Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has backed Romelu Lukaku to find his goalscoring touch sooner or later. The Belgium international is currently nine matches without a goal for United with Mourinho dropping him to the bench for their 2-1 victory over Everton.
Lukaku did get on to the pitch for the last 25 minutes against the Toffees but opportunities were scarce.
“I think when he scores one goal, life will change for him,” Mourinho told MUTV.
“At the moment, I think he’s under that pressure that normally the strikers put on themselves, plus the press obviously. So it’s not an easy life for strikers when they don’t score goals.
“I think he’s feeling a little bit of that, but he came into the game with good movement.
“Romelu showed good attitude, he wasn’t losing the ball, his first touch was better, he was much more composed, so he will be better.
“I have no doubts that soon he will start scoring goals.”
Mourinho couldn’t hide his frustrations even after what he described as Manchester United’s most complete performance of the season.
A 2-1 win against Everton moved United up to eighth in the Premier League, but still leaves them nine points adrift of leaders Liverpool.
Mourinho claims their wastefulness in front of goal is costing them, while weaknesses at the back remain a concern.
Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial put United in control against Everton. But Gylfi Sigurdsson’s 77th-minute penalty set up a tense finale – prompting fears there would be a repeat of the previous week’s 2-2 draw at Chelsea when Ross Barkley equalised in stoppage time.
“Some teams without the ball, can resist and keep a clean sheet all the time. But for us in this moment it is almost impossible to keep a clean sheet even with the phenomenal goalkeeper we have. And to score goals is really difficult for us – you can see that in this moment.
“In the last nine matches between Lukaku and Rashford they have scored one goal if I am not wrong.”
Still Mourinho was buoyed by the latest encouraging performance from his side, following the dramatic 3-2 win against Newcastle at the start of the month and last week’s draw against Chelsea.
“I think we played very well against Chelsea, especially in the second half,” he added. “The second half against Newcastle was also special and the first half against Tottenham was phenomenal. This one was complete.”
Its always motivating for players to know that their coach gas got their backs,dont You think?