Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has entered a recent dry spell, failing to score a goal in his last six games. The drought has Red Devils supporters irked and incensed; so much so that it inspired manager Jose Mourinho to publicly defend Lukaku against the fans, and thus create somewhat of a row between Mourinho and the fan base.
The United manager is not concerned about the performance of Lukaku however, and neither is the Belgian’s former manager at Everton, Roberto Martinez.
Lukaku got off to a historically strong start at United, and now with the market correction of sorts, he’s averaging 133 minutes per goal on the season. The £75 million summer transfer window addition has 11 goals and three assists in 16 games across all competitions for United.
“I think Romelu is an out-and-out goal-scorer and his numbers reflect that,” said Martinez in an interview with ESPN, a network with which he did television analysis work for the last World Cup.
“Only elite footballers get anywhere near his return in terms of goals so far in the Premier League. He’ll tell you he’s obsessed with the game, he wants to become better and work hard to fulfill the enormous potential that he has.”
“He needs to be given a path and I think that path now is the move he had from Chelsea to West Brom, from West Brom to Everton and then after playing in Europe for Everton in an important role, going into Manchester United in a team that you’re always expected to win; I think it’s been a really interesting stage or path for Romelu. Through that path you’re going to have good moments, bad moments, but I think we’re all aware that the enormous talent that he has in front of goal will allow him to go through any bad spell.”
To keep things in perspective, it’s worth noting that United had just one double figure goal scorer in league play last season- Zlatan Ibrahimovic. United’s hot start to the season more less coincided with Lukaku’s run of fine form. His drought and the team’s slide have sort of gone hand in hand.
The real difference here, which Roberto Martinez should have said but didn’t, is the level of competition. Lukaku has continued to play in accordance with his reputation- dominating lesser competition, not a major factor against the big boys.
Of course, this just doesn’t fly among the Old Trafford faithful.
Given all the money United paid for him, and the big expectations that go with it, supporters expect more goals.
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 corporation blogging community Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.