Martinez criticises unfair treatment of Lukaku at United
Belgium manager, Roberto Martinez, hits out at ‘very unfair’ treatment of Romelu Lukaku at Manchester United and claims he was singled out for ‘a lot of blame’ for the club’s struggles – and he is now proving his ‘outstanding quality’ with Inter Milan and Belgium.
Martinez watched the best of Lukaku in his Belgium side’s 4-2 victory over Denmark in the Nations League on Wednesday night. The 27-year-old scored twice to cement Belgium’s place as top of group A2.
Lukaku scored 42 goals in 96 appearances for Manchester United, however, he never managed to win over the affections of his managers, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Embed from Getty ImagesLukaku arrived at Old Trafford from Everton in 2017 with a hefty £75million price tag.
And his time in Manchester was characterised by much criticism of his ability, fitness and speed, to the point where Lukaku himself decided he had had enough.
However, Martinez told TALKSPORT, ‘The time he had at Manchester United, he was so desperate to win trophies and he took a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and probably took a lot of blame, in my eyes, very unfairly.’
Lukaku eventually forced a move to Inter Milan for £73 million pounds and Lukaku has been a revelation since arriving in Serie A, notching up a staggering 41 goals in just 59 appearances.
Embed from Getty Images‘Going to Italy, he’s in the middle of a new project, he’s taken that responsibility and those difficulties he had in England in a good way.
‘The player we have now is a player in the best maturity moment of his career.’
‘You can see the player going through phases, good moments, bad moments, but what we’ve seen with Romelu is he’s never lost his outstanding quality which is scoring goals.
‘Now we’ve seen a real maturity in his play.’
Whilst Lukaku’s time at United can be viewed as not up to standard, he is exactly the player United have been lacking this season and if he was used correctly at United than it may have been a different story.
