Romelu Lukaku took a lot of unfair blame at Manchester United, opines Roberto Martinez

After a career best 25 goal Premier League season in the 2016/17 term, a lot was expected from Romelu Lukaku when he signed for Manchester United for an initial £75 million fee. The price-tag combined with the Belgian’s proven goalscoring record in England, saw a lot of pressure placed on Lukaku. But the 27-year-old struggled to cope and only managed to net 42 goals in 96 appearances for the club with him failing to convince either Jose Mourinho or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

It earned the Belgian a move away last summer to Inter Milan, where he equalled Ronaldo Nazario’s record for the most goals as an Inter Milan debutant with 34 strikes in all competitions. Not only that, Lukaku has continued to thrive for his country and it has seen Roberto Martinez admit that in his eyes, the 27-year-old took a lot of unfair blame at Old Trafford. The Belgium head coach further added that the Ronelu Lukaku everyone sees now is the footballer at his very best.

“My relationship with Romelu was from a young player when he came to Everton on loan. Then we made a massive effort to get him on a permanent basis and he was the transfer record at that time. You can see the player going through phases, good moments, bad moments, but what we’ve seen with Romelu is he’s never lost his outstanding quality which is scoring goals,” Martinez said, reported Goal.

“The time he had at Manchester United, he was so desperate to win trophies and he took a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and probably took a lot of blame, in my eyes, very unfairly. But going to Italy, he’s in the middle of a new project, he’s taken that responsibility and those difficulties he had in England in a good way. The player we have now is a player in the best maturity moment of his career.”