Romelu Lukaku to Man United: Everton star will become elite striker if deal goes through
ROMELU LUKAKU has never been shy about his desire to rub shoulders with the world's best strikers.
Posted Friday, July 07, 2017 by Dailystar.co.uk
"Suarez, Lewandowski, Benzema, Cavani, that's who I'm looking at," he said in March.
"If I don't say that I am one of the best, I am shooting myself in the head. Can I be the best in the world? Definitely."
Now it appears he is set to get his chance to prove it should the £75m deal for him to leave Everton for Manchester United goes through in the coming days.
Lukaku, 24, will be given the stage to show if he truly is world class as he will finally get the opportunity to play for a huge club and achieve his long-held ambition to mix it among Europe's elite in the Champions League.
But he will do so with the weight of a whopping £75m transfer fee on his shoulders as he is set to become the fifth most expensive player in history.
Fortunately they are broad shoulders. Like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the player he is replacing, there is no lack of confidence.
On the pitch, the Belgium striker is a powerful forward with bursts of pace and a finisher's instinct inside the box.
On his day he is almost unplayable. He can overpower defenders to create space, break away at speed or find an opening out of nowhere.
That was most evident when he stuck four past Bournemouth in one blistering performance.
But there are questions to be answered as there are times when the Belgium ace frustrates and can let games pass him by.
His performances against the Premier League's big sides have been called into question, while he failed to set either the 2014 World Cup or Euro 2016 alight with his country.
But there was that stand-out display against Arsenal in his loan spell at Everton towards the end of the 2013-14 season, while he has delivered against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City.
Everton star Romelu Lukaku seems set to join Manchester United
Four goals against the big boys last season also suggest he is heading in the right direction.
That said, a £75m striker will be expected to deliver consistently with no excuses.
There will be nowhere to hide at Old Trafford and boss Jose Mourinho, who sold him to Everton when he was in charge at Chelsea, will not hold back in criticising him if he fails to deliver.
Mourinho's relationship with him has never been frayed despite the Portuguese questioning the former Chelsea striker's desire to fight for a place when he asked to join the Toffees on a permanent basis in 2014.
It was Lukaku who asked to leave Chelsea for regular football, rather than Mourinho showing him the door.
Mourinho was not prepared back then to put his faith in a still raw striker to fire his side to Premier League glory so brought in Diego Costa in 2014, who proved to be the right man at the right time.
But Lukaku has matured since then and even if he is not yet the finished article Mourinho must believe he can shoot Manchester United back to the summit of English football.
It could be said that he has failed at Everton considering they spent £28m on him to get them into the Champions League.
But that would be harsh considering both Roberto Martinez and Ronald Koeman – his two managers at Everton – both frequently called for his team-mates to share the burden of scoring with him.
Now he will have the supporting cast at United – barring any late hiccups in the deal – and the pressure is on to deliver.
Yet he has the ego to handle it.
Maybe he is not as arrogant as Ibrahimovic but, as his comment from March shows, he is not short on self-belief.
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