A big part of the story has been understanding just what he is. Standing at 6’3 and being so well built even as a teenager, he brings with him certain preconceptions. His managers in England – Steve Clarke, Roberto Martinez (now of course at Belgium), Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – all responded to that in different ways. Clarke – strangely – got the best out of him at West Brom. Lukaku was clearly a cut above his teammates, so the gameplan would at times be ‘give it to Romelu’. He’d have to be the complete striker, doing the lot, and he thrived at it. Martinez, too, wanted Lukaku to offer a range of skills. He’d run in behind, hold the ball up, link well and obviously score goals. Everton’s struggles under Martinez often meant he would have to carry the side, which he did excellently in his final season if less well the year before.
It doesn’t feel long ago that many were questioning whether Romelu Lukaku could do it at the highest level. It doesn’t feel like it because it wasn’t. Lukaku’s time in English football – first at Chelsea, with a loan to West Brom, then more prominently at Everton and Manchester United – felt a case of ‘almost, but not quite’. He didn’t become a first team starter at Chelsea. He wasn’t able to propel Everton into a regular European side. United didn’t become a title-winning side with Lukaku leading the line. He only once broke 20 league goals in a season. It seemed a little anticlimactic.
But the moment he set foot in Serie A, everything just seemed to click for him. The goals are the headline, with 23 and 24 in the last two seasons. Unlike at United, he’s taking the penalties, and that obviously helps. But he’s become a much more rounded player, causing defenders all sorts of different problems in a way he couldn’t quite before. Antonio Conte seemed to just get how to help Lukaku thrive from day one. And he brought his Inter form to the Euros in Belgium’s first game against Russia, and surely has a strong case as the best individual performer in the tournament so far. So how has he become so dominant now when his Premier League form was patchy?
Romelu Lukaku has carried his supreme Serie A form to the Euros. The 28-year-old forward – scorer of 62 goals in 94 games for his country – does not receive the recognition his excellence deserves. However, the Inter Milan player is now the complete centre-forward. Grace Robertson charts his progress ahead of his side’s Euro 2020 clash against Denmark.
