Lukaku, Everton and Chelsea: A win-win-win situation

Romelu Lukaku reacts after missing his penalty as Manuel Neuer celebrates during the UEFA Super Cup between Bayern Munich and Chelsea at Stadion Eden on August 30, 2013 in Prague, Czech Republic. (Getty Images)

Everton

There are two ways you can look at Everton’s start to the season. The optimist sees that they have kept two clean sheets and are undefeated. The pessimist sees that they haven’t won a game despite playing relatively weak opposition, and they have scored only two goals in three league games, neither of which came from a striker.

Whichever way you look at it, one thing is still abundantly clear; the Toffees are screaming out for a goal scorer.

Arouna Kone is not a bad football player, but he isn’t good enough to lead the line. The Ivorian international is a decent change-of-pace option at best, and it looks like Martinez knows that. He brought Kone on for his debut as an 81st minute substitute in a 2–2 draw away at Norwich City.

Nikica Jelavic got off to a flying start at Goodison Park, scoring 11 goals in 16 games in his first season. However, the Croatian hasn’t been firing for well over a year now, and sports an underwhelming stat line of only 19 goals in 62 games for the Merseyside club. Clearly, he cannot be relied upon to lead the line.

Cue Lukaku. A proven goal scorer at the top level with West Brom, Lukaku can be the final piece to the puzzle for Everton; the focal point to an attack which could see the Toffees fighting alongside Merseyside rivals Liverpool again for a European place. Lukaku should fit perfectly into Everton’s single striker system, feeding off service from Ross Barkley and Kevin Mirallas, as well as quality wide service from full-backs Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines.

Martinez has seemingly just got his season back on track with a fantastic move on the final day of the transfer window. He, and Everton, should be excited about adding Lukaku to a side already full of attacking quality behind him.

Romelu Lukaku

The single most important and dominant thought in Lukaku’s head at the moment is that it is a world cup year. The young striker admitted as much this week, telling The Mirror newspaper:

“For my development and with the World Cup coming up at the end of the season, I cannot afford to stay on the bench. At Everton, I can continue my progress in a club that likes to play beautiful football.”

Belgium line up with only one solitary striker. Realistically, that space is going to be fought for between two men; Lukaku and Aston Villa’s prolific forward Christian Benteke.

Lukaku has his work cut out for him. Benteke is the focus of the Villa side and has gotten off to a flying start with four goals in four appearances. And with Fernando Torres and Demba Ba joined this summer by Eto’o, who are all jostling for places up front at Chelsea, Lukaku would likely not get anywhere near enough time on the field to compete with those numbers.

With the way Benteke has started and the lack of opportunity at Chelsea, it became imperative that Lukaku be playing consistent football elsewhere this year if he wants to be on the pitch in Rio. It was crucial that Lukaku put himself into a better position to catch the attention of the Belgian manager Marc Wilmots.

This move to Everton should be perfect for that. He needs to score goals to get noticed, and he will get plenty of opportunity to do that with the plethora of talent in Everton’s midfield. With their service and his talent, he should have every opportunity to play himself into Wilmots’ starting eleven just in time for the World Cup.