When Romelu Lukaku joined the Stamford Bridge Stadium with a transfer fee of £97.5 million as the A-League champion, league top scorer and MVP, the Belgian star's name was almost unknown. However, just as he arrived in London with the title of 'Little Monster' but failed to deliver, Lukaku's performances at Chelsea did not match his transfer fee. As time goes by, he has been baptized by Manchester United and Inter over the past eight years, and is no longer the slightly youthful, physical winger, but has transformed into one of the most versatile strikers in the football world. However, Lukaku, who is once again wearing the Blues' colors, still fails to show a convincing level of performance. Today, we will analyze the reasons why Lukaku, a top player in the Boxing League, is struggling to live up to his price tag at Chelsea.
Lukaku is 192 centimeters tall and weighs 91 kilograms, a build condition reminiscent of Chelsea's striker Olivier Giroud. Lukaku's ability to protect the ball with his back to goal, head the ball towards goal, and act as a pivot for crosses is excellent among center forwards. But Lukaku is not a traditional center forward; his athleticism and footwork make him more of an all-around striker. He is fast enough and skillful enough to drop back near midfield to launch a counterattack or follow up on a direct ball from a teammate. As a striker, Lukaku's skills when in possession of the ball, are superior.
However, Lukaku's shortcomings are difficult to reflect in the statistics. When he receives a direct ball, he will only move towards a defenseless position, ignoring factors such as the angle of his teammate's pass and the fact that the defender behind him may come up to assist. Here is an example of a quick counterattack. As the defense begins to narrow, Lukaku still insists on moving towards the middle of the two defenders, causing his teammate to lose his passing angle and space.
Looking for space to receive the ball for the second time, Lukaku was again in an offside position, again unable to receive the pass.
After losing the opportunity to receive the direct ball, Lukaku pulled directly to the outside and did not try to use his size advantage to disrupt the opponent's defense or line of sight. After seeing Lukaku pulling to the outside, the original defender who was defending him released directly to his returning teammates behind him, and returned to the middle himself to block Matthews-Monte, who was advancing with the ball.
In a similar situation, Phil Foden showed the right way of running. Starting from Kidbali, Foden was running in front of and behind Chelsea's backline to disrupt the Chelsea defense, preventing them from getting up in time to "close the door". Chelsea's defense had not yet returned to their respective positions when Foden started from behind the offside line, and Foden moved to the middle of the field with enough angle to receive Kidbali's pass.
Kidbali continued to advance, Chelsea's two center backs also began to narrow, in the offside position of Foden paused for a beat, wait until the defenders sank back, he returned to the offside line, only to continue to run behind the defenders. Under Foden's constant interference, Kidbali advanced all the way to the distance where he was able to shoot without the defenders coming up against him, and relied on this space to take the game for Manchester City with a blood-curdling long-distance shot.
A running sense like Foden's is what Lukaku lacks. And this shortcoming may have also affected his development at Chelsea. However, the same is the center forward, why Lukaku can be competent in Inter, to Chelsea but not work? This is a question that we have to analyze from the difference in tactics between the two teams.
Let's start with Lukaku in his Inter days. In the 2020/21 season, Inter most often put out the following lineup:
In this formation, Inter's most deadly is the fast counterattack launched by the two sides of the half space. After the ball is played by his teammates at the back, Lukaku will drop back to the center of the field to receive the pass, and if there is any interference from the opponents, he can also use his own size advantage to carry the opponents.
Meanwhile Hakimi and Barrera were around to provide passing options on the flanks and in the middle, with Eriksen and Latro Martinez on the left, the former slowing down to prepare for the ball to adjust the tempo of the attack, and the latter picking up a direct feed from a teammate near the offside line to add the clinical finishing touch. Both of them have the ability to run quite nimbly, so that the opponent can not directly release the left side to assist the defense. It can be said that this tactic is to take Lukaku as the core and use his individual ability to create goal scoring opportunities.
