Romelu Lukaku joined Manchester United in a £75m transfer deal from Everton back in summer of 2017. Trusted by Jose Mourinho, he had been on an excellent goal-scoring debut season at Old Trafford.
However, Lukaku was dropped from the side which beat Everton last weekend, having embarked on a nine-game run without a goal in all competitions. The Belgian missed Saturday’s Premier League win over Bournemouth as well with a muscle injury, which rendered out of commission for the emphatic Champions League win against Juventus this week.
“When you look at Lukaku, his goalscoring record is up there. It’s fantastic, he scores goals,” RioFerdinand told BT Sport.
Ferdinand also said that it affects both players in the team like Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba who play off people.
Lukaku after watching Man Utd win back to back games without him pic.twitter.com/GbQI4TAEXj
— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) November 7, 2018
On Marcus Rahsford, who turned 21 earlier this week, he added:
“This is a great talent that needs to be nurtured. Mourinho has given him many, many minutes, but I believe he is at an age now where if he’s not starting he’ll be disappointed.”
The England forward celebrated turning 21 on Wednesday. The striker has scored 3 goals in 4 games for England this term, but his club form has been questioned after finding the net just once in 10 appearances. Rashford has scored 33 goals in 133 games for United since making his debut.
With Juve out of the way and Manchester City to play in coming days, the Red Devils need to build off the momentum from their win in Turin if they wish to put up a respectable performance during the Derby.
Unlike, the Italian giants, the Cityzens have almost never had a slip-up in ages and it would take an immense performance, somewhat reminiscent of last season’s comeback, to catch them off guard. If Jose can manage to capitalise on their European victory and induce more motivation into his players, a decent result can definitely be achieved.
Mourinho saying that Lukaku is back for the Derby. Would I start him? Absolutely not. We’ve looked a lot better in our last 3 games without him. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken.
— Retro United (@Retro_Utd) November 9, 2018
Moreover, the Belgian striker is confirmed to have been cleared to play on Sunday, so it’ll be interesting whom the gaffer prefers to lead the attack.
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