Romelu Lukaku should not be compared to Lionel Messi but will be a highly successful signing for Manchester United, according to Kevin De Bruyne, his Belgium team-mate.
Lukaku has had the perfect start to his United career by scoring in the past two tour games and contributing impressive link-up play. On Thursday he took his goal expertly in a 2-0 win over Manchester City, swerving around the goalkeeper Ederson and finishing confidently from a difficult angle. This followed Lukaku’s winner in United’s 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake. Lukaku cost United £75m and is the like-for-like replacement for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored 28 times in all competitions last season.
De Bruyne said of Lukaku: “He will do very well. Everyone knows what his qualities are and he will do what he has to do. Obviously he has his way of playing. Don’t compare him to a Messi. He’s a big physical guy and can be awesome.”
This week José Mourinho said Lukaku had to prove his ability at the highest level. De Bruyne is sure he will do so despite the pressure that can come with such a high price tag.
“There’s a lot said about these big transfers, people mock him and other players on social media,” he said. “You know it’s there but you just can’t care about that. You just have to do your job and I think he will score 20-25 goals for United a season and that will speak for itself.”
Lukaku has scored 88 Premier League goals since 2012, second only to Sergio Agüero. “If you see his ratio of goals, it’s incredible,” De Bruyne said. “He’s one of the best in the world and what is he, 24? You can say that about him at that age.”
Vincent Kompany, the City and Belgium captain, pointed to the centre-forward’s desire to heighten his game. “The one thing you get when you have Romelu is an incredible drive to improve and to score goals,” he said. “It’s something really unique that I’ve been able to observe over the years because he’s been a player from Anderlecht, which is the same youth system where I come from and I’ve really followed his progress.
“The key thing with him is he believes he’s the best player in the world. It doesn’t matter whether he is or he isn’t, that’s the way he approaches every single training session and every game. If you think you are the best you can never really be satisfied with yourself and therefore you always keep working harder and harder and that’s what he does. It’s a special player [for United] to have.”
Regarding City’s hopes for next season De Bruyne warned it may take time for all the new players Pep Guardiola is recruiting to bed in. “It should be better than last year but also don’t forget there’s a lot of change again this summer with a lot of players coming in or going out,” the forward said. “We don’t know yet how many will arrive but it’s been a busy transfer period, like everybody knows. So we have hopes for the new season.
“In the beginning it’s always difficult. The new players have to adapt to the way we play and they are used to different things, different systems.”
United next play Real Madrid in San Jose on Sunday. City’s second match of their tour is also against the Spanish side, in Los Angeles on Wedneday.