Romelu Lukaku hoping to outshine Sergio Aguero at Goodison Park
Romelu Lukaku opened his tally for the season with a brace at Southampton last Saturday
ROMELU LUKAKU takes a breath and carefully considers the question of whether he can, indeed, eclipse Sergio Aguero and set a new standard for strikers in the coming seasons.
 
When his answer is finally delivered, it betrays a billowing confidence Manchester City defenders Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala should beware in tomorrow's collision at Goodison Park.
"Yes. Yes I do," said the Everton forward.
"There are some aspects in my game where I have the potential, but it has to come out. If you want to be one of the best, you have to look at the best.
"For me, at the moment, that's men like Diego Costa and Aguero. Costa is combative. He terrorises defences and just with the look in the opponents' eye you know he's there.
"With Aguero, he can run in behind, come to feet, hold the ball, dribble past a few players. That is what I like.
 
Romelu Lukaku hoping to outshine Sergio Aguero at Goodison Park
Lukaku is hoping to outclass Sergio Aguero on Sunday
"You have to look at these players and compare yourself. You have to think, 'What do you have, that I don't?' and add it to your game.
"I'll think what do they have that's better than me because I want to be better than them, and think I can be because I can see a pass sometimes.
"If I know the defender's coming, I can turn from him, dribble past somebody else and then give the last pass. I want to add that, on a consistent basis, to my size, power and pace."
Lukaku is no less buoyant when assessing the battle with Belgium team-mate Kompany and his partner Mangala, a rival from his teenage days at Anderlecht, who form the centre piece of a City backline still to be breached.
"I know them and I know what to do," he said. "I am taller than them. I am bigger than them so I am not scared. I know if we use my pace I will have a good game.
 
"I'm like, 'If I get the ball and start running, just get out of the way, because you'll be on the floor'.
"I played against Mangala at academy level when he was at Standard Liege and I was 14. He was a No8 at the time, believe it or not, but we won. I scored two in the away game and one at home."
The positivity Lukaku exudes, his confidence pepped by two goals in the eye-catching win over Southampton last weekend, is in contrast to the onset of last season when a World Cup hangover, injury, and an illness suffered by his father Roger, conspired to slow his stride.
"The club knew about the situation and that I was going home all the time to see if he was alright," he said. "When he was better I started to play well in the December.
"I also started the season off with a few injuries and there were a few games when I didn't have to play but I wanted to help the team. Then my friend Junior Malanda [the former Wolfsburg player] died as well.
 
"He was very close to me and my family and I really wasn't good at that time. Personally last year was my most difficult year.
"People associate a footballer with glamour, but we have a life as well. It's true that if your life is good off the pitch, you can always give that 20 per cent more.
"But for me at my young age, I discovered there are some things you don't know how to handle."
Due to the £28m fee Everton paid Chelsea for Lukaku, there have been times when he has been unfairly judged for someone who plundered 20 goals last season at the age of 21.
Should he play more on the edge? He saves that for cage football with his friends during a tournament in Brussels every summer that doubles as his own mini pre-season.
 
"Someone like Costa is on the edge, but I've always kept myself under control," he said. "Only if I play with my friends in the neighbourhood, then I can lose control.
"There are lots of players from the Belgian First Division there, my brothers. My friend Junior used to play and Dedryck Boyata.
"For me, it's the perfect training before I start pre-season again, because it's a whole day, and you play 15 minutes at a time.
"We reached the semi-final but lost on penalties. I didn't even take one! There were three players in my team who said 'Yeah, I'm going to take one'.
"I asked, 'You're that confident, then?' And they all insisted, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah'. Normally, everybody stays to watch the final, but I was hugely disappointed and got straight off afterwards..."
Lukaku intends to show Aguero, Kompany and Mangala all his disappointments are behind him.

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