Chicharito was inspiration
ROMELU Lukaku studied Javier Hernandez in a bid to turn himself into a world-class striker.
The United forward has revealed Chicharito was one of three players past and present he was told to emulate before making his move to Old Trafford.
Lukaku completed a £75m move from Everton in the summer as Jose Mourinho looked for a long-term replacement for Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
And the 24-year-old says former Goodison manager and current Belgium coach Roberto Martinez identified the three strikers Lukaku needed to study to take his game to the next level.
“I’ve improved my movement, especially in the box,” he told DH. “Two years ago, at Everton, Roberto Martinez made me watch videos of my own movement, but also those of other strikers like Hugo Sanchez, Edinson Cavani and Chicharito.
“You need to sit down and watch the Uruguayan’s movement inside the box. It’s incredible. On top of that, I worked three times a week on my runs inside the box with my coaches.”
Lukaku made a stunning start to life at United with 11 goals in his first 10 games. But he has failed to score in each of his last seven games as Jose Mourinho’s side have slipped to eight points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City.
Lukaku has found his scoring form again during this international break - becoming Belgium’s joint all-time leading marksman with 30 goals after hitting two in his country’s 3-3 draw with Mexico on Friday.
He hopes both he and United will return to form when the Premier League resumes against Newcastle on Saturday.
“Lately, we haven’t performed like we did at the start of the season,” he told ManUtd.com. “We started by blowing teams away, being dominant and creating chances. But, in the last few weeks, we didn’t play at the same level and that made it more difficult for me.
“That’s the sort of thing you have to go through in the season, but now there are players coming back from injury and hopefully we can deliver performances even better than at the start of the season. We can create more chances and goals.”