Former Manchester United striker Andy Cole believes the club’s current No 9, Romelu Lukaku, is suffering from a crisis of confidence.
Cole, one of the Red Devils’ greatest-ever strikers after scoring 121 goals in 275 appearances for the club across six seasons, says his successor will be “good to go” soon.
Lukaku scored 27 goals for United last season, his first for the club, and that mark was the most he’d ever scored in one campaign.
However, he’s currently gone nine club games without scoring, a run of form that saw him dropped from the starting XI for last weekend’s 2-1 win over former side Everton.
“Obviously this season he is finding it a little bit harder,” Cole said.
“Confidence is a major factor but I believe once he regains that confidence, he will be good to go.”
The 47-year-old acknowledged that the attritional, defensive style of football employed by manager Jose Mourinho may also be impacting Lukaku’s form, as the side weren’t creating enough chances for their striker – though he missed a few point-blank opportunities nonetheless.
“It is a game of creating chances and in recent games United have created more chances,” Cole added.
“When they create more chances, as a centre-forward, you are going to have a better chance of scoring a goal.”
“When the team doesn’t create chances it is very difficult. Lukaku last season was getting no chances and he was creating something or netting from half-chances. It’s peaks and troughs.”
Asked how he would fare at United with their current tactics, Cole said, “Who knows? That is a tough one to answer because you never know how many goals you are going to score at the start of the season regardless of what team you play for.”
