I think you miss the part of the plan where you spend a shed load of money on players and wages. Don't be fooled, our wage bill is one of the largest in the league. The likes of Zamora, Bong, Murphy, Kayal, Stephens, Uwe, Hemed et al. aren't on low wages.
It's likely Lualua wasn't fit to start and was only there in case someone came off injured. Oscar can see how important he is, I doubt he'd start him on the bench if he was 100% fit.