• The Houseboat

  • Other clubs transfer thread Summer 2017 ( Barcelona sign Dembele)

75m for a literal donkey must surely be a world record

Most Everton fans seem to actively dislike the guy. Always talking about the club as if he's doing them a favour playing for them and most were disgusted with his attitude on the pitch and his laziness

Bigger Adebayor with a worse touch, two years from now he'll be at Palace or some other shithouse club with too much money. Fuck him

They improved on Fellaini as a striker, I'll give them that 😆

jones wrote:
arsedoc md wrote:

:hmm: :boris:

What?

we'd be that club right about now.(tongue in cheek)

raoila and mendes repeatedly bend them over

It's a class signing imo. He'll score a shed load of goals for them.

i think morata would have enhanced guys like rashford, mkhitaryan and martial. much more dynamism. put lukaku in front of them and i think it takes something away from those guys and forces them to play 'lukaku ball' i.e. lumping the ball into him constantly. maybe thats what jose wants

Lump? Do you guys even watch Everton? This guy is often running back to build up the play. Even puts in nice crosses for his teammates.
I honestly believe that a lot of Lukaku criticism just comes from guys who see his frame and assume he's an ogre, but never actually watch Everton games end to end. This is an excellent, skilled striker. He's still young enough to improve on things like his passing accuracy on the ground, or his aerial game, etc.

Claudius wrote:

Lump? Do you guys even watch Everton? This guy is often running back to build up the play. Even puts in nice crosses for his teammates.
I honestly believe that a lot of Lukaku criticism just comes from guys who see his frame and assume he's an ogre, but never actually watch Everton games end to end. This is an excellent, skilled striker. He's still young enough to improve on things like his passing accuracy on the ground, or his aerial game, etc.

i watched plenty of everton games last season and kept an eye out for him in particular, to see if i was missing something. he's technically inconsistent and that's not something that changes after 24

people who reckon he has some big upside are going to be surprised when they see the exact same player 4 years down the road

Lukaku being the same player 4 years from now would put him well on the path to being the top goalscorer in Premier League history.

maybe. but it remains to be seen if his goals actually help his teams win trophies, and he's not just stuffing the stat sheet

Diaby KungFu wrote:

Lukaku being the same player 4 years from now would put him well on the path to being the top goalscorer in Premier League history.

LOL. I wonder what it is that people are looking for. Who is this perfect striker who does it all - has amazing link-up play, scores a third of his shots, is good in the air, fast on throughballs, works hard for the team. 

Claudius wrote:
Diaby KungFu wrote:

Lukaku being the same player 4 years from now would put him well on the path to being the top goalscorer in Premier League history.

LOL. I wonder what it is that people are looking for. Who is this perfect striker who does it all - has amazing link-up play, scores a third of his shots, is good in the air, fast on throughballs, works hard for the team. 

Thierry

Gazza M wrote:

maybe. but it remains to be seen if his goals actually help his teams win trophies, and he's not just stuffing the stat sheet

I really don't get this argument. If he continues to score at the rate that he has, then surely he has done his primary job and contributed to the team. Doing this would give his team (particularly if he is at a Man U or Chelsea as opposed to Everton) a bloody good chance of winning trophies. After all, goals win games. It really is that simple. He doesn't need to be pretty to be effective.

Big Willie wrote:
Claudius wrote:

LOL. I wonder what it is that people are looking for. Who is this perfect striker who does it all - has amazing link-up play, scores a third of his shots, is good in the air, fast on throughballs, works hard for the team. 

Thierry

not so sure about the good in the air part, but good, go get your Thierry. shake the cobwebs off him and put him in our squad to face Leicester on opening night  :hat:

He'd probably score the opening goal.

it's not about finding a perfect striker. i'd happily take a slightly less clinical striker if he makes the team player better as a whole, like benzema at real. i think morata would've been that guy for united so i'm glad they're not getting him

lukaku will always have good individual stats. no arguement on that

Benzema plays with a better team for a start

Gazza M wrote:

it's not about finding a perfect striker. i'd happily take a slightly less clinical striker if he makes the team player better as a whole, like benzema at real. i think morata would've been that guy for united so i'm glad they're not getting him

lukaku will always have good individual stats. no arguement on that

Goals are not 'just another stat' though, they are the defining point of football. If a player is scoring goals at a very good rate, how is he doing anything other than making the team play better? Are we talking 'better' as in a subjective way (ie 'beautiful football') or are we talking 'better' in an objective sense as in putting the ball in the net and increasing the odds of winning games/trophies?

Lukaku is a proven, consistent goalscorer who does it at a very high level, and is arguably not in his prime yet. What's not to like?

Daz wrote:
Gazza M wrote:

it's not about finding a perfect striker. i'd happily take a slightly less clinical striker if he makes the team player better as a whole, like benzema at real. i think morata would've been that guy for united so i'm glad they're not getting him

lukaku will always have good individual stats. no arguement on that

Goals are not 'just another stat' though, they are the defining point of football. If a player is scoring goals at a very good rate, how is he doing anything other than making the team play better? Are we talking 'better' as in a subjective way (ie 'beautiful football') or are we talking 'better' in an objective sense as in putting the ball in the net and increasing the odds of winning games/trophies?

So he makes a more positive impact than a player like Thierry? Or Alexis? Or Bergkamp?

It's an incredibly simplistic argument. Goals are great but if your touch and other aspects of your game are impeding the quality of the teams attacking game then you will find yourself falling short quite often.

And for all the talk of Lukaku playing with substandard players at Everton, going have a look at how many of his goals were laid on a plate for him.

Lukaku is meant to be all about goals but he has only had one season where he's scored more than 20 league goals.

goon wrote:
Daz wrote:

Goals are not 'just another stat' though, they are the defining point of football. If a player is scoring goals at a very good rate, how is he doing anything other than making the team play better? Are we talking 'better' as in a subjective way (ie 'beautiful football') or are we talking 'better' in an objective sense as in putting the ball in the net and increasing the odds of winning games/trophies?

So he makes a more positive impact than a player like Thierry? Or Alexis? Or Bergkamp?

It's an incredibly simplistic argument. Goals are great but if your touch and other aspects of your game are impeding the quality of the teams attacking game then you will find yourself falling short quite often.

That's not my argument though. But yes I do believe that a very good 'pure striker' can be as effective as a more 'complete/creative forward'. Different roles, but both can be equally effective/important. People tend to underrate the effectiveness of pure strikers these days, opinions on Lukaku just being one current example.

A great touch, great movement and great finishing are not attributes for a complete/creative forward though, they're pretty vital attributes to aid a great goalscorer or pure striker as you put it.

When all is said and done, there's a reason why Lukaku's goalscoring rate isn't much better than Giroud's over the last 3 seasons and is nowhere near even Kane. There's a reason why he's very streky and has long periods where he looks like a donky. It's because he's lacking in many areas, even for a goalscorer.

Gazza M wrote:

maybe. but it remains to be seen if his goals actually help his teams win trophies, and he's not just stuffing the stat sheet

[Twitter]

Yeah, really hope we keep Giroud.

Ricky1985 wrote:
Gazza M wrote:

maybe. but it remains to be seen if his goals actually help his teams win trophies, and he's not just stuffing the stat sheet

[Twitter]

That's pretty telling. Stat padder. Hope United sign him instead of Morata who is the opposite of a stat padding striker.

In total, Morata's league goals for Real Madrid last season were directly responsible for 13 points as Zinedine Zidane's men edged out Barcelona to win their first La Liga title in five years. Even Cristiano Ronaldo's 25 league goals only yielded one more point than that.

Indeed, Morata's goals were more valuable than those of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, James Rodriguez and Isco combined. In the Champions League, the 24-year-old also scored a last-minute winner against Sporting. These were often clutch goals at key moments.

It was the same with Juve, turned up in nearly every big CL game I watched him with a top performance.

Seems bizarre that United are leaking that they've agreed a 75m fee while Everton are insisting nothing has been agreed.

Ricky1985 wrote:
Gazza M wrote:

maybe. but it remains to be seen if his goals actually help his teams win trophies, and he's not just stuffing the stat sheet

[Twitter]

Yeah because if you score 2 goals at White Hart Lane and your team mates still manage to concede 3 your goals don't get you points. How thats a strike against Lukaku to some people is kind of baffling though.

Another example of ridiculous use of 'stats'

goon wrote:

A great touch, great movement and great finishing are not attributes for a complete/creative forward though, they're pretty vital attributes to aid a great goalscorer or pure striker as you put it.

They are good attributes to have, but pace and power are also pretty useful. But again you're still missing the point and muddying the argument. There is not one type of forward who can score alot of goals and be an asset to a team. Lukaku is a good and effective forward who consistently scores a bunch of goals. It's just a fact. You may not like his style or think he is complete, but your opinions or prefernces don't change that fact.

JazzG wrote:

His all round game isn't what I'd expect for a £75m player even though his goal scoring record goes a long way in justifying his hype. His game did improve last season but at a top club where teams will sit back and not give him space to run into it will need to improve further.

TBF he's about as good at the big man CF role as Giroud. The fact he can play both off the shoulder and as a target man is what makes him worth £75m to United.

Daz wrote:
goon wrote:

A great touch, great movement and great finishing are not attributes for a complete/creative forward though, they're pretty vital attributes to aid a great goalscorer or pure striker as you put it.

They are good attributes to have, but pace and power are also pretty useful. But again you're still missing the point and muddying the argument. There is not one type of forward who can score alot of goals and be an asset to a team. Lukaku is a good and effective forward who consistently scores a bunch of goals. It's just a fact. You may not like his style or think he is complete, but your opinions or prefernces don't change that fact.

Right, but no one is arguing against that fact. What we're arguing is that despite that his weaknesses hamper the team in other ways. His goals alone are not enough. No team has ever won the league scoring 24 goals and the performance of his teammates are not independent of him.

Put it this way, Giroud's mins per goal ratio over the last 5 seasons is actually marginally better than Lukaku's (158 vs 153). Why have we all been crying out for a new striker for the last half decade?

Clichy has found a new club, team mates with Adebayor now.

United get consistently fucking rinsed on transfer fees 😆