Everton sold striker Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United this past summer.
Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku celebrates scoring
Pundit Thierry Henry has told The Sun that he thinks Everton fans are now realising just how much they miss striker Romelu Lukaku.
The Toffees got out of jail on Sunday afternoon, as after conceding at Brighton to Anthony Knockaert’s late opener, Wayne Rooney’s penalty earned Everton a share of the spoils.
It’s still only two wins from the first eight games of the Premier League season though for Everton, and manager Ronald Koeman remains under huge pressure to get results.
With four defeats in the first eight games of the season, Koeman hasn’t quite got a return on Farhad Moshiri’s considerable investment over the summer, having financed the signings of Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane and Gylfi Sigurdsson, among others.
The big problem for Everton this season has been a lack of goals, with only five goals scored in eight Premier League games – and three of them have come from Rooney, with Oumar Niasse scoring the other two.
That means that only two players have scored for Everton in league football this season, and it’s becoming clearer and clearer that Everton didn’t do enough to replace Romelu Lukaku following his move to Manchester United.
The Belgian hitman scored 25 league goals last season and has now scored seven times in eight league games for United, cementing himself as one of the top strikers in Europe.
Now, pundit Thierry Henry – who has also coached Lukaku with Belgium – has told The Sun that he feels Everton fans are now realising just how important Lukaku was, as he could score from just a couple chances.
Henry felt that the Goodison Park crowd were never fully behind Lukaku, but fans are now understanding just how much he is missed – and he called upon Sandro Ramirez, Rooney and Sigurdsson to fill the void.
“Everton fans are just realising how important Romelu Lukaku was to them,” said Henry. “They need a Lukaku, a player who grabs key goals from only a few chances. I never really felt the whole stadium was with him at Goodison Park. But while there were question marks over him, it’s blindingly obvious they are missing him BIG time.”
“With him they might have turned a couple of their defeats this season into wins or at least grabbed a point here or there. But they didn’t exactly give him away. They picked up £75million— but it shows players as good as Lukaku are not easy to replace no matter how much cash changed hands. People say Everton didn’t sign a replacement striker — but they did! They bought forward Sandro Ramirez from Malaga where he scored 14 goals in 30 La Liga games last season. They also have Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson. Maybe this season they have to share the goals around a bit. If one man isn’t going to get 30, three have to get ten,” he added.
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