Jose Mourinho jokes a lack of a boot sponsor is behind Romelu Lukaku’s goalscoring woes

ROMELU Lukaku has scored just one goal in 11 games. And his manager Jose Mourinho has cheekily named a reason for the striker’s form.

Romelu Lukaku. / AFP PHOTO / Oli SCARFF

JOSE Mourinho joked that Romelu Lukaku “needs a big contract” with a football boot company to get back to his best goalscoring form.

Lukaku has scored one goal in 11 games for Manchester United, and missed a simple chance in the 4-2 win at Watford in the Premier League on Tuesday night.

The Belgian is currently without a boot sponsor, and appeared to colour over the Nike tick on his all-black boots on Tuesday, something Mourinho jokingly referred to after the game.

Romelu Lukaku. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

“I think he needs a big contract with big boots because at the moment he doesn’t have a sponsor,” Mourinho said.

“He’s playing with black boots, I think he needs a brand to give him the right boots and pay him the right money so he goes back to scoring.

“He finished the deal and now he’s waiting for a new deal.”

Mourinho then spoke seriously, adding that there is no pressure on the 24-year-old, as long as he continues to work hard for the team.

“But jokes apart he works amazingly well for the team. I would never blame a player like him for an easy chance that he missed.

“With me he knows that he doesn’t have that pressure, he’s a great professional, great colleague, I couldn’t be happier with him.”

Romelu Lukaku (L). / AFP PHOTO / Glyn KIRK

United raced into a 3-0 lead in the first half thanks to Ashley Young (2) and Anthony Martial, but were given a scare late on as two quick-fire Watford goals brought them to within a goal of the visitors.

Mourinho was delighted with his side’s first-half showing, insisting they could have scored six, and says the late scare should act as a good lesson to his players not to lose concentration when in comfortable leads.

“We had chances for four, five and six in the first half and in the second half again and again and we didn’t score,” said Mourinho.

“So I think the players had the feeling that it was too easy, that the game was over and they (Watford) had no conditions to react.

“But then they reacted, they scored the penalty and it gave them belief. This team in mid-table have quality and they have no pressure that teams with other objectives have so they had no problems to concede four, five, six so when they scored two goals they gave a few minutes of everything when they believed anything could happen.

“I prefer to forget the five minutes where we conceded the goals and lost concentration, I prefer to focus on all the good things we did. We were in control and really dangerous in attacking situations. To play away from home and score four goals is really good.

“It’s a good lesson (for the players), and it’s good to have lessons without losing points. Maybe next time we are winning 2-0 or 3-0 the players will remember.”

Jose Mourinho. / AFP PHOTO / PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA

Mourinho singled out Young for praise, and said he was surprised Paul Pogba let him take the 25-yard free-kick which put United 2-0 up.

“He’s playing really well,” said Mourinho. “I know what he can do for us and all the positions he can be useful. The left-back position is adapted to him and the stage of his career when he has the maturity and tactical knowledge to play in this position.

“I was surprised that Paul gave him permission, not that he scored, he’s quite good and his percentage of success in training is high.”

Read the full story at Sky Sports

Originally published as Jose Mourinho jokes a lack of a boot sponsor is behind Romelu Lukaku’s goalscoring woes