the Kings point as a counter-argument to all the "players getting along doesn't matter" stuff. I didn't think so many people would run with the basketball discussion. I tried to bring each of my posts back to my original point about Lukaku since this is obviously his thread.

If anybody else replies with basketball stuff I'll ignore or just reply in the basketball thread. Thanks.

 

[Ziyad]

Back on topic guys

Lukaku amazing
Icardi sucks
and go Celtics

 

[SB93]

In Lukaku related news... Apparently Napoli's keeper is out injured this weekend. With a bad case of Lukaku thunderbolt shot to the wrist.

 

[delaurentis]

Don't forget that Lukaku himself is an NBA fan. So this basketball talk in the Lukaku thread is....uhm....relevant.

 

[brehme1989]

Don't forget that Lukaku himself is an NBA fan. So this basketball talk in the Lukaku thread is....uhm....relevant.

Probably the only discussion that makes him smile when he's going to be reading this thread.

 

[Provenzano]

 

[CafeCordoba]

Very mixed feelings regarding Lukaku in this match. He's been using his body better recently and this match he utilized his size very well.

But man the lack of pressing in his game. What the fuck? Brozo got visibly frustrating with Lukaku many times in the match when the big man just walks or jogs there when the rest of the team is trying to do the pressing. One guy can ruin the pressing completely and that's what Lukaku usually do, specially today.

And his arms spreading, jesus christ. You're suppose to be the leader in this group, one who sets the example. Don't be such a fucking douchebag.

edit. In this match I sympathized Brozo's arms spreading and that's something from me.

 

[acroMacho]

Very mixed feelings regarding Lukaku in this match. He's been using his body better recently and this match he utilized his size very well.

But man the lack of pressing in his game. What the fuck? Brozo got visibly frustrating with Lukaku many times in the match when the big man just walks or jogs there when the rest of the team is trying to do the pressing. One guy can ruin the pressing completely and that's what Lukaku usually do, specially today.

And his arms spreading, jesus christ. You're suppose to be the leader in this group, one who sets the example. Don't be such a fucking douchebag.

With the pressing, it's more because of his physicality. You either have bulky muscles with strength or lean muscles with a lot of endurance. He is the type that needs more recovery and cannot run all the time like Brozovic.

He was well read in the later stage of the game, 80% of our gameplan was to play through Lukaku, who tried to quick pass it to Lautaro. It worked early, but later Atalanta just closed him down (sometimes with 3 players) and we just lost the ball.
He had to be substituted, but Conte insist on having strong/agile duo. At least I have some hopes with Giroud coming in, that next we will be in that situation we will have some alternative to our build up play.

 

[Wallace]

R9 didn’t press, why does Lukaku have to press given that he’s better than R9?

 

[William]

Again the amount of fake or mistimed jumps in this game was hilarious and infuriating to watch! I’ve never seen a professional player mistime so much!

 

[Howl]

To his credit, that move in the opening minutes where he got past and shrugged off a few Atalanta players and hit the post was great (despite being unsuprisingly offside).

He needs to move about and press more as mentioned above. Also unfair that even when he does jump and out muscle players, refs give a foul against him half the time because the opposition players know to make the most of it to get a 'foul'.

We barely had any possession and Gagliardini and Sensi were off tonight, so cant say much about Lukaku. He did link up nicely for Lautaro's goal though.

 

[brehme1989]

It was yet another game where he failed to score and was more of a nuisance for his team and teammates than an asset. The first minute attempt was his peak in the game, after that it was all downhill...

His best games have come after early goals of his. Without them it's like he needs to be pampered or something, it's freakishly and inexplicably annoying.

 

[ElDuccio]

If you ask me, he was amazing in the first half. Won a lot of balls. Even when it was hard to stop the ball, he always found a way to controll it to make a run or pass it to Lautaro. I saw more him then Gagliardini in the midfield.

 

[brehme1989]

If you ask me, he was amazing in the first half. Won a lot of balls. Even when it was hard to stop the ball, he always found a way to controll it to make a run or pass it to Lautaro. I saw more him then Gagliardini in the midfield.

He gave away possession too many times and the times he did not, his teammates had to run to awkward places to barely save it. Even Lautaro's goal which was a sort of a combination between them had Lautaro nick the ball off the defender as the pass was very poor.

His best effort was in the first minute that hit the bar. After that he couldn't win a header and everytime he received the ball he was bound to lose or misplace it. It was one of his worst games actually, far worse than Roma and probably as bad as the home Slavia game.

The only improvement was that he didn't lose the ball most times from first touch but from the second or third.... If you can call that improvement, then sure, silver linings everywhere.