Romelu Lukaku has played every single minute in all 20 of Manchester United’s Premier League games this season. Across all competitions, he’s started every game but three. He’s been a total workhorse, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be getting more rest any time soon.
Despite fellow center forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic reaching match fitness well ahead of anyone’s schedule, the Swede’s presence anas availability for selection won’t result in the £75 million summer transfer window addition seeing a little more time off.
“No, I can’t,” United manager Jose Mourinho responded when he was asked if he could give his Belgian striker a rest.
“First of all, people don’t have to be grateful to Romelu,” Mourinho continued during his weekly Friday news conference today (video here)
“I have to be, not you, not the supporters, not the pundits. I have to be.
“I think for a striker, any player, he’s absolutely incredible, but if you are a central defender, a holding midfield player, where you can control your energy, positional play, you can resist, survive. But for a striker to play 20 matches in the Premier League, 90 minutes, I have to be grateful.”
“Is he unlucky in our box in recent matches?”
“He was in the picture, was not a direct influence on just him, but he was in the picture in some of the last goals we concede, but it is a consequence of a player that really needs a little rest, but the guy is fantastic for me and for the team and gives absolutely everything and I’ve no (bad things to say).”
Lukaku started the season off extremely stellar, but his production has significantly slipped as the campaign has gone on. Perhaps that is due to overwork, and fatigue? While Mourinho won’t say anything bad about Lukaku, United supporters certainly have. The 24-year-old has been heavily criticized by his own fan base this season.
The idea of playing Lukaku and Ibrahimovic at the same time is an idea Mourinho has discussed in detail quite often this season. He’s done it already, but insists he’s can’t do it again until they are in better form.
“It can happen but I think to happen they need both to be in their best moment and they are not,” Mourinho continued.
“One is not because the situation in his team didn’t allow him to have any rest and he’s giving absolutely everything in every minute and we just manage to give him a little rest in cup matches and even so he was on the bench for emergency situations. Champions League was about the same, we had to fight until the last match for qualification and the boy is tired. He is physically a monster but not a machine and he’s feeling it.”
“And Zlatan is a man with an incredible injury, an injury that a 20-year-old man or young man would suffer, imagine a man 36 years old and so many miles in high-level football, so it is not easy.
“We did that against Burnley, we will do that in some more matches if we need to do, but for both to play together we need them to be at their best level.”
Lukaku, Ibrahimovic, Mourinho and the rest of United will host Southampton later today.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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