Three Stats That Prove Romelu Lukaku Could Become The Signing Of The Season
Romelu Lukaku’s arrival at Manchester United for a staggering £75million fee from Everton has got the fans buzzing. The Belgian international’s transfer did spark a lot of discussions among the footballing community, in regards to the humongous transfer fee that Jose Mourinho’s side shelled out for his signature.
However, here we bring you three brilliant statistics, which show that Lukaku is a wonderful signing for Manchester United.
25 Goals, 6 Assists
Romelu Lukaku finished last season for Everton with 25 goals in 37 Premier League outings, helping them to 7th place in the standings. The 24-year old finished as the second highest goal-scorer in the competition, only behind Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane. He also managed to bag 6 assists for his teammates and was directly involved in a goal every 105 minutes for the Toffees.
The closest Manchester United player to match Lukaku’s goal tally last season was Zlatan Ibrahimović. The Swedish talisman banged in 17 goals in his debut season for the Red Devils and also registered 5 assists in 28 league games. With the club releasing him earlier in the summer, it left a giant hole at the top and bringing in one of the league’s most prolific goalscorers in Lukaku will address that issue to a great extent.
85 Goals Since 2012
Having joined Chelsea as a teenager in 2011, Lukaku’s breakthrough season was the 2012/13 campaign, when he was loaned out to West Bromwich Albion. He managed 17 goals for the Baggies, including a sensational second half hat-trick against United in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final match in-charge of the club.
Following season, he was loaned out to Everton, where he continued his good run with 15 league goals. Since his permanent move to the Toffees the subsequent season, Lukaku has scored 53 goals over the past three seasons.
That adds up to 85 goals for the Belgian international since 2012 in the English top-flight. Only Sergio Aguero (99) of Manchester City has scored more league goals than the new United man in the same period. This goes on to show that Lukaku is a proven goal-scorer in the Premier League and will be a consistent source of goals for his new club.
More Than 10 Goals For Five Seasons Running
Lukaku is one of the only three strikers to score more than 10 goals in a Premier League season for the last five campaigns consecutively – the other two being Aguero and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud. That is a big achievement, considering that this was done while playing for West Bromwich Albion and Everton – both upper mid-table clubs.
By scoring 25 goals in the league last season, the 24-year old became the first Everton player to score more than 20 goals in a season, in the history of the club.
It must be noted that the last time a United striker scored more than 20 goals a season was in 2012/13 when Robin van Persie fired the club to their 20th league title in his debut season.
Can Lukaku achieve something similar? Most probably, yes!