IF ROMELU LUKAKU was available to Manchester United at all, it’s somewhat surprising that they’ve spent most of the summer attempting to bludgeon Real Madrid into parting ways with Álvaro Morata.
That’s not to suggest the big Belgian is remotely superior to his fellow 24-year-old frontman. In many respects, Lukaku and Morata are remarkably similar; they’re separated by half a year in age, half an inch in height, and by half a percentage in their conversion of chances (both just over 30%). Both are explosive and deceptively rapid, both are potent in the air, and both are emphatic finishers off either foot – two students of the Cristiano Ronaldo school of ‘giving it welly’ when the ball breaks to their weaker side.
But the perceptions of both players in their respective countries of employment varies greatly, based largely on one criterion: Big Álvaro is a big-game player – or has at least portrayed a capacity to perform versus the best Europe has to offer, predominantly during his Erasmus at Juventus. Morata netted against then-former club Real Madrid in a Champions League semi-final, and repeated the feat against his boyhood mortal enemy Barcelona in the final. A season later, he was at it again in the Champions League, bagging a stunner on the turn at Manchester City in the group stages before torching Bayern in Bavaria – one particularly memorable run from deep culminating in a masterful reverse pass to Juan Cuadrado, who did the rest. The Spanish striker later scored an extra-time winner in Juventus’ 1-0 Coppa Italia final victory over AC Milan.
Exactly a month later, Real Madrid exercised their buy-back clause to bring Morata home. Since then he’s been revving his engine, but Zinedine Zidane has refused to release the handbrake. 15 league goals last term was quite the achievement considering most arrived as a replacement for Karim Benzema. The imperious Frenchman incidentally finished with 11, and has eclipsed Morata’s league tally in only three of his eight seasons at Madrid.
Lukaku’s big-game record has conversely resulted in a hung jury as far as his ceiling as a footballer is concerned. Five goals in his last 34 appearances versus the Premier League’s current ‘big six’ – Chelsea, Tottenham, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United – might not strike as particularly prolific. But if you were to review last season in isolation, Lukaku’s four goals compare favourably with the tallies of fellow marksmen at top six clubs versus the sides around them: Harry Kane (four), Sergio Aguero (four), Alexis Sanchez (three), Diego Costa (three), and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (two).
There’s an added perspective in that Lukaku himself was often isolated due to Ronald Koeman’s cautious approach against stronger sides, though to suggest he wouldn’t face lengthy spells in solitary confinement on big away days under Mourinho would be doughy-eyed. Nonetheless, four goals in 12 games against the top six, after a run of one goal in his previous 22 against the same opposition, strikes as a promising trajectory. Incidentally, in Cristiano Ronaldo’s first four seasons at Manchester United, he scored eight goals in what might have been described as ‘big games’; three arrived in pre-Sheikh Mansour Manchester derbies, one in an FA Cup final versus Milwall, and two in a dead-rubber at Highbury in 2005. He didn’t do too badly in the end.
But even if you were to entertain the notion that Lukaku is merely a flat-track bully, would that be such a bad thing for a United side who so often botched it against weaker opposition last season? Per WhoScored.com, the Belgian netted 18 clear-cut goalscoring opportunities in 2016/17 – more than any other player in the Premier League. Conversely, United’s forwards combined to miss – by a conservative estimate – 387,000 similar opportunities, in a league season dedicated almost solely to self-sabotage and inexplicably upbeat Instagram posts. This was a team laughably void of killer instinct when Bournemouth, Burnley, Sunderland and others visited Old Trafford – fixtures which Lukaku routinely and gratuitously dominates in royal blue. If Ronaldo’s early United career showed us anything, it’s that there can scarcely be better practice for scoring against Liverpool or Arsenal than torturing smaller sides with regularity.
It’s not all about goals, of course. Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s contribution on that front was stellar. But while the man now seemingly destined to replace him still has a fair few echelons to climb before matching the iconic Swede’s overall football ability, Lukaku adds a crucial string to United’s bow when in possession: if you push up on him, he’ll roast you.
When it wasn’t concocted by their manager, much of United’s putrid football last season was born of Ibrahimovic – for all his lavish quality and 28 goals – becoming an inhibitant within their attack. His lack of pace through the middle also allowed opposition defenders to press United higher up the park, gobbling up much of the space in which players such as Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata would traditionally thrive. When United attempted to counter-attack, it would typically result in the ball being sprayed down either flank; there was simply no central option available when attacking from deep.
Lukaku could scarcely differ more from his elder predecessor in this regard. For a man of all of 15 stone his acceleration is frightening, as is his penchant for forcing his way past defenders while in full flight – this despite being a less refined dribbler of a ball than Ibrahimovic or even Morata. As a result, opposition defenders will both be instructed and naturally inclined to sit deeper, which in theory opens the field for United’s playmakers.
Lukaku’s potential influence in that regard shouldn’t be underestimated, and regardless of whether he pulls on United red or not this season, neither should he.
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