It was meant to be Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku versus Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane this weekend with the two sides meeting at Old Trafford in the Premier League’s Saturday lunch-time kick off.

Both strikers are goalscoring machines in England’s top flight and already they lead the race for top scorer this season.

Unfortunately for Spurs, boss Mauricio Pochettino has stated England international Kane is going to miss out due to a hamstring strain.

Harry’s absence doesn’t mean that the pressure is any lighter when it comes to Lukaku this weekend.

The Man United hitman has bagged himself ten goals in fourteen appearances so far this term, including seven in his first nine Premier League matches.

But the Belgian hasn’t found the net in his last four outings, that includes a 0-0 draw with Liverpool earlier in the month and the loss to Huddersfield Town in their last league fixture.

Man United were persuaded by Jose Mourinho to splash out £75m on the former Chelsea and Everton hitman in the summer. The main reason was to score goals.

Now the striker is a world class finisher and a very intelligent forward, his presence in the United team has added strength and pace in attack. They look to him to get the goals needed to fire them to the league title.

That means that goal droughts have to be limited and that he has to score in the bigger games, when his club needs him the most.

After losing to the Terriers last week, Man United find themselves five points behind Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. 

City have travel to West Brom tomorrow and Jose will not want to see his side fall any further behind their Manchester rivals in the league table. A win over Tottenham will force a gap between the Red Devils and the North London team, plus it will put pressure onto Man City who have a later kick-off.

Against the Lilywhites, Lukaku will come up against familiar foes in fellow Belgian internationals Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweirld. These are defenders who should know Romelu’s game inside out.

Davinson Sanchez has come in to the Spurs backline and he brings in some extra pace and raw ability. While they also have a top class performer in Hugo Lloris protecting the nets. Only the two Manchester sides have conceded less that Pochettino’s men this season.

This means that Saturday should represent a big challenge for the Belgian goal-getter but these challenges should be ones that Lukaku relishes as he can prove his worth to the United faithful and his manager.

Last term for the Toffees, Lukaku managed to grab one goal in his two meetings against Tottenham. Jose and Romelu will accept just one strike tomorrow if it secures all three points.

Sometimes it’s not just enough to score lots of goals, you need to make sure you get the valuable goals that get’s you wins against title rivals.

Mourinho tried to explain earlier in the campaign that Lukaku’s all round game was just as important as the goals but I think that was his way of relieving some of the pressure:

‘So Lukaku is not just about the goals he scores, he is about the way he plays and allows other people with different qualities than him to have conditions to shine and perform.’

Tottenham Hotspur are in hot form tomorrow but they might be in low spirits without Harry Kane leading the line, it’s Romelu Lukaku’s job to make sure that he scores the goals that will see Spurs suffer and will get Man United back to winning ways in the Premier League.

Posted on October 27th, 2017 by scott
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