Season › 2015-16 › News Lukaku's first coach on why goals will always hide his flaws Lyndon Lloyd , 11 September, 19comments | Jump to most recent In a revealing interview, Ariel Jacobs, the man who gave Romelu Lukaku his break as a precocious 16-year-old at Anderlecht, explains how the striker's rapid rise meant he missed out on crucial development time that might have ironed out some of the flaws in his game. » Read the full article at Liverpool Echo Reader Comments (19) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Anthony Dwyer 1 Posted 12/09/2015 at 00:59:23 Great read, sounds like a guy who genuinely cares about Big Rom, too.I’ve gone on record before now to stress just how good I feel the big fella actually is. I agree that the big fee has added pressure and has made some of our fans question Lukakus talents as a direct result of the big tag, but we have bought a proven goalscorer who is still only 22. He basically guarantees a tally of at least 15 league goals per season and will only become better. For that tally alone we will guarantee our money back.I think we will get another 2 years tops and then he will join a top side who constantly play Champions League football. Hopefully we may keep him longer if we can break into it, also if we can keep Etones and Ross too.We have some extremely talented young men at our club and Rom is definitely one of them. Ian Robert 2 Posted 12/09/2015 at 09:13:39 Put the ball in front of him to run onto and you have a chance he will hit the target, Other than that, he's crap. Cannot control a ball and only runs when he can be bothered. Wasted money in my opinion. Jim Bennings 3 Posted 12/09/2015 at 09:24:57 Not suited to one up-front especially in a midfield that lacks an Arteta type player that can see a forward pass.The arrival of Lennon and Deulofeu may help if they get consistent service into dangerous areas. Andy Codling 4 Posted 12/09/2015 at 09:32:21 True Jim, we just need a manager now who will play them! Eric Myles 5 Posted 12/09/2015 at 09:46:06 Ian #2, it’s telling that his coach at 16 years old still sees the same flaws in him 6 years later, albeit he stated there is some improvement.If he hasn’t learnt to eliminate those flaws in 6 years development, the question has to be asked: Is it down to bad coaching or is the player incapable of learning? Duncan McDine 6 Posted 12/09/2015 at 09:52:53 As long as he keeps scoring goals I see no reason to doubt the investment. It will be a bonus if he starts improving the other side of his game, but I won’t hold my breath!Since the '80s, only Yakubu comes close to the same goal threat that Rom offers. To refer to him as ’crap’ is beyond a joke. Ian Robert 7 Posted 12/09/2015 at 10:26:28 Duncan (#6), ignoring Cottee and Campbell of course. :) Anto Byrne 9 Posted 13/09/2015 at 08:55:07 Everton are becoming a top side and will be challenging in Europe. If other clubs want Lukaku, it's going to cost them a shedload of money. Al Reddish 10 Posted 13/09/2015 at 16:14:30 People say he can't play as a lone striker, but apart from scoring against Barnsley, he hasn't done much with someone up top with him either. He needs to take a leaf out of Kone's book, buckle down and become more of a team player. He did nothing but sulk for the last 15 minutes against Chelsea and looked utterly pissed off when Naismith got his third, instead of putting it on a plate for him to tap in. Jackie Barry 11 Posted 13/09/2015 at 16:32:59 I think he did well yesterday and of course was part of the team that won. Certainly isn't crap and is the best goalscorer we have had for years maybe longer. Si Cooper 12 Posted 13/09/2015 at 16:52:25 Eric, it seems clear to me that Jacobs is saying it is down to the type of coaching rather than anything else. Effectively, time that would normally have been spent focussing on his weaknesses has been spent concentrating on exploiting his natural abilities because he can deliver a good return based on that alone.The lad is still young and I think he is working on improving his hold-up play and bringing others into the game. To criticise him for wanting to score at any opportunity is harsh. He is involved with creating opportunities for himself and others at the moment as far as I can see, but will be well aware that as the main striker he will mainly be judged on his goal return. Jamie Barlow 13 Posted 13/09/2015 at 17:00:37 There's always excuses made for young players on this site by plenty of people. How come Lukaku is expected to be great now? He's got plenty of time to be a top player and he will be. He's a goalscorer. Put the ball where he wants it and he will score plenty. Ajay Gopal 14 Posted 13/09/2015 at 17:42:50 If I am not mistaken, Drogba really became a superstar at the age of 26-27 when he joined Chelsea. So, to write-off Lukaku at 22 is beyond stupid. He is getting better and this year, I think Martinez has figured out that to get the best out of him, play him off a 2nd striker (Kone). He was unlucky not to score yesterday - he should have scored but I am happy that he worked Begovic at least 4-5 times in the match. James Marshall 15 Posted 13/09/2015 at 18:00:34 He's only 22, still developing yet people berate him. He's scored loads of goals in one of the toughest divisions in world football and people call him crap? Really? He's the best centre forward we've had for years, and at his age has plenty of room for improvement.Top class strikers are like gold dust to a club like ours these days, and people should enjoy him while he's our player because he won't be here forever and then what?He was a handful yesterday, and has been excellent so far this season even though he hasn't scored many. I'm a massive fan of Lukaku and love watching him play for us when he's used properly. The kids a beast when he's in full flow and not many defenders can live with him. Eric Myles 17 Posted 14/09/2015 at 01:18:38 Si #11, if he has the natural ability to score goals, which he undoubtedly does, then the coaching staff over the last 6 years would be very remiss in not working on other parts of his game, like his first touch which still lets him down but would add more to his goalscoring ability. Eugene Ruane 18 Posted 14/09/2015 at 02:05:01 This thing of him being pissed off coz the ball wasn't passed to him? Great! That's how I like my strikers, greedy for goals, always always always wanting to be the feller who puts the ball in the net. Nothing wrong with that and it doesn't mean he's not a team player. As for him being 'crap', Jesus, I honestly believe that sometimes you could get more insight from a potato. Si Cooper 19 Posted 14/09/2015 at 18:39:14 Eric (#15), I expect the large majority of the training at senior level will be team based rather than large amounts of time spent working on technique. At junior level they can probably split the players up into their respective positions and do tailored training pretty much every day and then fling them together for matches (I am exaggerating to make a point) because the results don’t matter that much.Romelu Lukaku has been playing at a level where the match results matter more than anything else right through an important phase of his development, and I think it is perfectly understandable that they haven’t focussed on what might be marginal gains when prepping him for games. He can still learn and improve those parts of his game but it is like the difference in studying for a degree full-time or fitting one in around a full-time job. Eric Myles 20 Posted 15/09/2015 at 11:00:47 I see what you’re saying, Si, but I don’t see that having a first touch stronger than an Osman shot helps the team.He would surely be a more productive striker, and a greater benefit to the team, if they did some work on that.I would rather see Kone as the striker with his back to goal knocking the ball to Lukaku to power forwards in control than waste Lukaku’s talents with his back to goal. Alex Jones 21 Posted 15/09/2015 at 11:30:22 I think people forget his age, which is testament to his abilities, as he's judged like he's the finished article. His record is remarkable for his age and he'll be a great striker for a long time to come, hopefully for us!I also thought his hold up play was much improved against Chelsea and he's working hard on this in training. He has the desire and humility to get better and I have no doubt he will. 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