Lukaku nets a brace in win over Cyprus

Strange seeing the phenomenal one standing on the touchline and not wanting to yell at him.

"I am prepared to be respectful and give Belgium one more year. It's true, I want to win prizes but Belgium have made it difficult for me to play for Brazil, what with me being Belgian and all that. So I will not complain and I will do my best for the team.

"But next year? Who knows? Maybe I will look at Argentina or Germany. I am the greatest centre forward in history and I want to play for a national team that shares my ambition."

(Forward 2 years)...

Who?

Let's move on – Next!

And where is he now...

Perhaps it's so long since he scored a goal that he's forgotten how to celebrate, or is it that Martinez is in charge again?

He scored 2 goals, doesn't really matter who the opponent is. Batshuayi didn't. In fact he missed a penalty.

Those who want to continue criticising him, be careful of what you wish for.

1. No goal or less than x goals this season, we might finish lower than 11, and the club have to accept low bids next year. Lose on both end.
2. Score 30 goals, off for 80m next year, Everton in Champions League.

No brainer which one I prefer.

Thank you for staying this year and being loyal despite a x2 11th finish and having confidence in RK and the rest of your team!

As for his honesty – think he has been very diplomatic and the best forward we have had since Sharpy and The Latch!

Now for a hard week of training and then despatch Moyesia and his band with another brace!

COYBs!!!

I think it's all OFM's fault!

Everton striker Romelu Lukaku, 23, has hinted that he will move away from the club next season. The Belgium international turned down Italian champions Juventus in the transfer window to continue under new Toffees manager Ronald Koeman. (Sport Wereld - in Dutch)

It's maybe because he knows it's only against Cyprus, as we are reminded. I just hope that gives him the confidence to push on against Sunderland – then he can be like the cat that's got the cream.

Every player at Everton (except those that kiss the badge, bleed blue blah, blah, blah) would look to leave if they thought they were good enough to get a move to a more successful club with the ability to pay big wages.

Lukaku came out and said so, but stated that he wouldn't rock the boat when told he wasn't going.

So what, that's the modern player. It'd be me too if I was any good.

Anyway, this at least proves that he hasn't totally forgotten his job description is striker.

To me, it will be good for his confidence and hopefully now the chances he missed v Stoke will now be going in the next day. I really hope the fans try to get behind him again rather than be moaning and groaning when he misses chances and so drains away any confidence he has.

Hilarious that Mirallas is left on the bench. Is Martinez into sadomasochism or what? He spends two years leaving the guy to warm the bench in England, then persuades him to travel 500 miles, endure 3 or 4 days away from his family, to do exactly the same thing.

Kev should just tell him to do one.

In the last World Cup, the only goal he scored was against a knackered USA side when he was sent on in extra time.

In the last Euros, the only two goals he got were both against the Republic of Ireland.

Now he gets two against mighty Cyprus.

He's scored 16 goals in 51 appearances and 10 of those were in friendlies. The only goal he's scored against what I would call a good side in a competitive game was back in 2013 against Croatia.

It's the same problem at international level as it is a club level. He simply doesn't do enough. If he spent more time pressuring defenders as he does standing in the box waving his arms about, he would score a lot more goals.

As it is, he wants the inch-perfect pass or the perfect cross. Alan Shearer he isn't and never will be. He has all the tools but he never takes them out of the box.

I find him a very discouraging striker. He'll never fire up the crowd like a Vardy, Aguero, Suarez etc. Guys you know are really trying to score and working for the team instead of just pussyfooting around and working for himself.

I believe he's on his way even if we qualify for Europe and he gets double figures this season. At least we should get the big bucks he thinks he's worth.

https://www.soccerex.com/media/2825/2015-2016_summer_press_release.pdf

I think this will be the fate of Lukaku should any club be daft enough to offer the over inflated fee we'll no doubt want next summer. A few matches in and they'll see in football terms he a dilettante. He treats football like it's his hobby rather than his bread and butter. Look at the picture. Does he look like a player who's just scored for his country because he doesn't to me.

@Brian

If we could get Naisy's brain into Rom's body, we'd have a real striker on our hands.

I thought Rom did well and, despite the fact he's ill-advised and is a motormouth, I actually think he will become a top striker. If we nurture him, support him, and continue to add to this squad, I honestly believe we could be top 6 this season and into Europe. Whether he then decides to stay or go, I still think he could fire us into that position this season and we should simply get fully behind him.

We would be cutting off our own noses to spite our own faces if we just slag him off. Let's face it, look what happened with Tony Hibbert. Something gets said, it gets misinterpreted and we all go ape shit and start falling out with each other.

If I was a Belgium fan I wouldn't care if he smiled after scoring or not. Getting the win is what matters. The minutia of how a player smiles is neither here nor there really.

I think Rom is going to be huge for us this season and so, come next Summer, it will be a win-win for us, whether he stays or goes. Let's get behind the boy. He is only 23. His best days as a striker are still ahead of him. I know plenty of 23-year-olds who are much bigger wankers than Rom. Granted they are not on his money but money can't buy you everything.

He is having a serious barren patch, almost Sahara like, with a drought thrown in. Let's see if he can score against bold opposition.

I get what you're saying. But two questions come to mind,

1, How many millions does a footballer need to be happy?

And,

2, What's so wrong with the challenge of winning things and achieving greatness with the team you're with?

I'm afraid most "modern footballers" want success handed to them on a plate,

How tediously dull.

Don't get me wrong, he's our striker and I want him to be the leading scorer in the Premier League this season, with the possibility that would get us into Europe or a cup win, we win even if he goes at the season's end as we would get top dollar for him.

He still looks a miserable get though, I hope he's not like that when he scores for us at Goodison. Will you be happy if he is?

When he scores at GP or elsewhere I want a big beaming smile. From all of us!

Harry Kane's goal drought is almost as bad as Rom's but a lot of strikers go through it: it's as much the fault of the team though which was in disarray under Martinez and now under transition under Koeman.

Naming FYROM Macedonia is like assuming that Alexander the Great and Macedonians were Slavs, which is laughable. Ancient Macedonia was an ancient Greek kingdom which had Pella for capital, a small city near Thessaloniki and consisted of territories which now are part of today's FYROM and Bulgaria but that doesn't mean that these countries can arrogate Greek history. Bucephalus was not a Zastava! Sorry for the post, totally irrelevant with the topic, just for the record as I said...

Not Lineker, not Shearer, not Rooney, not Ferguson, not Rush, not Fowler and certainly not Kane. Just watch it again on you tube and marvel !

That goal had strength, ball control, pace and 'real' ability. In donkeys' years to come we will be telling our grand children that we saw that goal !

Make up your mind. Seems many on here expect Rom to be 18 yards out, back to goal, as a lone isolated target man, and now you claim he should be hovering near the goal for tap-ins. Hard to do both, even for such a gifted player as Rom.

Jon Cox, why ask questions that you seem to have already supplied the answers to in your head? However, aside from the figure that you have determined for him, I would suggest as many millions as he can as it is not for you to say. As to the second, instead I offer, why would fans constantly slag off a player who wants to win and decides to leave when the club and fans do not match that ambition?

I think what has been the biggest dilemma for Rom over the last few years, is that he knows if he stays with a club like Everton he will be the main man and won't have to work too hard to stay number 1 striker. Whereas if he goes to a big club where there is a lot more pressure on him then he is worried he won't be able for it (or will have to work harder) and so he won't feel as good about himself.

Ambition? Ambition suggests a hunger, a real desire and drive to be the best that a person can be... to give 100% in everything they do Lukaku likes to jog around, he likes to put his hands on his head in disbelief when a ball gets fired across the 6 yard box and his lack of anticipation/desire/bottle has meant he never got on the end of it.

Maybe for once the over indulged man-child needs to look at himself this summer millions has been spent on players, he and his crew pimped up his move from March and no doubt all clubs were alerted to his availability . did anyone make an offer? No. Why is that? maybe its because he's not a good as he thinks he is. He's certainly not worth the money his hype has generated.

13 games in a row without a goal for us now...

I can't wait till this brat leaves our club – sick and tired of hearing all about him. He should start learning Chinese or Turkish – that's where he will be playing in a few years.

Yes, gifted. Given all that you and others say he cannot do (which no striker does perfectly), he must really be gifted at finding the back of the net to have scored so much in a short career with such poor general footballing skills. Do you not see that with players like Naisy it is news when he scores at all, while with Rom, it is news when he doesn't? That puts him in an upper echelon of players, none of which Everton possesses, except the one everyone seemingly on here likes to slag off. He scores two and the type of goal and opponent is now used to explain them away.

You look at the last 13 games to judge a player's abilities? Fine, he hasn't scored. Did he not contribute and change the games by being in them? Let's look at the games he has played before the last thirteen. Wow, he scored and did so on an impressive basis.

Make no mistake, when Everton loses Rom it is because Everton failed to live up to promises and expectations of the players, not Rom failing to live up to expectations of the club.

He was over indulged by Martinez... played when he should have been dropped, teams set up to supply him. He even admitted as much.

Let's see what happens when he's sold to a supposed club big enough for him. Big games? He fluffs his lines time after time. Flat-track bully who wants the big time but hasn't got the quality for it.

Can't wait for him to be sold.

Record for us: about 60 goals in 120 games, with a loss of form recently, and no goals in about 15 games, coinciding with and recovering from a management meltdown that prompted a 'new era'. You either like the guy or you don't. I do, but I'm selfish, I like lots of goals.

Please, just stop it and admit you don't like him. Stop making up BS arguments and absurd statements as to his skills to try to justify your dislike of him. In the end, it would be more honest, yes?

The likes of yourself got excited off the fact the we acquired a striker who was hyped and not some 30-year-old journeyman, or lower budget Andy Johnson or James Beattie. Kinda like getting a date with one of the popular girls in school instead of a geek.

The reality is that there is very very little to get excited about as a player... if you know what you are looking for. To me he is nothing more than a glorified Micky Quinn.

Put the ball on a plate for him but expect nothing else. Unless of course you are going to tell me that he is a good worker, leads the line, holds up play, links up with the midfield, dominates in the air? ... No, he doesn't, does he. In fact it's true what I say... he has a poor touch, bad attitude, can't time his jumps, gets bullied by smaller players.

Of course you may try and point to one of his handful of games where he actually looks like a rounded striker but I will point to the majority where he aimlessly trots around, moaning, pointing at a space 10 yards ahead of him, not trying to feign runs to get in front of his marker just going through the motions hoping that it will fall to him on his left foot so he can score.

When he scores, it creates amnesia for the likes of yourself. You forget that hes offered nothing, you forget that, for the previous 60 minutes, ball after ball has bounced off him or been lost to the opposition.

So yeah, when you cut to it, all he has to offer apart from and endless supply of ambitious interviews, is goals when his team mates serve them up for him.

You just don't like these facts. Thats fine, you love a bog standard goalscorer (Micky Quinn, Sean Goater, Kevin Phillips were loved) — I love committed 'footballers' who have quality. Many committed 'footballers' are goalscorers (Suarez, Aguero, Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Gerrard).

Lukaku will never be and never has been a commited footballer. If we manage to get 㿞m plus for this fraud, it will be the best business we have done. For one, we will be able to put the money into buying a striker who can do more than just stand in the box waiting for a chance. Two, we will not have to listen to an overrated gobshite tell the world he is too good for a club that us actually too good for him.

I await your response using a few examples where he may have scored a goal he made for himself, or he actually played like a centre-forward... not a poacher.

Please tell me how many poachers are currently plying their trade in the Premier League. Even Jermaine Defoe has had to evolve, drop off wide, allow the midfielders to advance. The game is different and I don't think you can see how Rom's technical limitations cost our team.

I would sooner have Defoe in our team than Lukaku. He would certainly net more and cost a lot less. That's a fact.

I do hope Lukaku scores because we are stuck with him till we sell him. His last 13 games ain't been great have they?

As far as being successful, it's a relatively short career so I see where you're coming from but if you want to be successful you probably need to move quickly.

He hasn't done that because he hasn't proved to be good enough. So he can chatter all he likes, all he is doing is making himself look stupid.

Koeman has his number – he is expecting "more from him". I've been expecting more from him for quite some time but the odd goal seems to pacify a lot of fans far too used to watching the likes of James Beattie, Marcus Bent et al.