Koeman: Replacing Romelu Lukaku 'close to impossible' for Everton

Everton boss Ronald Koeman has told the Liverpool Echo that finding a replacement for Romelu Lukaku was almost impossible.

Lukaku, 24, scored 68 goals for Everton in four seasons, netting 25 last term before moving to Manchester United in a £75 million deal.

The striker's departure left a huge void in the squad which Everton have struggled to fill, leading to a difficult start to the Premier League season with four points from four games.

Everton will be reunited with Lukaku when they make the trip to Old Trafford to face United on Sunday, with the Belgium international already having scored six goals for his new club.

"I don't say impossible [to replace Lukaku] but that was close to impossible to get someone in who will score that amount of goals that Romelu scored for Everton." Koeman said.

"With Romelu we had enough fights about how he needs to press, how he needs to run, how he needs to move but in the box, with opportunities to score, he is one of the best.

"It is always difficult to replace players like him because of the person he was, the physical boy that he is, the number of goals that he scored. It is difficult.

"You try to find it around that position with [Gylfi] Sigurdsson, with [Wayne] Rooney, with [Davy] Klaassen, with [Sandro] Ramirez.

"We didn't sign the striker [we wanted] but I am not that person that keeps discussing that we don't have that striker. We need to do it with Sandro, we need to do it with Dominic [Calvert-Lewin], Wayne can play the No. 9 and we need to change some things.

"That is what we tried to do and to get more goals from other players but, yes, it is a big miss that we don't have Lukaku any more but everybody knows that."

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