His goal celebrations have been muted recently.
Romelu Lukaku’s goal celebrations have been rather subdued in recent weeks. He’s opted to stand with his arms outstretched or simply acknowledge the praise from his teammates without indulging any sort of knee slides, ear cups or acrobatics.
That changed on Friday night, however, when he scored a late goal to double Manchester United’s lead against Derby in the third round of the FA Cup. Lukaku celebrated his 16th goal of the season with much more enthusiasm and joy than he has shown in the past few weeks, and manager Jose Mourinho thinks he knows why.
Speaking to reporters, Mourinho revealed:
“If we have a replay we don’t go to Dubai and everybody wants to go. Did you see the players celebrating the second goal? Everybody wants to go, everybody wants a week of good training, good facilities, sun. Everybody wants to go but now it depends on Stoke’s result. If they draw we don’t go to Dubai!”
A warm weather training trip is very appealing in the middle of the bleak British winter, so Mourinho’s theory probably holds some truth.
Even if it weren’t for the trip to Dubai, avoiding an FA Cup replay is a relief for a club still competing on three fronts. And that’s what Lukaku’s goal secured, after Jesse Lingard’s screamer broke the deadlock just six minutes from time.
