Romelu Lukaku can shake his 'flat-track bully' tag at Manchester United but was not given chance against Liverpool

The Belgian had United's only shot on Saturday and fired it straight at Simon Mignolet

Mark Critchley
Northern Football Correspondent
Monday 16 October 2017 16:25 BST
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Lukaku was guilty of missing a great chance
Lukaku was guilty of missing a great chance

It was the perfect opportunity. One-on-one with Simon Mignolet, after 12 goals in 10 games for his new club, it was a chance that you expect a player in the form of Romelu Lukaku to convert. And yet, he did not. What would be Manchester United's only shot on target of the afternoon had been spurned.

Lukaku's meagre record against the Premier League's 'top six' received much attention before Saturday's drab 0-0 draw at Anfield, which provided the United striker with the ideal platform to start shedding his 'flat track bully' tag.

It was simple. Score and the doubts that remain over Lukaku at the very highest level would start to dissipate. Fail to score and questions would be asked.

Lukaku answered those very questions post-match. “Every time I miss, people put it like this - but a lot of strikers in the league miss bigger chances than me. But with me it’s always: ‘Rom did this, Rom did that’. I don’t know why. With me it [his price tag] is always put out.”

Despite Lukaku's complaints, the criticism is fair. His record against the Premier League's leading clubs is not one worthy of a £75m striker. On Saturday, he was poor - he should have scored with the chance against Mignolet, he struggled to dominate Liverpool's centre-halves, his hold-up play left much to be desired and he played Roberto Firmino onside in the build-up to the hosts' best chance.

Yet to dismiss him as a 'flat track bully' - and thereby cast doubt on his ability to perform well in future meetings with difficult opponents - ignores the context of the game in question and Lukaku's own specific circumstances.

Firstly, due to Jose Mourinho's much-criticised 'big game approach', the team Lukaku was playing in was not set up to his strengths. Mourinho said it himself in his post-match press conference: United's much-criticised game plan was to counter-attack, but only once Liverpool gave them the opportunity to do so. They were ultimately never given that chance in what was, to a man, a very good defensive performance from Jürgen Klopp's side.

The result was that Lukaku was left isolated up top, feeding off scraps and with next to no attack-minded team-mates to build moves alongside. His link-up play is an important and unappreciated aspect of his game, but even when Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard were introduced and given more license to attack, Liverpool were very effective at shutting down United's few brief moments of inspiration.

Secondly, and crucially, this was Lukaku's first full 90 minutes against one of the top six while playing for one of the top six. The Everton sides and even the West Bromwich Albion side he has previously played under have been capable of causing the leading clubs problems, but they and Lukaku were never expected to take the initiative. It was the same story at Anfield, with United happy to play on the back foot.

When - or maybe if - that approach changes, Lukaku's record against top sides should improve. Are we sure that he will still be drawing blanks when United entertain their 'top six' rivals at home and, presumably, play a less restrictive, more ambitious game? The goals could come away from home too. Last season, he scored at the Etihad, the Emirates and White Hart Lane - three goals in all, two more than the whole of Mourinho's United managed on the same grounds.

That is an improvement on his early days in England and a record that should improve further with more time in a high-quality team and more minutes at an elite level. This is, after all, a player who only made his debut in the Champions League proper last month.

Saturday was Lukaku's first chance in a United shirt to answer his harshest critics and he missed it, but it will not be his last.

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