Belgian national team manager Roberto Martinez has claimed that Inter Milan star Romelu Lukaku felt underappreciated in the Premier League following his move from Manchester United to the Italian outfit.
Manchester United signed star forward Romelu Lukaku from Merseyside club Everton back in the summer of 2017 for a staggering transfer fee of £75 million. There was a lot of hype surrounding the Belgian forward when he initially signed for the red half of Manchester but Lukaku never really managed to get himself established as a fan favorite at Old Trafford.
The 26-year-old striker scored 27 goals in his first season at Old Trafford but managed only 15 in his second term unable to win over the United faithful as the critics began to question his aspects of the game and even conditioning.
Throughout his career in England, Lukaku has scored 113 goals in 252 appearances which is quite a good record as only 18 players have managed to score more than that in the English top flight. And due to that record, Belgium boss Roberto Martinez believes that Lukaku was not given enough credit in Britain.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wasn’t utilizing Lukaku on a regular basis and decided to offload him to Italian outfit Inter Milan and the striker felt unloved by the manager and fans. Now Lukaku’s national team manager Roberto Martinez has come to the 26-year-old’s defense stating that Lukaku was underappreciated in England.
The 46-year-old Spaniard said, “Romelu hasn’t been appreciated for most of the time he’s been in the British game, and the reason is very clear. Everyone analyses what he hasn’t got as a number nine. Everyone wants to tell him the first touch should be better, that he should be stronger in the air that he needs to make more room. But what they miss is his outstanding trade as a goalscorer. Look at his stats. He is one of the most significant scorers at his age. Like any player, if you are going to highlight the things they don’t do well, you wouldn’t get the feeling of a good player. But in Romelu’s case, he’s always been a top goalscorer”
