Should Man United sell Lukaku? The numbers suggest otherwise

Romelu Lukaku looks set to swap Manchester United for Serie A in a move that would deprive the Premier League of one of its finest strikers.

Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku

This time last year Romelu Lukaku was reflecting on the most prolific season of his career and a fine performance at the World Cup, but he now appears to be on his way out at Manchester United.

Juventus and Inter are reportedly battling it out to take the Red Devils striker to Serie A and bring an end to his eight-year spell in the Premier League.

Should a deal transpire and take Lukaku to pastures new, English football will lose one of its deadliest marksmen in the modern era.

A glance at the Opta statistics begs the question: is United making a mistake in allowing him to leave?

READ : Manchester United omits Lukaku from Norway trip to fuel transfer speculation

113  - A tally of 113 Premier League goals puts Lukaku above Wayne Rooney (89), Eden Hazard (85), Jamie Vardy (80) and Sadio Mane (66) in the list of the competition's top scorers since his debut on August 27, 2011.

42  - Lukaku is by far and away the most potent goal threat in United's squad, having scored 42 times in all competitions since his arrival two years ago - 16 more than its next most-prolific player Marcus Rashford.

27 - The 2017-18 season was the 26-year-old's best in English football as he netted 27 goals in all competitions for the Red Devils, who he joined from Everton in July 2017.

25  - The most fruitful Premier League campaign of Lukaku's career came in 2016-17, when he scored 25 for Everton - the most in a single season by a Toffees player since Gary Lineker hit 30 in 1985-86.

READ : Manchester United omits Lukaku from Norway trip to fuel transfer speculation

10  - In the last seven top-flight seasons, Lukaku and Sergio Aguero are the only players to have succeeded in scoring at least 10 goals per campaign.

4  - Ruud van Nistelrooy (36), Robin van Persie (30), Dwight Yorke (29) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (28) are the only United players to have scored more in all competitions in their debut seasons than the Belgian's 27.

3 - Aguero (162) and Harry Kane (125) are the only other players to have scored more than 100 Premier League goals since Lukaku made his first appearance in the competition.

1  - Lukaku scored 68 Premier League goals in four seasons at Everton to become the club's top scorer in the competition, ahead of Duncan Ferguson (60), Tim Cahill (56), Kevin Campbell (45) and Leon Osman (44).