Often brilliant, often erratic: Romelu Lukaku’s form emblematic of Everton’s season

Everton's Romelu Lukaku reacts during the Premier League match between Everton and Arsenal at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England, on December 13, 2016. Peter Byrne / AP

Everton’s season continues to scale dizzying highs and worrying lows. Results in December act as a microcosm for Ronald Koeman’s team’s season so far. A defeat to Watford where they led after 17 minutes before contriving to lose 3-2 was sandwiched between a draw against Manchester United, where Everton were second rate for 70 minutes, and a victory against Arsenal, where they showed true grit to grind out three points.

Koeman’s squad feels unbalanced. The additions of Yannick Bolasie and Idrissa Gueye have bolstered the midfield and attack, and the Dutchman will hope Ashley Williams’s headed winner against Arsenal on Tuesday will help the Welsh defender discover the early-season form that was so vital to the Goodison Park club going unbeaten in their first six games.

Where Ross Barkley excelled on being restored to the starting XI, James McCarthy’s inclusion still has many pondering exactly what it is that Scotland’s second most expensive transfer in history does to warrant it. In Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines, Everton possess two of the most assured and attacking full-backs in the Premier League, but in Phil Jagielka and Ramiro Funes Mori two centre-backs who combine a chronic lack of pace with a bewildering void of anticipation.

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It is farther up the field, though, where Koeman has his greatest asset, albeit one with a nagging flaw that should have long been addressed.

No doubt Romelu Lukaku is a fine finisher with plenty of attributes, power and pace being chief among them. The Belgian is one of only five players to reach 50 Premier League goals before blowing out 23 candles on his birthday cake and he already has nine in the league this season. But when we talk about the elite front men of world football the name Lukaku does not belong in the same mention as Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann, Gonzalo Higuain, Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Diego Costa.

One criticism to be levelled at the Everton forward is a poor first touch, particularly when controlling the ball in promising attacking situations. The match against Manchester United at the start of December pitched the bumbling Belgian against players with first touches to die for in Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia. Where the United pair caress even the most difficult of passes, Lukaku invariably repels them. Every second touch of his can seem a rescue mission or a tackle.

Too often when the ball is hit long to the giant target with 10 on his back, with a desperate need for it to stick, it simply doesn’t and comes back the other way, putting his midfielders and defenders under pressure when they are in need of respite. During Tuesday’s come-from-behind win against Arsenal, twice Lukaku found himself in promising situations down Arsenal’s left-back channel and twice the threat was snuffed out by Nacho Monreal doing little more than letting the giant Belgian trip over his own feet.

One image widely circulated from Lukaku’s days in Belgium youth football shows him in action for Lierse against a visiting Feyenoord team with the 10-year-old almost comically towering head and shoulders above every other boy on the pitch. The image only adds to the nagging doubt that too many coaches who have guided Lukaku on his fledgling career have been too preoccupied with his size to iron out the flaws in his technique. Everton fans will hope Koeman is a man who can.

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