Comparing Romelu Lukaku’s stats at Inter to his final season at Man Utd

Planet Football • 04 Dec 2019

Romelu Lukaku’s Manchester United career may have ended disappointingly, but the striker has hit the ground running at the San Siro after joining Inter for €80million in the summer.

After a promising debut campaign at Old Trafford, Lukaku’s form and fitness was criticised during his second season, yet he has already reached double figures in Serie A while forming a deadly strike partnership with Lautaro Martinez.

We’ve taken a closer look at his stats to date in Italy’s top flight and compared them to his final season in the Premier League.

Goals and assists

Lukaku has appeared in all 14 of Inter’s fixtures in Serie A today, starting 13 of them. While he is yet to provide an assist in those appearances, the striker has bagged 10 goals at an average of a goal every 116.8 minutes.

That means Lukaku is just two goals short of his Premier League tally from 2018-19, which came from 32 appearances, 10 of which were as a substitute. The Belgium international similarly failed to register an assist for United over the course of the campaign, meaning he directly contributed to a goal at an average of one every 177.5 minutes.

Inter top of the league at the start of December. 37 points from a possible 42. 18 goals combined by Lukaku and Lautaro in 14 games… Antonio Conte is getting something right.

— Nicky Bandini (@NickyBandini) December 1, 2019

Attacking impact

While Lukaku has yet to register an assist for Inter in Serie A (he did provide a beautiful outside of the boot assist for Martinez in the Champions League), he still averages 1.1 chances created per 90 minutes.

This is a slight improvement on his figures at United, where he averaged 0.9 chances created per 90 minutes.

The 26-year-old is actually attempting to take on players less in Italy, attempting 0.9 dribbles per 90 minutes in contrast to 1.7 at United, but he is perhaps picking his moments more wisely, completing 66.6% of his dribbles at Inter, up from a completion rate of 52.9% in the Premier League.

Lukaku’s passing accuracy has also slightly improved at the San Siro, completing 69.1% of his passes to date in Serie A compared to 66.3% in 2018-19.

He is also taking fewer unsuccessful touches (1.8 per 90 vs 2.2) and is dispossessed less frequently (1.7 times per 90 vs 1.9).

Due to his hulking frame, Lukaku has often been mistakenly typecast as a target man, and it is interesting to note he has been involved in fewer aerial battles in Italy.

In a similar story to his dribbling statistics, Lukaku is involved in fewer (5.8 per 90 minutes vs 7.5 at United), but now has a better success rate (62.1% vs 52%).

Look at that filth of an assist from Romelu Lukaku for Lautaro Martinez. 💯🔥pic.twitter.com/V0JoUDGkLi

— Football HQ (@FootbaII_HQ) December 3, 2019

Defensive contributions

Lukaku’s work rate was criticised at Old Trafford, where he averaged 0.3 tackles per 90 minutes at a success rate of 42.9% and 0.1 interceptions per 90 minutes.

While his average interceptions remains 0.1 at Inter, under Antonio Conte he now averages 0.8 tackles per 90 minutes at a success rate of 72.7%.