Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has claimed that Chelsea ace Romelu Lukaku's hold-up play is something that he still needs to work on.
Lukaku was electric during his second Chelsea debut, netting the opening goal of the game against London rivals Arsenal as he caused the Gunners' defence all kinds of problems with his pace, physicality and intelligent movement.
The Belgian frontman almost scored a second deep into the second half only to be denied by German shot-stopper Bernd Leno, who tipped his powerful header onto the crossbar as the score finished at 2-0.
Despite the 28-year-old's stunning all-around performance at the Emirates Stadium, Ferdinand identified the one area that Lukaku will need to improve on, especially when coming up against world-class defenders like Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk.
"I still think Lukaku’s hold-up play outside of the box sometimes leaves a bit to be desired," he told his FIVE Youtube Channel.
"But when you play the ball into him in and around the box, my man’s touch is like glue.
"He bullies people, he was like a sixth former playing against first years, that’s what he made the Arsenal centre-backs look like, they didn’t know how to deal with him.
"[Pablo] Mari was an embarrassment, he didn’t know what to do. The way they defended against him… where’s Per Mertesacker or someone like that who’s in the building? Please tell them what to do.
"Before the game starts you tell them, ‘do not get into a physical battle with him, sometimes let him have a touch of the ball then you hit him, if you let him grip you he’s going to roll you and control the whole situation’.
"He could’ve scored three or four goals if the ball had bounced right.
"It’ll be interesting next week when we see him against [Virgil] Van Dijk, someone who can handle physically, someone who will match him set for step for pace, and who’s cute, who’s an intelligent defender."
