About Romelu Lukaku, The Shinier 'Rough' Diamond

Inter Milan's deadly duo Lautaro Martinez and Romelu Lukaku (Twitter @inter_en)

JAKARTA - Inter Milan continues to cling to Juventus at the top of the Serie A standings. Last night, Monday, January 6, Antonio Conte's troops slaughtered Napoli 3-1 in San Paulo. Striker Romelu Lukaku and coach Antonio Conte reveal the secrets behind his team's success.

The former Manchester United striker is back on his way to finding his best game in an Inter shirt. He scored a brace for his team to bring the Nerazzurri to victory in their opening weekend in 2020.

"It's important to have a great leader like Antonio Conte and for a young squad it's crucial to have someone with experience on the bench," Lukaku told Sky Sport Italia after the match.

So far, Inter have scored 30 goals with Lukaku and his partner Lautaro Martinez being the biggest contributors to his team. They are the most prolific duo (away matches) in Europe's top five leagues this season with 16 goals (10 lukaku, 6 Lautaro).

16 - #Lukaku and #Lautaro Martínez are the couple to have scored the most on the road in the Top-5 European Leagues 2019-20: 16 goals (10 Lukaku, 6 Lautaro). Tandem. # NapoliInter pic.twitter.com/FVo4TYLPt3

- OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) January 6, 2020

"We are good friends, do a lot of things together off the pitch too. And when we are on the pitch we support each other," explained the Belgian.

"I am very happy with the way we are playing at the moment, but we can play much better."

Lukaku's two goals and a Martinez goal became Inter's first win over Napoli in Naples since 1997. As for Conte, this is his 100th win in Serie A as a coach as well as his first in San Paulo.

However, these statistics do not interest Conte. He focused more on Fabio Capello's comments, which criticized Inter's strength in relying on counter-attacks.

"I don't feel that Inter are playing defensively and on the counter-attack. We tried to press Napoli at the end of their line throughout the game," replied Conte.

"I hear people always say we play football on the counter-attacking pattern, but actually we do what we know every time we have the ball."

Conte concluded his statement by responding to media and cyber criticism of Lukaku. The concoctor made 14 Serie A goals and Lukaku's two League Campions goals as capital to strike back at the critics.

"I heard people say Lukaku is a donkey ... I heard all the criticism against him not long ago! It's easy to talk about Lukaku's greatness at the moment, especially if we look at his game over the last few weeks ...

“I always say Lukaku is a rough diamond that we need to refine. Lautaro Martinez is the same. Both are 26 and 22 years old. They are young. I wanted Lukaku so badly when I was at Chelsea and Juventus. Now my job is to scrub the diamonds, "Conte concluded.

In that match, the hosts were only able to reply once through Arkadiusz Milik's action in the first half.