Late on Deadline Day in the UK, Romelu Lukaku made a move to Inter Milan in a move worth £72million.
The fee saw him become the Italian club’s record purchase.
The 26-year-old had been a target of the Italian side since the start of the transfer window and they previously had a few bids rejected for the big Belgian.
He was close to a move to Juventus which didn’t materialize because of the breakdown in negotiations between Manchester United and Paulo Dybala, who was supposed to be part the move.
New Inter manager Antonio Conte will now be pleased to have gotten his man as he has been keen on him since his time at Chelsea
It was widely reported; prior to his appointment at Chelsea, that Lukaku was his preferred option to Alvaro Morata.
Lukaku will also be pleased to be playing with Conte who he praised as his favourite manager.
The Belgian told Mediaset:
“Good that Conte went to Inter, for me, he is the best coach in the world.”
Now that Antonio Conte and Romelu Lukaku are finally united, let’s take a look at how he will fit in at Inter and the possible formations he may feature in.
Player Profile
Romelu Lukaku is an accomplished forward who has played over 400 matches and scored over 200 goals for club and country.
As a striker, he is known for his pace, strength, aerial ability and variety of finishing.
He’s a natural instinct scorer whose main strengths is the ability to run in behind the defence or come alive in the box to score easy finishes.
He can be a ‘right place right time’ predatory finisher on his day.
How Will He Fit In At Inter?
Antonio Conte is well known for his three at the back formation.
It is the formation he has featured for huge parts of this pre-season and we expect that to be the formation we will see from Inter this season.
3-5-2 system
In a three at the back system with two strikers upfront, Lukaku will be expected to play down the middle as the target man alongside a mobile second striker.
His job mainly would be to occupy the centre backs with his strength and play with his back to goal.
He will also be required to make dummy runs to create space for his strike partner.
With two strikers, three midfielders and two wide men, there will be a lot of crosses going into the box from the wider areas which Lukaku being an obvious aerial threat can latch onto.
The numbers in midfield also mean that there will be times where the team will be pinned down defensively and his ability to hold the ball up in order to alleviate his team of that pressure will come to play.
3-4-3 system
The 3-4-3 formation was one that Conte played with Chelsea.
It was the formation he used the most in his title-winning first season in London where two players play wide of the centre forward.
In this instance, Lukaku’s hold up play will be required more because there is a presence of two other forwards.
These two will be more mobile than Lukaku and will depend on the hold-up play in transition because of Conte’s style of defending.
Lukaku’s pace will be another factor too. The speed to get in behind the defence will catch opposition defenders off guard.
Inter will definitely be a team strong on the counter this coming campaign and adding Lukaku to that only makes it better.
One of the concerns over Lukaku though is his intelligence with his back to goal and ability to make the right decisions.
His shambolic “first touch” was notably a source of ridicule for him during his time in England.
The Belgian is only 26, playing under a manager that relies heavily on his strikers not only for goal scoring which means there will be room for him to learn and improve.
Inter go into the season as one of the teams likely to push Juventus all the way for the Scudetto and the addition of a goalscorer like Lukaku will only get them closer to their dreams of achieving it.
