Romelu Lukaku says he has never been a conventional ‘target man’ or ‘goal poacher’ and ‘hates’ the misconceptions over his style.
Lukaku hit the ground running after returning to Chelsea in a club-record £97.5m move from Inter Milan in the summer, scoring four goals in his opening four games.
However, the 28-year-old has failed to score in his last five matches and his mini goalscoring drought has coincided with a drop-off in form for the Blues, with Thomas Tuchel’s side suffering consecutive defeats to Man City and Juventus.
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Unsurprisingly, Lukaku has borne the brunt of much of the criticism & many are already questioning whether the player has the all-round game to transform the club into Premier League title challengers.
But speaking to UEFA.com, Lukaku sent a message to his doubters, arguing that he offers more in attack than most centre-forwards as he ‘can do a bit of everything’.
‘The way I’m built – I’m quite big – everybody thinks I’m a sort of target man: just holding up the ball and being a goal poacher,’ Lukaku told UEFA.com.
‘But I’ve never played that way and I hate it. My biggest strength is that I’m dangerous when I’m facing towards the goal, because that’s when I rarely make wrong choices.
‘After I pass the ball, I know where I have to position myself in the box. I can do a bit of everything and in some games when I know there is a lot of space behind the defence, I play differently.
‘The reason I’m so productive [in front of goal] is because I can do a bit of everything.’
Back in 2017, Lukaku became Belgium’s all-time top scorer at the age of 24 and he has since taken his tally to 67 goals in 100 matches.
