Ronald Koeman has warned his Everton players that their former star Romelu Lukaku’s goalscoring prowress will continue if they do not improve defensively at Old Trafford.
The deadly forward already has six in as many games for his new club and Koeman mentioned that the Merseysiders, struggling for form, must sit up.
“We know him really well,” Koeman said of Lukaku. “He’s one of the best strikers.
“I mentioned several times last season that he’s a great finisher. I hope that we know how we have to defend against him.
“There are a lot of individual qualities in the players around him. In the box he’s really dangerous, he’s fast, he’s strong.
“If we defend how we’ve defended in the last few games, then maybe it will be his afternoon.”
Koeman has agreed that current strikers Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Sandro Ramirez, 20 and 22 respectively, cannot be told to perform Lukaku’s role.
“There’s no frustration now because you can’t do anything at this time,” Koeman said of failing to add another attacker.
“We have different types in Dominic and Sandro. Sandro needs time to adapt to the Premier League. Yes, he has pace but he’s not physically the strongest.
“But it’s too easy to mention the strikers. Defensively we are making too many mistakes.”
“It’s how you look at it — maybe it’s good that in the last three seasons I’ve had good results at Old Trafford [with Southampton and Everton],” he said.
“But Manchester United are really strong, a stronger team than last season, and at the moment we’re not at the level we were last season.”
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