“I think you were harsh on Lukaku in those big games. Because in those games, you actually sort of backed Mourinho…”
Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville had a very interesting debate on Sunday, ahead of Manchester City’s game with Arsenal and Chelsea’s fixture against Manchester United.
The Sky Sports pundits were at Stamford Bridge, and the topic of Neville’s criticism of Romelu Lukaku came up. The former United and England defender felt that Lukaku could have played better in his team’s goalless draw with Liverpool at Anfield, and the 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur last Saturday at Old Trafford.
Lukaku didn’t score in either game, but set-up Anthony Martial’s winner at Old Trafford. Against Liverpool, the United striker had just two touches in the opposition’s penalty area, and only one shot. In the Spurs match, Lukaku managed three shots and five touches in the opposition box. Rather than view this poor showing as a result of Jose Mourinho’s tactics, Neville questioned the Belgian striker’s performances, particularly against Liverpool.
“I was disappointed with Lukaku,” Neville said.
“It looked like he was distracted in the first half, he wasn’t himself, he was frustrated. He really didn’t get any impact in the game, no influence.”
The topic of pundits being critical of players came up at Stamford Bridge, and Neville said footballers need to just get on with their job, and take no notice of what critics have to say. However, Carragher took issue with his colleague’s criticism of Lukaku, arguing that Neville couldn’t praise Mourinho’s tactics in the matches against Spurs and Liverpool, and then be critical of his striker’s performances in those games.
Here’s how the debate went:
Carragher: “I think you were harsh on Lukaku in those big games. Because in those games, you actually sort of backed Mourinho…”
Neville: “He didn’t play well, he didn’t play well.”
Carragher: “To be fair, I’d actually look at the manager for that, in terms of Lukaku not playing well. We’ve backed, I’ve backed Mourinho in big games and how he goes about it… I’m not going to criticise him if he’s defensive and how he plays. But if you’re going to back Mourinho, you can’t then criticise Lukaku. ”
Neville: “Well, you can.”
Carragher: “Well how? How? What more could he have done at Liverpool? He never got a kick of the ball!”
Neville: “Why couldn’t you expect more?”
Carragher: “Because he had two touches in the opposition box. I’m not criticising him for it (Mourinho), but the fact remains is he went there for a draw. He didn’t go there and go for Liverpool. He didn’t go for Tottenham. And as a centre-forward, if your team does that, you’re going to get more opportunities, you’re going to be more involved in the game. He hardly touched the ball, you can’t criticise him for that.”
Neville: “I get the fact that he was living off scraps. (But) How many times did Lovren get in front of him? How many times did the other centre-half get in front of him? Nick it off him. I’m talking about winning free-kicks, about maybe making more of the scraps, I’m not talking about him having the most wonderful game in the world. I think he could have done better in the game. He could’ve took his chance before half-time, but that can happen. Generally, I thought he could have done more. Against Tottenham, I thought he could have done more…”
Carragher: “He set the goal up.”
Neville: “He could have done more in those two matches, but he’s done quite well at United. We’ve praised him. He’s had a good start at the club. But (players should) stop getting obsessed with critics and pundits. No-one sat on this bench wants Romelu Lukaku to fail.”
While it’s possible to see where Neville is coming from, we’re with Carragher on this one. Maybe Lukaku could have played better and in both games, maybe he could have made “more of the scraps” he was presented with. But, ultimately, Lukaku had to play within the limited framework of Mourinho’s tactics, and it’s harsh to criticise him when he only had one goal scoring chance of note in both games.
