Romelu Lukaku: Everton striker needs confidence boost as goal drought stretches to 13 games

After failing to find the net against Stoke on Saturday, this is Lukaku's longest barren spell since his arrival in England

Lukaku has not scored since his brace against Chelsea in March (Getty)

It is five months now since Romelu Lukaku scored a wonderful solo goal in Everton’s FA Cup quarter-final victory over Chelsea and, in the days that followed, intimated that he was ready to take the next step in his career. The message appeared clear: he fancied a move to a Champions League club. As he said at the time: “I’m 23 this summer – I’ve been playing since I was 16 and I never had a taste of the Champions League.”

Fast forward five months and Lukaku is still on Merseyside, still playing for an Everton team with no European football this term. Moreover, he has still to score a goal for the club since that FA Cup double against Chelsea on 12 March; indeed with his failure to find the net in Everton’s 1-0 victory over Stoke City on Saturday, has now gone 13 matches without a goal. It is the longest run of blanks he has endured since arriving in English football from Anderlecht in 2011 – longer than his 12-match drought with Chelsea in that initial campaign at Stamford Bridge.

He had his chances on Saturday but according to manager Ronald Koeman is a player in need of a goal. “Strikers live by scoring goals and of course if they don’t score for several games then maybe they start to doubt themselves a little bit and then you need to give strikers that confidence,” said the Everton manager.

Lukaku looked more lively, more switched on, than in previous outings this season but he should have done better than scuff a weak shot goalward – which was easily cleared by Ryan Shawcross – after outmuscling the Stoke captain in one chase for a long ball in the first half. Shawcross denied him with another goalline clearance in the second half after Lukaku had rounded Shay Given.

Referring to that first opportunity, Koeman added: “There was an example in the first half, [when he was] in the box to his left – ‘Don’t think, [just] shoot’. The first shot is always the best but that’s a normal situation for strikers [when] they don’t score every week. If he gets a goal, then everybody is happy and I think he will be the Lukaku he was before.”

Koeman gesticulates on the touchline during Saturday's 1-0 win over Stoke (Getty)

If Lukaku’s form is a concern – and his profligacy helped make for a nervy finish to a contest the home side should have settled long before the end – there were plenty of positives for Koeman, not least two superb full-back displays from a revitalised Leighton Baines and the prodigious 19-year-old Mason Holgate, and another tireless midfield showing by new boy Idrissa Gana Gueye.

While Koeman has overseen Everton’s best start after three matches since 2006, Stoke have just one point from a possible nine. Hughes lamented their lack of sharpness “at the top end of the field”, where only Marko Arnautovic carried a threat, though the focus of his dissatisfaction afterwards was referee Michael Oliver’s harsh decision to penalise Phil Bardsley for a penalty-area tangle with Ashley Williams – the second time in a week they had fallen victim to the new clampdown against defenders holding at corners.

Apparently the Premier League have a big studio somewhere in the south and all the referees sit round all the screens as the [pictures] come in.

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Last week it was captain Ryan Shawcross and Hughes admitted he was considering a switch to zonal marking – and relieving certain players of marking duties. “Clearly we are aware of the directive and Ryan is getting highlighted,” he said. “We discuss it and try to pre-empt things and make sure we don’t get damaged by it. On this occasion it was Phil who was penalised.”

Hughes also raised the question of video technology being used to review such incidents as Saturday’s. “Apparently the Premier League have a big studio somewhere in the south and all the referees sit round all the screens as the [pictures] come in. At some point maybe they are thinking in the future you refer back to the match centre. It might be a good thing.”

One piece of good news for Hughes, speaking prior to the announcement of Sam Allardyce’s first England squad, is that Allardyce – present at Goodison on Saturday – seems more willing to watch his Stoke players than predecessor Roy Hodgson ever was. “It’s good Sam was here, hopefully he will come to the Bet 365 Stadium which Roy was a little bit averse to,” said the Welshman. “He didn’t come there on too many occasions so maybe that will change.”