BAD LUK TO END SOON

Owen’s Rom promise

MICHAEL OWEN reckons Romelu Lukaku won’t be feeling the heat at Manchester United over his goal drought.

Lukaku has scored 11 goals this season for United but has failed to net in their last seven games.

During the international break, the £75m Belgian striker bagged a brace against Mexico and netted another against Japan to become his country’s record goalscorer. And former Old Trafford hitman Owen believes Lukaku will soon be back firing, starting against Newcastle tomorrow.

BT Sport pundit Owen said: “He took to United like a duck to water and everything was perfect.

“Then, all of a sudden, question marks come.

Scrutiny

“There will be more pressure and scrutiny when you go to a club like United. From experience, I don’t think that pressure comes into it or that you feel it.

“When you are comfortable in your role and think you are doing the right thing, you don’t go to bed worrying about it. If anything, you look forward to it.

“You are so comfortable in your surroundings that you know it will happen. Pressure is for us, people out of the game and looking in saying, ‘Oh, it is seven, eight, nine games without a goal’.

“We see pressure but I am ® pretty certain that he’ll be feeling, ‘Bring it on, I’ll score in the next game’.

“So I don’t buy into pressure unless there is somebody who feels so out of their depth that they don’t feel as if they can constantly contribute to the team.

“We are certainly not talking in those terms with Lukaku.

“He’s got a history of staying fit, he’s got a history of scoring with his head, his left foot, right foot.

“He is a goalscorer and he will be up there with the top scorers at the end of the season.”

Owen, who also turned out for the Toon, does believe there is pressure on Jose Mourinho, with United’s rivals City in such freescoring form.

Mourinho’s defensive tactics in recent crunch games against Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea have also come in for question. Owen said: “I think it’s not just what is happening across the park, but people don’t forget the decades and generations of free-flowing, attacking football at the club.

“Combine that with Manchester United fans looking over the road and it might frustrate them slightly that they have good attacking, expansive players but they’re not potentially let off the leash because Jose has one eye on defending.

“From a Manchester United point of view, if you were a fan, you would welcome big teams and say, ‘Let’s go head to head’.

“But it doesn’t seem to me that Jose has that utter belief in his team to go head to head with some of the big boys, especially away from home.”