It’s mid December already, but it barely feels like Romelu Lukaku has had a proper chance to get his feet under the table at Chelsea.
He arrived late in the summer, played a bit and then got injured for a full month before he had really adjusted to playing in Thomas Tuchel’s team.
It’s since been another whole month since he’s been training with the first team, yet against Leeds at the weekend he was on the bench.
It seems like he’s still being worked back up to fitness, and he must still be in Tuchel’s ideal XI. But pundit Paul Merson is starting to have his doubts about the striker’s future, and if we don’t see signs that the manager is really starting to integrate him properly, our paranoia will grow too.
“The only question for Chelsea is Romelu Lukaku’s situation. He’s clearly back fully fit now, but when is he going to get back into the team? If he stays on the bench for a few more games, people will start to wonder if Thomas Tuchel really fancies him or not,” Merson noted in his column at SportsKeeda
It’s way too early to think that Chelsea are having serious doubts about their record signing long term, but it’s actually not too early to have major concerns about how effective Lukaku can be this season if rapid progress isn’t made.
