How Romelu Lukaku re-emerged as one of Europe's best and shone a light on Manchester United's failings

Romelu Lukaku took a little glance over his shoulder, just to check his surroundings, before the head went down and the legs started to pump. Picking up the ball near the centre circle, the Belgian surged forward towards the backpedalling Napoli defence, eating up the ground in front of him and assessing his options. A stepover followed, then a shift of the hips, and before the defenders could react the ball was in the corner of their net. Eight seconds had passed since Lukaku received possession inside his own half, and in those eight seconds there was barely a moment of doubt over whether the Inter Milan striker would punish his opponents. Of the 21 goals Lukaku has plundered for his new club, it was this strike, away to Napoli last month, that best underlined his transformation this season. It was raw, uncensored Lukaku: a striker at the top of his game, playing to his strengths in a team which thrives on aggressive, front-foot football. They have not all been like that. There have been tap-ins, too, and long-range screamers. Then there are the close-range finishes, the clinical penalties and the towering header like the one he scored against AC Milan on Sunday night. "There's a new king in town," he later said on social media. It has all been there for Lukaku, who is looking for all the world like the all-round striker Manchester United were so desperate to recruit last month.

🗣 "He is a beast at the best of times but this season he has become a monster"

💪 Romelu Lukaku is spearheading Inter Milan's title charge in Serie A this season

🔥 He has 2⃣0⃣G/6⃣A for club & country in 2019/20

Calm 🙌 Composed 😎 Clinical 👊 pic.twitter.com/UGxZJlqflJ — Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) January 8, 2020

If United’s decision to sell Lukaku looked curious at the time, it appears downright foolish now, not least because of their much-publicised struggle to find a replacement. That is embarrassing enough for a club of United’s stature, but Lukaku’s sensational form is yet more damning because it only serves to prove how misused, and indeed misunderstood, he was by the club’s coaching staff. “When you want to play with that kind of striker, he is that target man,” said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer of Lukaku earlier this season, following the completion of the Belgian’s move to Italy. Except Lukaku is not “that target man” and, in his own words, he has never been that sort of forward. “A lot of people try to make me the player that I’m not,” Lukaku told the Lightharted Podcast last year. “Because of my size, they think that I’m like the traditional big guy, who posts up all the defenders, holds the ball and then plays it and brings in other players. Well, I’m not that type of dude. “‘I’m a scorer, 100 per cent. I need to face the goal. That’s when I’m dangerous. That’s why, when I play for Belgium, I’m so much more dangerous because I’m in a situation where I face the goal at all times. At all times.”

Lukaku has been in fine form since his move to Inter Milan in the summer Credit : REUTERS

Appearances are rarely as deceptive in football as they are with Lukaku, whose frame has never quite matched his game. Under the management of Antonio Conte, and away from an environment at United that was clearly shattering his confidence, Lukaku has thrived in part because he is operating within a system — a meticulously choreographed system, no less — that allows him to make the most of his skillset. “When there is a lot of movement around me, here and with the Belgian national team, I am at my best because then I can create myself and I can be at the end of the delivery,” Lukaku told Sky earlier this year. “Right now, the systems we are playing, here at Inter with the 3-5-2, and with the Belgium national team in a 3-4-3, with players close to me.” It helps that Conte has been working on this plan for years, and that he has long been trying to find a way to make Lukaku a part of it. Conte first made contact with Lukaku six years ago, when he was the Juventus manager. He tried to sign him again during his time with Chelsea, and having finally got his man he has so far ensured that Lukaku is playing in a position and a team that suits him. Lukaku arrived at Inter in desperate need of a fresh start. He threw himself into the culture, learning Italian within weeks, and the club helped him to address the issues with his weight that had so plagued his time at Old Trafford. As it turned out, and as neither Lukaku nor United had known last season, his digestive system had been malfunctioning. Following nutritional guidance, Lukaku lost more than half a stone in 12 days. The speed is back, and the sharpness has returned with regular game-time.