Lukaku’s problem? It’s purely physical

Belgium failed to find the back of the net against Ukraine on Wednesday, and Romelu Lukaku is still stuck on zero goals.

According to Marc Delire, the striker was not up to par: “He wasn’t at his best. I love Romelu, but those who love well also chastise well,” the journalist told RTL Sports.

“For me, it’s really physical”

According to Silvio Proto, the reason for this lack of goalscoring is physical: “It’s maybe physical. They play back-to-back matches, you can see from his shirt that he sweats a lot. Maybe the recovery hasn’t been optimal.”

“It’s maybe playing on his mind that he’s not scoring. Because he doesn’t care that the three goals were disallowed. They’re not goals, his tally is zero, there are only the assists,” he adds.

The former goalkeeper believes that the disallowed goals are not having a positive effect on him: “The disallowed goals are not going to boost him. A striker who doesn’t score is a sick striker. Disallowed goals are like a goalkeeper saving a penalty but the opponent scoring on the rebound, it’s a goal conceded.”

According to Thomas Chatelle, Lukaku’s problem is physical: “For me, it’s really physical. During this match, I felt he was irritable. In other games, he made a lot of runs, he gave a lot even if not everything was perfect. [On Wednesday] I felt he was really not well.”