Lukaku scores for Belgium

Sam (1), probably indicative of the strength of Belgium and their "golden generation".

IÂ’m a newbie and will probably offend a few by asking did we (Roberto) make a mistake spending 㿈M on Lukaku, when that money could have been spent strengthening the squad elsewhere?

I appreciate Lukaku has potential (although IÂ’m not seeing much at the moment).

WeÂ’re beginning to see season destroying injury lists, I think most of us wanted a centre back and more mid field options? ItÂ’s easy to be wise "after the fact" and I admit I am being to some degree, but the phrase "Eggs in one basket" keeps coming to mind when I see Lukaku play.

He may have scored goals during the last two seasons but this season he looks out of his depth in the Premier League. Just hope he turns it around for his and our sake.

Benteke canÂ’t really claim to be in form after being out so long but you can possibly understand that Belgium wish to try something different after LukakuÂ’s unimpressive last few months, I also think they wonÂ’t have been overly impressed with LukakuÂ’s disappointing World Cup performance.

I hope it hits home with Rom soon that although heÂ’s young, a footballers career is relatively short and you can easily be bypassed if your attitude is all wrong or you havenÂ’t got the necessary hunger that other equals have.

The World Cup in Brazil was meant to be one he was going to take by storm but he barely got going and was then replaced by rookie Origi.

He scored some great goals and they are all that are remembered.He is obviously excused all the times he let the team and fans down!

Lukaku will come good and be worth double his signing on fee that we paid even though that is in instalments.

And setting up another 3 every game!!

Nevertheless, he is now our permanent record priced main goal scorer and I have to go along with Roberto's judgement and superior knowledge. He seems convinced that Lukaku will go on to great things and I have to hope he is right.

Naismith, Eto'o and Barclay... what's the game plan there? There doesn't seem to be one – it changes every week. With these players, we should be hammering teams like Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Arsenal and Liverpool... but our lack of a cohesive attack is letting us down and unfortunately making Everton and Lukaku look soft.

Give him the correct service, with the ball played in front of him, and he will score even more than his current almost 1 in 2 over the relatively short career to date.

The reason is so obvious it's fairly embarrassing. Why pay 㿈 Million pounds for a footballer and then decide not to play to his strengths now and again? Baffled by science, or simply not getting taught well enough?

He has some great attributes that should be nurtured along, because if you don't play to his strengths, he might just forget what he is good at. I've seen it happen to many times!

Any set of fans would be critical if they felt they weren't quite getting enough from a player who they know their manager to all of his trust in to pay a whopping 28 million.

28 million is a lot of money for Everton Football Club and we are not likely to spend that fee again anytime soon.

So far we haven't seen performance levels befitting from the man in question befitting anywhere near that price tag.

Now we all know it's not Lukaku who put the fee on his head of course not but like with anything, it's a pressure he needs to live up to now that he is here.
Some players thrive on pressure and thrive on wanting to be the best.

We can't keep making the "youth" excuse, for a young man he doesn't run around chasing defenders down or giving defenders a hard enough time for me, Rooney at 16 was a constant bull in a China shop and even to a lesser extent James Vaughan.

Everton fans are intelligent enough to know their football.

We know Lukaku can finish chances very well in general , he's got a decent goal record but what we want to see is more centre forwards play where he looks handful.
The fact he doesn't utilise his physique and he doesn't jump enough for headers, Naismith puts him to shame on that front, they are the little details that don't involve ability just a little bit of heart and passion from time to time.

I remember being behind the goal in the first round of the old Cup Winners Cup against UCD in Dublin and listening to the bile that Sharpy was subjected to and thinking; this is a confidence game so shouldn't we be encouraging these players?

Of course Lukaku is a marked man; he's a regular scorer in the PL for the past two seasons and I'd be surprised if he doesn't score 15+ goals in all competitions this season even with the added attention.

lay off Lukaku – he'll be fine.

If he stays free of Injury he will improve vastly over the next few years. To me, the method of payment, his age and his current ability with huge potential to come make it as good as it could be for Everton.

Comparing his transfer fee with that of more experienced strikers is pointless. Costa was not signing for us in a million years. We are moving forward in the only way presently possible.

I think, however, his foot injury has hampered his start to this season and also the injury to Mirallas who helps his game better than Naismith.

Whilst agreeing he still needs to improve his ball control and decision-making I am sure that he is still the one best suited to leading the line.

Our shite form especially at the beginning of the season was due to our defence being abysmal. And thatÂ’s when they were all fit. ThatÂ’s the real issue at the moment. Going from one of the best defences in the league last season to being the worst in the first three games. ThatÂ’s what needs sorting. The players need a little shake to get their act together.

Picking on Lukaku when his service is poor is unfair in my opinion. Mirallas is missed. An in-form, match-fit Barkley and using players with pace will all help. RM has dithered about with team selection too much in my opinion. No wonder we struggle in the final third. Lukaku and Eto'o – keep playing them together and give them faster service.

Look what has happened to Ramsey this season (and the season before last), or Bale when the footballing world had him done as a cursed man, and Good Old tactically naive Harry considered shipping him out.

The ostensible major failings in Lukaku's game will look a lot better when he gets some confidence again. Can we not just give him a little bit of time to prove himself? Or do his constant critics think that less than 3 months of football is a better barometer of a player, than the last two Premier League seasons which generated something along the lines of 32 goals in 49 starts. Give him time and he will score a lot of goals for us.

http://instagram.com/p/u5pXS2swiS/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=video&modal=true

Are we playing to his strengths? At the moment, No, our build-up play is too slow and the early balls for Lukaku to run on to aren't there. The slow-passing possession game merely allows the opposition team to get set up behind the ball and close down any space Lukaku has to run into.

If Martinez wants this possession passing game with players who are mobile and pacey for pass-and-move football then maybe Lukaku was not the sort of striker he should have been looking at. It remains to be seen whether Lukaku adapts to Martinez's style of play or we develop a system where we can bring out the best of our record signing. In the right setup, Lukaku has goals in him; I'm just not sure we are setting up correctly as a unit yet.

I think you have hit upon the reason why there is a difference of opinion between Roberto's style and perhaps what some Evertonians want to see from their striker / team. Roberto doesn't want to have a team that is totally reliant on one person to provide the goals and the fans want a Shearer / Latchford / Lineker type striker who scores the bulk of the side's goals.

So far as supporters we can't complain about the number of goals we have scored in the last 15 months or so but obviously the last couple of weeks / months have left us a little short of goals and hence the more negative reaction by some towards Lukaku. But RM will see it as his team's failure rather than an individual failure and I'm sure he will address the problem in the weeks and months ahead, just like he addressed the defensive issues that hampered his team earlier in the campaign.

With Lukaku this season, it appears the lad has gone backwards. Last season, at times he seemed unplayable but, as someone earlier pointed out, we havenÂ’t exactly played to his strengths and chopping and changing the side all the time hasnÂ’t helped that... and the infamous toe injury.

For me, he’s been a huge disappointment... but give him the correct service and he will score goals. That said, his touch is atrocious at times – look at the chance from the backpass at Sunderland last week...

ItÂ’s a dilemma alright and one thatÂ’s going to have to be solved sooner rather than later. Oh, and by the way, I donÂ’t care what he does for Belgium.

Lukaku would be much better suited to a direct team who break fast and give him through balls to run onto and plenty of one-on-one situations. That's not the way we play currently and so it's looking like a poor match. Something has to change, either we alter our game style or Romelu becomes better at holding the ball and linking play (which he showed signs of vs Lille).

Particularly McGeady. Put the ball in that box instead of falling around trying to be Messi when he blatantly isn't.

He will come through it and then the glass half empty brigade will move onto someone else to impart their opinions on.