Martinez praise for strike duo

I hope Lukaku is following the guy around constantly watching everything he does on and off the pitch. If Eto’o has a responsibility to teach, so Lukaku has a responsibility to learn, and now is the time. Opportunities like this to be schooled in your art by one of the best don’t come around often.

I was also impressed that Eto’o has played two games in four days and not shown any signs of tiredness (cue Sterling) for a player in the twilight of his career. Long may it continue.

These guys have bags of top level playing time and their experiences should galvanise youngsters to reach the heights and levels of ability they show. Rom is still very young and has a fantastic future if he really applies himself. Bony is another example of top class centre forward play and he shows the way to hopefully Lukaku, as to how to hold the ball with his back to opponents and be able to bring other team members into play.

This last weekend has been lit up by top class strikers and I just want young Lukaku to light up the Everton faithful in the same way. He has all the attributes physically and just needs to sharpen up his first touch and hold-up play to succeed. The same can be said for Barkley who still has room for improvement.

I was confident heÂ’d be a quality signing, his class was never in doubt and his attitude by the looks of it has been a pleasant attribute and addition with him mentoring and developing the younger like Lukaku from the sounds of it.

Lukaku is still coming in for grief, bad pass yesterday admittedly but his energy levels have been excellent in the last 3 games, really chasing opposition down, chasing lost balls, heÂ’s working hard for the team and that was the criticism of him I had in the games at the start of the season.

He looked so disinterested and like he wasnÂ’t trying. Martinez put it down to fitness and carrying an injury. On the basis of the last 3 games IÂ’d say that may well be the accurate.

To me his touch also looks far better since the Villa game and he looks, quick, strong and aggressive which was also lacking.

He also scoring goals which is the most important. HeÂ’s raw but still ridiculously still only 21 and should only improve.

With his attributes - he has bags of potential.

Lukaku is very intelligent (according to Bobby) and I think he’s going to learn a hell of a lot in the next 2 years.

Now, I am a fan of Lukaku’s, but even last year his tendency to stand looking almost dumbfounded as the ball comes near him is quite perplexing. Whilst Eto’o chased and harried, Rom stood and waited. If he really wants to emulate his other hero Drogba, he needs to take heed of how Samuel plays

Also how to look after yourself, diet, conditioning, off-field stuff like that. These are all aspects of the game that Eto’o can help teach Lukaku. And like Paul Mackie says, I can’t quite believe we have the actual Samuel Eto’o playing for us either.

Agreed, Rom doesnÂ’t have EtoÂ’s skill set (very few strikers Worldwide do though), he needs to work on his control more and body position when holding the ball up.

Ultimately though, to get the best out of him you need to play to his strengths - heÂ’s a beast of a guy, a proven goalscorer, effectively you need him either off the shoulder and running on to finish or in the box with quality delivery, heÂ’s proven with head or foot heÂ’s a finisher when provided with quality service.

To provide with quality service more often we need some more creative players, a no:10 in the mould of Nolito would be a great signing - we donÂ’t have enough of these kind of players in the squad and a couple of injuries seeÂ’s us woefully lacking in attacking intent, as we saw with Barkley missing.

EtoÂ’o also seems very happy here. DudeÂ’s always smiling.

All around this is a good situation. Everton has done very well in this regard signing EtoÂ’o.

RomÂ’s gifts lie elsewhere, mainly size and power, and he does use both to score goals. IÂ’m confident LukakuÂ’s first touch and short passing will improve - letÂ’s sit back and watch him score goals in the while it does!

And any guidance to younger players, can only help.

One thing about Rom is his keenness to learn... Will take him very far.

His hold-up play is shite and I think we are kidding ourselves if we think it will improve to the level we require, itÂ’s just not the lad's strength. He suits a counter-attacking team, and that just isnÂ’t us.

Not bad seeing as though he is apparently the new Brett Angell according to some.

If Rom had NaisyÂ’s work ethic and clever runs with EtoÂ’oÂ’s finishing and experience heÂ’d be some player.

Personally I think heÂ’s just one of those lazy strikers like Berbatov who will still score loads of goals but frustrate everyone. IÂ’m surprised RM doesnÂ’t play more to his strengths.

His record is world class and his technical ability is right up there with the best. Obviously he has lost some pace but he is still our best player by a country mile.

Lukaku is a totally different kind of player he will never have the ability EtoÂ’o does but then neither will most other players bar the MessiÂ’s and RonaldoÂ’s of this world. To compare the two is a bit unfair on Rom.

Lukaku's still a baby, he will get better and better.

That side if Rom's game will develop too. But every so often I'd like to see Baines or Coleman suddenly hit a long ball from the back for Rom to chase on to. It's hard to criticise a passing game which is producing wonderful goals, but a bit if variety every now and then would keep defenders/midfielders from pressing up on as as they tend to do.

Still, he doesn't work as much as the Stracq did........lazy get.

Lille beaten 2-0 by Rennes but it should have been 6. Suffering from Europa league.

Lyon beat Marseille 1-0 but their keeper played like Superman and denied Ayew with 2 or 3 wonder saves.

Everton is the last place you would come to play for a pay check!

Eto'o is one of my all time favourite players, from his performances so far he's barely lost anything since his Barca/Inter days. Yes he went to Russia but they offered him €250k a week, he left cause it was a waste of time. At chelsea he was always in and out of the team. He's getting a lot more playing time already here, and he started slow because he barely had a preseason. We should see a lot more of him soon. You just don't leave a world class player on the bench. Sublime touch and finishing on the weekend.

Lukaku did well when he was bullying and terrorising defences, particularly when he took his goal. But he still has a lot to work on. He should never have been in the position to play that back pass that lead to the goal. If Barry or McCarthy can't take that ball, its got to be one of the other three attacking mids.

1. Because his price tag is £28M, we all expect him to hit the ground running, be almost the finished product. As this fee (doesn't matter whether we paid up front or not, the fact that it is) is almost twice our previous transfer record, we are looking to get our returns as quickly as possible.

2. The fact is, that he is still learning his trade. Yes, he seems less intense or disinterested, but that can change. I read one or two posts that claim he is too old to learn how to better trap the ball, or certain aspects of the game. I remember reading Graeme Sharp's autobiography, about how he learnt when to jump (early) from another veteran, Andy Gray. Once Sharp learnt it, he became that dominant in the air, and was lauded across the league for his aerial abilities.

3. I see many posts about how Lukaku is not playing to his strengths, or how he should be holding the ball up better etc. Possibly, but each time I read such posts, I am reminded how how we used to "lump it up to the big guy" (Big Dunc), and forget that he was actually very good with his feet. Big Dunc himself said in interviews that people (players and manager) tend to only see that, and usually go for the quick answer to lump it up to him.

While Big Dunc has certainly scored iconic goals (e.g. against Liverpool and Man Utd) with his head, look at some of the goals he scored with his feet, or how he lays off the ball, with his feet (instead of knocking down with his head)... there were gems as well.

I can't help but feel that we played to the stereotypes, and often wondered how different things were if we had played more to Big Dunc's other qualities e.g. playing it on the floor.

While Big Dunc's injuries were down to some trapped nerve in his back, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the kind of incessant jumping he has to do amplifies the problem.

4. My point is that Lukaku's strength is unlikely to be holding up the ball and being a big target man. Look at Peter Crouch. He was always better with his feet than his head (or this other Norwegian guy from something back, Jan something, played with Torres Andre Flo, who himself was probably better with his feet than his head).

Perhaps we can see Lukaku developing further in holding up the ball more, or knocking down headers, but he is likely going to be playing along someone's shoulder, take on players directly, running onto through passes. Thus, I think he's only going to be most effective that way. Hopefully, he will begin to impose himself more on the game and that our team philosophy can allow him to flourish.

He does not make good runs off the ball, he doesn't work hard enough to close down defenders or to challenge in the air in the middle of the pitch, he is slow to run back on-side after attacks break down and often seems to start walking as soon as we have or have appeared to lose the ball. Watching the Villa game live the difference between Lukaku and Naismith is stark. Naismith never stops. At one point Lukaku lost the ball but did not chase after it. Nais chased after it for him and closed down the defender who had to slice it into touch. Nais then turned round and gave an earful to Lukaku before sprinting the full length of the pitch to help out Coleman in defence.
And John Paul @34, I was at he Villa game and saw Lukaku lose the ball or not even get proper control of balls played into him many many times. It's a real problem, a very high proportion of our moves break down when it's played to Lukaku unless he has the space to run forwards towards goal – at which point, he suddenly looks like a beast.

Lukaku does score goals, no doubt about it – but he is hugely frustrating to watch as he could be and should be twice as good as he actually is.

That should be the forward midfielder's job, so they can flick it on to him.

Lukaku shouldn't be the target man for the hoof upfield, he is the forward who it should be getting passed to either with a flick on or a pull down and pass.

If a ball is twatted at your neck/knee, I would love to see a player trap the ball dead. Brazillians seems to be able to do it well, not many others really do.

However, now it is obvious they are going to do oppositions a lot of damage, we now need to ensure they both get decent service. Of course their threat also creates opportunities for our other good players. I'd include Osman in this bracket, by the way.