Chelsea’s new striker Romelu Lukaku: Who the hell are you vol. 19

But is he any good?

Yes, absolutely. Anyone saying otherwise has recency bias from his last year at Manchester United or has literally never watched Lukaku play in any other capacity. Even if someone is somehow unconvinced by Lukaku over his entire Premier League tenure, he has only improved since joining Inter Milan.

In 252 Premier League appearances, Lukaku has 113 goals and 42 assists. In Serie A, he has had 72 appearances with 47 goals and 12 assists.  So, at the very least, Lukaku is good for a goal roughly every other game and an assist about one every five games. To further drive the point home, in five of his seven Premier League seasons he outscored every single Chelsea player during the same period. Only in 2014/2015 and 2018/2019 did Lukaku fall below a Chelsea player in the league.

Two things are commonly used to criticize Lukaku as a player: his touch and his record against big opponents. The first one is easy to dispel because it was practically a myth even in the Premier League. Once joining Inter Milan, however, Conte drilled Lukaku for months with his back to goal and on his first touch to teammates. He’s improved massively in that facet even if it was never really a weakness to begin with.

His record against big clubs is a true one but one that ultimately doesn’t matter. Ask yourself the type of team Chelsea struggles to score against in recent seasons. It’s not the top teams willing to come at the Blues. It’s the teams that pack it in and dare the Blues to break them down because they know most of the time Chelsea won’t be able to. That’s where Lukaku comes in. Chelsea’s issue isn’t scoring against the top teams, it’s scoring against the teams they should be scoring against. And that’s where Lukaku comes in, just like Diego Costa did when the same issue existed in 2014. It’s also an issue that has gone away in Serie A, so it’s not one worth worrying about from either side of the issue.

Simply put, Chelsea needed a goal scorer and they got one of the world’s best. There are concerns about the price for a 28 year old but Lukaku’s style is one that will age well. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Lukaku play at his current level all the way up to 35 or later. He may not be around that long, but he can easily solve as many issues for as long as Erling Haaland would have.

Which brings us to the final consideration of who Lukaku is: what does this mean for a Haaland deal?