New FPL Transfers Manchester United Lindelof & Lukaku
Hello and welcome to New FPL Transfers Manchester United Lindelof & Lukaku. Man United have been splashing the cash again, but hey why wouldn’t you when Zlatan and Rooney are suddenly off the wage bill?! As ever, United have been linked with a whole host of players over the summer – sadly they failed to secure the services of Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo, Pele and Maradona but hey ho, life is not always plain sailing. Instead, at the time of writing, United have made two significant purchases – firstly they raided Benfica for Swedish defender Victor Lindelof and then they surprised many by grabbing Romelu Lukaku from Everton. Lindelof will be looked upon to bring some stability to a United defence that was beset by injury last term, while the injury and subsequent departure of Zlatan together with United’s general profligacy in front of goal last season meant United needed a big shop window signing to wear the no.9 shirt. Both players have already joined up with United on their preseason tour of the States and will be expected to jump straight into United’s preferred starting XI. Lukaku we all know plenty about, less so Lindelof, but let’s have a look at both to see if they are viable FPL options for us this season.
Victor Lindelof
Defender
FPL Price: 5.5mln
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[/three_fifth]Despite a decent defensive record last season, Mourinho encountered problem after problem at the back. Injuries saw the likes of Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Luke Shaw miss significant periods of the season – Jones and Shaw are injury magnets, while Marcos Rojo suffered a cruciate ligament injury in April which is likely to keep him out until September at least. Eric Bailly proved a success and Mourinho has dipped into United’s deep coffers to bring 22 year old Victor Lindelof to Old Trafford to partner Bailly. Lindelof is a Swedish central defender who has also operated as a right back – his adaptability will have no doubt been an attraction for Jose. The Swede started his career as a midfielder and he has retained those ball playing skills meaning he is adept at bringing the ball out of defence.
Lindelof made his international debut for Sweden in 2016 and has collected 12 caps – before that he represented his country at U17, U19 & U21 level and was part of the team that won the 2015 U21 European Championships, with Lindelof named in the Team of the Tournament. The Swede moved to Benfica in 2012 as a 17 year old and made 96 appearances for Benfica B before graduating to the first team, where he made 48 appearances.
Don’t look to the Swede to be a prolific goal scoring defender as he scored just twice for Benfica. However, Lindelof’s disciplinary record is historically better than Bailly’s with the Swede collecting just one yellow card last season. The Swede appears to offer a safe if unspectacular route into the United backline and with the Red’s opening fixtures looking particularly enticing, some United coverage at the back looks like a sensible choice. His price of 5.5mln sees him cheaper than Valencia and Bailly and the same price as de Gea.
Romelu Lukaku
Forward
FPL Price: 11.5mln
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[/three_fifth]United certainly pulled a rabbit of the hat when they signed Lukaku with the striker heavily reported to be on his way back to Chelsea. However, Mourinho got his man, hijacking his old employers’ plans in the process and with Zlatan Ibrahimovic being released due to his long-term injury, United will be hoping that Lukaku is the man to re-fire United as league challengers rather than the ‘also rans’ they have been since Sir Alex retired. United have spent £75mln on the Belgian international who scored 68 goals in 141 appearances for Everton and has so far registered 23 goals for his country in 68 appearances.
Now, there are few FPL players who create as much debate as Big Rom or Red Rom as he is now known. There are regular criticisms of the player’s ‘poor first touch’, there are suggestions that the Belgian is a ‘flat-track bully’ who goes missing in the big games and of course in FPL circles his perceived inconsistency has led to him being named Trollkaku, amongst other less polite names!
The flat track bully tag could be considered somewhat unfair as Lukaku scored more goals vs the top 6 clubs last season than Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa, Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez. United have bought a tried and tested Premier League goal scorer in Lukaku – last season’s 25 league goals were only bettered by Harry Kane and Big Rom was the 5th highest FPL points scorer behind Alexis, Alli, Hazard and Kane and the joint highest scorer of bonus points alongside Kane, Hazard and KdB.
Another possible advantage for Lukaku is the likelihood of him being on penalties with the departures of Rooney and Ibrahimovic – keep an eye on United’s pre-season matches to see if Red Rom is indeed on spot-kick duty.
Detractors will of course point to the fact that Lukaku and Mourinho worked together briefly at Chelsea before the striker left for Everton – on that Lukaku says, “We were together under different circumstances. Obviously, the first time when I met him, I was still a young kid, and I was eager to play. And he understood my decision why I left at the time… I think he wants to improve me, make me a better player than I am today, which is good. I always want to improve…I think it’s the perfect opportunity.” Mourinho is quoted as saying, “Romelu is a natural fit for Manchester United. He is a big personality and a big player. It is only natural that he wants to develop his career at the biggest club. He will be a great addition to the group and I know they will make him very welcome. I am really looking forward to working with him again.”
Lukaku has great friends in the squad, none more so than neighbour Paul Pogba and also fellow international Marouane Fellaini – both will help him settle at Old Trafford and indeed Lukaku has already joined up with the squad on their tour of USA.
At 24 years old Lukaku is still 2/3 years away from his prime and his dreams of playing Champions League football will now been realised. With the likes of Martial, Mkhitaryan, Mata, Pogba and Rashford looking to provide their new team mate chances aplenty expect Lukaku to ‘hit the ground running’ and with United’s first seven fixtures being vs West Ham, Swansea, Leicester, Stoke, Everton, Southampton and Palace a fast start will be demanded by Mourinho and he’ll be looking to his new striker to bully those flat tracks.
Lukaku has been priced at 11.5mln by FPL, putting him on par with Aguero with only Kane more expensive. Owning all three premium strikers will be tricky given the pricing and clearly Lukaku’s move to United has been reflected in his price.
Thanks for reading New FPL Transfers Manchester United Lindelof & Lukaku. This article was written by Cookie
The Fixture Tracker…
***NEW ARTICLE***
As with previous seasons we’ll be previewing some FPL transfers in the lead up to the big day. Some of the players previewed will be new to the league while others will simply have moved between PL clubs.
Cookie kicks us off this morning with an insightful look at Messrs Lindelof & Lukaku. Thanks Cookie.
Great first write up to kick us off Cookie look forward to many more , did you miss Eddie Gray name when mentioning these players Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo, Pele and Maradona cheers mate 😉
No mate, just Eric the King and Denis Irwin 😉
Great start there for us Cookie thanks very much mate! It would seem you are fairly content with those transfers hey? Mito mentioned yesterday that Lukaku was the first name in his team and I have to agree with him. Form from last year and with their fixtures he is hard to ignore. Some United defence could be needed as well, pre season will be interesting to see how they line up.
Hi,
Could someone explain what the rotation tracker is showing? Can’t quite grasp it…
Hi Leeds, it’s not a rotation one it’s a (perceived)game difficulty one. It’s colour coded to coincide with the tab below it. We usually do a separate rotation one to pair up the teams home and away.
Hi Guys, 2nd Draft
Took out Matic+Rooney+Rangel for Allen+Deeney+Mee
Will go for my favorite 3-4-3 formation
Since I have Kane, is it wise to switch out Alli -> Mane
Or take out Kane for another prime striker and use cash to shoe up elsewhere
Foster
Milner Yoshida Cedric
Sane Pedro Alli Allen
Deeney Kane Lukaku
MyHill Loftus-Cheek Mee Rosenior
Many thanks Cookie, a great start. Just going from that I’d say De Gea looks to be the safest route into the United defence if people choose to go that way. I can’t see many not going with Lukaku by default, especially as he will likely be a major captaincy option for the majority of those early games.
Good call Initt. What route do you take with keepers? One decent and a cheapie or two cheapies?
I usually have two cheap rotating ones but I finished the thick end of last season with just Lloris and that worked much better so I may go a similar route to that from the off this time.
Cheers Init, I’d agree with DDG as the safest, but if folk go cheap on keepers Lindelof comes into play for sure.
Great article Cookie. Anyone know what the deal with Shaw is? He really could be good value at £5.0m, but I’m guessing people are staying away from him with game time concerns? I thought he would be their first choice left-back, no?
Would have to take a look at how pre season goes for him AT, but I dont think Mou is a big fan of his
Darmian might challenge him for the LB spot if Valencia continues to be first choice RB. I cannot see Mou lining up with 2 attacking fullbacks. Rojo can also play there once he is back from injury. I am not even confident that pre-season will give you the best picture, as Mourinho will rotate a lot in those games and will likely continue to do so once the season is on the way. I reckon Valencia and Bailly will play most games and the rest will be rotated. The safest way to the United defence is De Gea. Cedric is a good value at 5M.
Shame. Cheers both.