Lukaku: Man United can win PL title next season

Joe Williams

Romelu Lukaku believes the current Manchester United squad can win next season’s Premier League, with consistency rather than quality having been their problem this term.

Jose Mourinho’s men have vastly improved on their sixth-place finish in his first campaign in the Old Trafford dugout and are on course to finish second – their highest position since Sir Alex Ferguson bowed out as champion in 2013.

However, there is a huge gap between United and swashbuckling Premier League champions Manchester City, who sealed the title with five games to spare thanks to United’s shock home loss to beleaguered West Brom.

That is the kind of result that Lukaku believes has cost the team this season, with the Belgian striker confident that group has the strength in depth to win it next term even before inevitable summer investment.

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask the manager,” he said when asked about what it will take next season.

“I’m really confident in my team-mates.

“I think we can do it with the team we have now, but we should have showed more consistency throughout the season.

“For us now it is up to us to be more consistent and the manager needs to see if he has to add more players but with the players we have now, I think we have enough. We just have to be more consistent.”

United have proven their mettle by winning important games against other top sides recently, including coming from behind against Tottenham on Saturday to reach the FA Cup final.

Dele Alli had put Spurs into an early lead at Wembley but United stormed back, with Alexis Sanchez levelling and Ander Herrera firing the side to 2-1 semi-final triumph.

“We won and got to the final against a good side,” Lukaku, signed from Everton last summer, said.

“That is great. It is something that we wanted and now we have four games to go in the league where we have to perform really well and then the final.

“I want to win the title, that is the thing.

“Winning the FA Cup would be nice, but I don’t want to talk about it I just want to end the season well, hopefully take second and that will prepare us really well for the final.”

FA Cup glory would surely hush some of the doubters, who have questioned the style and at times substance of Mourinho’s United this term.

“It was a strange season for us,” Lukaku added.

“If we had more consistency we could have been up there with Manchester City now.

“But we know what we have to improve for next season and winning games like this is what we do.

“If you look at games we have played against the top six, we have won a lot of them so when we played against Tottenham we were confident as well. We have to keep going like that.”