Romelu Lukaku has revealed that his relationship with Manchester United teammate Marcus Rashford has flourished since a frank conversation over dinner.
The Belgian forward, a £75m arrival from Everton this summer, has not scored in his last six games, but has provided several assists over that period and been praised for his approach play by manager Jose Mourinho.
Lukaku believes adding more facets to his game has been beneficial, even if he has not scored himself, and insists he takes as much joy from seeing Rashford getting on the score sheet.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he explained: ‘I see a lot of qualities in him that can help me and I think I have a lot of qualities that can help him.
‘After the game against Swansea he came to my house with his brother, we were having dinner and he asked, “What do you expect from us this season?”
‘For me it is easy. I said to him if you eat, I eat. If you score a goal I know there will be space for me to create or score myself.
‘If I score I know there will be space for you. That’s how the mentality has to be. I’m not a selfish guy.
‘I came here to help you and the team achieve something. Whenever I am in a situation and I’m not 100 per cent it will be a goal, I want you to be there so I can give you the pass and score.
‘Then it has to be the same for you because at the end of the day it’s a team. As soon as I told him that he went scoring every game, in training I would watch his finishing, his skills, how he runs through players.
‘I try to take stuff from that but we keep it really natural. We talk a lot but we don’t over-talk about football. We talk about life, music, we play video games.
‘He lives 100 yards away from me so it makes it easy. To have a guy like that – willing to be competitive but also with a leadership mentality – it helps the team.’
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