There have been numerous explanations as to why Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku blows so hot and cold, but his scoring production can really be explained by the law of parsimony at work. The big Belgian is a streaky scorer for sure, and he’s very up and down, but he’s fairly consistent when it comes to not getting it done versus the big boys, while racking up the goals against mid table and lower table sides.
In five Premier League games against the rest of the “big six” (Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur), he is scoreless this season. In the other 18 league games that he’s appeared in, he’s scored 11 times.
He scored 11 goals in his first 10 games as a member of United, but has since cooled off. Naturally, there was inevitably going to be some regression to the mean after such a blistering beginning, but his production continued to dip. Former United striker Louis Saha, who scored 42 goals during four and half seasons with the Red Devils, says manager Jose Mourinho’s style may not be doing Lukaku any favors.
“He started well, we can see that he has got more in him,” Saha told Reuters (transcript Manchester Evening News).
“We want to see him rip apart some defenders because he can do it.”
“Physically he’s so strong. I will say that he can do more but that’s easy to say. Sometimes Lukaku might not be helped with Mourinho’s style of play. I wish next season maybe, with one year under his belt, he’ll be even more consistent.”
Maybe Lukaku can flourish more in Mourinho’s system, if he’s given better support from another scoring threat playing beside him? Now that Alexis Sanchez is here could that make a difference?
Mourinho has, on several occasions, discussed playing Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the same time as Lukaku. Maybe a fully fit Ibra could help break defenses down, and see Lukaku become more consistent?
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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