Romelu Lukaku has now gone nine Manchester United games without finding the back of the net.

The Belgian forward is out of form and his confidence has taken a battering.

Any chance that does fall to him isn’t being finished off and you can tell he isn’t enjoying his football at the moment and he isn’t playing with his regular swagger.

The responsibility to grab United’s goals looks to be weighing the forward down.

Now Man United as a whole have suffered from a slump and they aren’t creating enough clear cut chances, that will always have an impact on a striker’s ability to score goals.

But you can also see that Lukaku is looking more lost as each game passes without him putting the ball into the opponent’s net. His link-up play has suffered as has his first touch.

Tellingly against Everton last weekend, Jose Mourinho dropped his number nine. In fairness I think it was done to protect rather than to punish Romelu. I think the Red Devils manager was trying to take the pressure off of Lukaku and maybe give him a kick up the backside at the same time.

Jose has stated that he thinks the United striker can turn things around this season:

‘I think when he scores one goal, life will change for him,’

Interestingly I noted one piece of action that sums up Lukaku’s lack of confidence in his own ability at the moment.

After coming on against his old side, Lukaku started an attacking move for his team by coming deep and linking up with the midfield. The ball ended up at the feet of Anthony Martial and the Frenchman ran clear but couldn’t put away his chance. Now once Lukaku laid the ball off, he didn’t push forward, nor did he burst a gut to give Martial another option. He just hung back and watched from a safe distance. If you’re an in-form free scoring striker, you sprint to score a tap in or make the most of any possible chance that might come your way. Lukaku decided to sit back, meaning he was confident that he would convert a chance if it did come his way.

Now Mourinho’s probably right, Lukaku will probably flourish once he scores again but who knows when that will happen? Especially if he’s now reluctant to put himself in the right areas because he’s second guessing himself.

Jose Mourinho can continue to take the pressure off of his number nine by keeping him on the bench but alas that will just give the player cameos and that might not do his confidence much good either.

Personally, I’d look at playing Romelu Lukaku out on the right wing.

Man United have issues when it comes to finding a consistent performer out on that flank.

Lukaku has had success playing out there for Everton in the past. Mourinho would be asking the twenty-five year old to perform a different role for the team.

He’d be asked to play on the shoulders of full-backs and use his raw pace to stretch them. He’d also be asked to bully them with his aerial ability (he still wins around 2.6 aerial battles per league game) and his physical presence. His job would be to help out Martial and Marcus Rashford in the frontline and not necessarily be the main focus when it comes to getting goals. The Belgian internationalist created seven Premier League assists last year, showing us that he does know how to create for teammates.

I think giving him a different responsibility and getting him attacking from deeper positions and giving him the ball more could at least boost his confidence. Plus ,maybe without the same pressure to score, you might find that he relaxes and finds the net from the wider position.

 

Posted on October 30th, 2018 by scott
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