Belgium Striker Romelu Lukaku Is Still to Reach Full Maturity at Everton

We’ve seen it a couple of times at Everton this season.

As the midfielders are advancing, the full-backs are trying to overlap and the team is moving on the opposition’s goal, striker Romelu Lukaku receives a pass.

With his back to the goal, he is supposed to take the ball on, either to pass to the wings or the attacking midfielders or to take it with him as he turns around.

All too often, that doesn’t happen.

Instead, the ball bounces off his feet. His first touch abandons him, and Lukaku takes the sting out of Everton’s attack. The opposition is now back in position, and that very vital split-second head start that is needed to execute an effective attack is lost.

For attacking players, the ability to take a ball on with an excellent first touch is absolutely vital. When that first touch goes wrong, the whole attack goes wrong. Anyone who plays football themselves, or who has seen strikers decline in quality as they got older, knows that. 

It’s not like Lukaku lacks the technical skills, though. It’s not like he doesn’t know how to control the ball.

Something else is clearly going on. Something that has less to do with Lukaku’s abilities as a footballer, and more with his confidence. Insecure, hesitant and perhaps even nervous, Lukaku is not showing the maturity he will need to reach to truly live up to his potential.

The player’s apparent dip in confidence comes on the heels of a disappointing World Cup performance. In Brazil, where Belgium were touted as a possible dark horse, Lukaku never lived up to what the Rode Duivels were expecting of him following first-choice striker Christian Benteke’s serious injury. 

At the World Cup, Lukaku was supposed to show that the musings that have accompanied him since his time at Anderlecht are not based on thin air. At the World Cup, Lukaku was supposed to prove, once and for all, that he’s as gifted and extraordinarily talented as he’s sometimes made out to be.

However, it simply didn’t happen. By the time Belgium reached the knockout stage of the tournament, Lukaku had lost his place in manager Marc Wilmots' first XI to talented youngster Divock Origi, who went on to earn himself a transfer to Liverpool.

Perhpaps the world simply expects too much of Lukaku. Ever since being hailed as a wonderkid and destined to replace star man Didier Drogba when Chelsea signed the Belgian from Anderlecht at the age of 18, immense pressure has rested on his shoulders. 

It is unfair to expect an 18-year-old to become top scorer for a club like Chelsea, and even after the loan stints he was sent on—first at West Bromwich Albion and then at Everton—the London-based club could have had a bit more patience with Lukaku. 

However, apparently Jose Mourinho simply didn’t think the supposed wonderkid had it in him.

Many critics, and perhaps Lukaku himself, thought it was just a question of coming of age and developing potential. The Chelsea manager probably thought Lukaku just lacked the quality to begin with.

Whether that’s true remains to be seen. At the very least, the fact that the Everton man is clearly lacking confidence tells us he is yet to reach full maturity. 

At the age of 21, Lukaku still has some time left. This year, however, it is time for him to step up and at least develop the mental strength that is needed to succeed at the highest level of football. 

Then we’ll finally see whether Mourinho was right.