Manchester United could part ways with Romelu Lukaku amid Mourinho’s exit – Burley

ESPN pundit Craig Burley believes Romelu Lukaku could be shown the Old Trafford exit door, should Jose Mourinho be axed from the head coach role at Manchester United. The Belgium international joined the Red Devils from Everton during the 2017 summer transfer window and he has since been the undisputed striker upfront, contributing over 30 goals across all competitions.

Despite this, the Belgian has had his fair share of criticism with the tendency to miss clear-cut chances in games and Burley feels the marksman may not command a regular role, should Mourinho face the axe, he told ESPN: “He’s one of a number of United players that, once Mourinho goes, will have to be outed by the new regime. Whether that be a sporting director or a new manager. He’s a good player but, watching him lately, he’s not making the right runs. I wouldn’t call him a clever striker – he’s big and powerful and gets his ratio of goals. But it’s against the weaker teams.”

During the previous campaign, Mourinho indicated that Lukaku is ‘untouchable’ in the centre-forward position and he has seemingly stuck to his word with the Belgian barely missing a Premier League game for United barring an injury. Nonetheless, there is no hiding that he has been guilty of missing clear-cut opportunities every now and then and he may need to improve on this statistic, if he is to stake the claim for the centre-forward role on a long-term basis.

Lukaku has started the current campaign in a decent fashion with four goals across all competitions but he could have quite easily doubled the tally, had he converted the straight-forward chances up for grabs. He is presently on international duty with Belgium who are scheduled to face Switzerland and Netherlands – the former of those being a Nations League game.