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Football

21st Apr 2019

Lukaku got a cruel reception from Everton fans on his return to Goodison Park

James Dawson

He’s been a Manchester United player since 2017, but it was his first trip back to Goodison Park

He might have made over a hundred appearances for Everton during his time there, but there was no love lost between Blues fans and Romelu Lukaku during Manchester United’s 4-0 trashing at Goodison Park on Sunday.

Despite being Everton’s all-time Premier League top scorer, United’s £75 million striker didn’t register a single shot during the match and the entire team only had its first on target in the 86th minute of the match.

In fact, it’s fair to say that he, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were completely anonymous up front.

And with Red Devils four down with over twenty minutes of the match remaining, supporters in the Gwladys Street end of the stadium chanted at Lukaku, including cruelly shouting “Fatty, what’s the score? Fatty fatty, what’s the score?!” at the striker.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and captain David de Gea have already apologised for the team’s performance during the game.

Writing in an Instagram Story after the game, de Gea said: “Difficult to put what I am feeling today into words. As captain I want to say that the performance of the team today, on top of the result, was not up to the standard expected when you pull on this shirt.

“We know that we have to improve but words mean little: we have to give everything for this club. That you for your unconditional support.”

While the United manager looked far from happy in the aftermath of the defeat. Asked in the post-match press conference if his players’ reaction to the loss showed they cared about playing for the club, Solskjaer puffed out his cheeks and replied: “I don’t know, I don’t know.”

He added: “We have to stick together as a team, we can’t change the whole squad, it’s one step as a time.

“I’ve said all along, I’m going to be successful here and there are players there who won’t be part of that successful team. But there are players there, of course, many of these who do have it.”

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