Manchester Evening News

Lukaku can be even better with the right service

- By LIAM CORLESS liam.corless@trinitymir­ror.com @Liam Corless

ROMELU Lukaku consolidat­ed his position at the top of Belgium’s all-time scoring charts with a brace in their World Cup warm-up win over Costa Rica on Monday night.

The United striker notched his 35th and 36th internatio­nal goals with clinical close-range efforts.

Jose Mourinho will have been delighted with the manner of Lukaku’s strikes as the forward’s impressive movement in the box afforded him two relatively easy finishes.

Of course, the balls into him had to be on the money – and they were – first of all from Napoli frontman Dries Mertens, whose dinked cross from the right wing was lashed home at the far post by United’s No.9.

After the break West Brom’s Nacer Chadli was the provider as his delivery from the same flank was bulleted past Champions Leaguewinn­ing goalkeeper Keylor Navas and into the top corner by Red Rom.

How Lukaku would love to have that quality of service at Old Trafford.

United don’t play with out-and-out wingers in Mourinho’s preferred 4-3-3 system so the onus is on United’s full-backs to provide crosses for Lukaku.

Those full-backs are currently Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young, the former of whom only managed a single assist in 39 appearance­s across the course of the season.

By contrast, Young, while perhaps not as adept defensivel­y as Valencia, notched seven.

Valencia’s end product has left much to be desired for a few seasons now and his frequent failure to deliver a good ball into the box is an issue that Jose Mourinho must attempt to rectify this summer.

Perhaps the crux of the problem is Valencia’s inability to square up an opposing full-back and beat his man.

Former United defender Phil Neville famously added a trick to his locker in the form of a step-over to add an air of unpredicta­bility to his attacking play and it’s time for Valencia to do the same.

He’s become far too predictabl­e in his approach and the introducti­on of a step-over or a different trick would buy him that extra yard of space required to stick a decent cross into the box for Lukaku to gobble up.

 ??  ?? Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku
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