Romelu Lukaku proving you shouldn’t listen to Manchester United fans, or social media at all

On Monday, with Inter Milan’s 5-0 drubbing of Shaktar Donetsk Romelu Lukaku scored twice to take his golden run to ten consecutive games in the Europa League. “But wait a minute” I  hear you ask,“isn’t he supposed to be rubbish?”.

The simple answer to this is no, however – should one listen too much to Manchester United fans on Twitter – you may be given this impression.

To slightly paraphrase Shakespeare, they doth whinge too much, methinks.

When Lukaku began his footballing life at Anderlecht it was clear that he was destined for some success. With a frame like his and a similarly impressive goal scoring record, they would need to batter the big clubs off with a stick. 33 goals in 73 games, as a teenager for those of you who are interested, for those who are not then ignore them as you are most likely to for the duration of this article.

Upon his signing for Chelsea he saw little action and was swiftly loaned to an average West Brom side in need of some firepower. This was a service he swiftly provided, scoring the only goal on his debut against Reading (he then contributed another two against the same opposition later in the season for good measure).

In the league Lukaku scored 17 goals in 35 games including a hattrick in a spectacular 5-5 draw in Sir Alex Ferguson’s last game in charge of Manchester United. Lukaku finished the season as the sixth highest scorer in the league, having netted more times than any of his contemporaries at parent club Chelsea. A loan move to Everton swiftly followed which was no less fruitful. Goals in both his full debut and home debut led him on the way to another season with a goal every two games, starting to see a pattern?

When the permanent move to Everton was completed in 2014 for 28 million pounds the onus was on Lukaku to make good on the promise shown in his loan spell. So often players impress on loan due to the need for future employment and we see a drop off once this has been secured.

This was not the case however as Lukaku went on to score his first hattrick for the club with a brilliant performance in the Europa League and broke some records in subsequent seasons.

First Everton player to score 20 goals in a season since Gary Lineker? Check. First overseas player and fourth player ever to score 80 premier league goals before reaching 24 years old? Yup.

This brilliance saw him named to the PFA Team of the Year and earned a 75 million pound move to Manchester United. This is where we saw (perceived) problems arise, as they so often do at this club.

In his first season at Manchester United Lukaku saw 34 games of premier league action and scored 16 goals, once again a touch under a goal every two games.

Quite an impressive return for a player often played slightly out of position on a distinctly average United squad, not to mention the first season under increased pressure due to the size of the club. Still we saw questions appear
about his ability. His second season is one to concede that he was not necessarily at the races for the duration.

However, for a player seeing a first slight drop in numbers for years the scepticism surrounding his ability after a still fairly decent twelve league goals was extremely unjust.

So where did this criticism come from?

Now my Premier League cynic-o’meter often points straight to the pressure and constant nonsensical coverage of the biggest teams and it is not completely unfounded. However, I also believe that Lukaku is unfortunate to play in the social media era full stop.

This is an era when every little mistake no matter how infrequently made or insignificant is regurgitated around meme pages and football “banter” pages incessantly.

Lukaku made a few small slip ups which looked extremely clumsy and – in isolation – were not glowing examples of his talent. However, the ability that social media has, to take hold of one clip and mould it to an agenda and perpetuate something sans-context has clearly affected Lukaku’s time at United. One 10 second video emerges of Lukaku falling over the ball and the narrative straight away becomes “Lukaku has a bad touch and isn’t a great footballer even if he scores goals”.

Not only is this unjust it is also just complete nonsense. Having witnessed a fair few of his games I concluded that actually, no one of his size and stature should have the ball skills that he possesses (see his goal against Chelsea in the FA cup).

This is not to say that Lukaku is a flawless footballer, far from it, but the vast majority of teams across Europe would be lucky to have him. I personally consider only a few strikers across the continent to be in higher esteem. Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo and perhaps Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane are the only strikers I perceive to be confidently more effective in front of goal (as pure strikers).

This is purely subjective of course but I would consider it somewhat egregious should he not place in your top ten! In terms of premier league recognition alone Lukaku achieved the feat of 100 league goals in fewer games than modern day greats Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba.

Those to reach this feat at a younger age? Owen, Fowler, Rooney, Kane – bad company? I think not.

Among these impressive goalscoring stats, Lukaku has provided 35 goals for teammates over the years in the premier league. One does wonder how many six foot three strikers of his stature can provide a similar level of all-round dominance, my guess is the list is not a long one.

A final -perhaps principle – factor in the perception of Lukaku is his time at Manchester United and the affect that this can have on a player. We have seen in recent years several world-renowned talents have seen their careers briefly stalled during their tenures at Old Trafford. Two prominent examples being Angel Di Maria and Memphis Depay who are now Champions League finalist and semi-finalist respectively.

At times Lukaku was asked to play as a winger, something his game is poorly suited to, and was not ably supported when played through the middle. This last season in Milan has provided proof of his lasting quality and has also proved that it is foolish to write off high class players from one slightly sub-par season in England.

Christian Eriksen, Ashley Young and Romelu Lukaku are just a few players to make the leap to the Italian league this season and prove their worth. The Premier League and Manchester United are not the only yardstick to measure a player’s worth by.

It is also a welcome to get your information from performances and numbers rather than a couple of narrative pleasing clips on social media!

My point is, Romelu Lukaku is genuinely world class and it is time he receives these plaudits.

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