Romelu Lukaku has explained how scoring goals is his "drug" as he gave an insight into how he's getting on at Inter and his blossoming partnership with fellow striker Lautaro Martinez.
The Belgium international left Manchester United to join Antonio Conte's side last summer and has been one of the Nerazzurri's most impressive performers as they look to mount a Serie A title challenge in the 2019-20 season.
The campaign has of course been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, with Italy the worst affected country having reported over 83,000 cases of Covid-19 and over 13,000 deaths, as of April 2.
Lukaku reflected on the situation and how his family are keeping, telling Thierry Henry in a live Instagram video call for PUMA: "We're good. Working hard. I'm running around after my son.
"It’s just difficult, I miss the competitiveness, the training sessions, playing in front of the fans, that’s the most difficult thing. Being competitive with another team."
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On trying to improve his game at Inter, the 26-year-old added: "Right now it’s a moment for me to analyse my game and see what I’ve done in the last six months and to take it forward and add something else to my game.
"That’s the plan. I want to be everything. I told you (Henry) that four years ago, that was one of the first conversations in the national team. I said I want to be a guy that has double figures in goals and assists so step-by-step it’s coming.
"Twenty five [goals], 10 [assists] would be nice. 20 [goals], 20 [assists] is not easy... I need Lautaro or Alexis Sanchez to do me a big favour. But they’re already working well with me, we’re exchanging really well. It doesn’t matter who I play with up front.
"When you mature it’s not only about yourself anymore. Obviously scoring goals is my thing, my drug, it’s what I live for but the older you get you have to use your intelligence as well because I always say I’m a student of the game. If I want to help my team I have to also be capable of giving assists because it cannot only be me. It has to be the guy next to you. Everybody has to feel important. If I can’t shoot myself I will always try to find the last pass.
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"When we do the analysis of the game, when we shoot from positions where we don’t have to shoot from he (Conte) stops the clip and then he says ‘look, the big player finds the pass’."
On his partnership with Lautaro that has seen them score a combined 28 league goals in 2019-20, Lukaku said: "It all started on the first day when I got there at Inter.
"Me speaking Spanish helped because then on the field straight away we knew left, right. I asked him 'what do you like from your partner?' I said to him 'when I get the ball I like my partner to move quickly around me and be dynamic as well because that’s the way the coach wants us to play'.
"It helps me because some games I have to play more like a target man and then he will help me more with these movements and some games we both have to be dynamic and run into the space. The way we work in training is that every day we do video analysis of the way we work so it’s rare we will make the same mistake the next day.
"He (Conte) will show it in the video before training so he expects in the session that we don’t make the same mistakes. If you have a manager who’s on you like that every day, it can only be good. I’m 26, I always think about improving and getting better so I don’t mind."
Lukaku also confessed that he followed Inter when he was a child and that the club's former strikers Ronaldo and Adriano were two of his favourite players growing up. He added: "It was my team in Italy when I was a kid [because of] R9, Adriano.
"So for me it’s like a dream [to join Inter]. R9 was playing there when I was like six or seven. 1998 was my first memory of football. The UEFA Cup final they played, the World Cup, and then R9 got injured, he missed two years then he came back 2002 but then he went to Madrid.
"And then it was you (Henry), Drogba, Adriano. What Ronaldo did at that time I think… man."