Chelsea were great last season, they just needed a top striker to add some cutting edge to their team.
So when they added Romelu Lukaku this summer, fresh from a great couple of seasons at Inter Milan, it looked like they were ready for the next level.
The striker scored in his first game to reinforce that view, but since that bright start things have been more difficult.
Injury and then Covid have wiped out a couple of months of his season, but even before that he was struggling to fit into the system. The team actually started scoring more goals once he was out, and the tactical issues of fitting him into this team are clearly something he’s thought about.
He made a goalscoring return to the team as a sub in our last game, and speaking to the media afterwards he revealed he’d had chats with his coach about how they could put him in more dangerous positions.
“Me and the coach, we had a couple of conversations about whatever he wanted from me. Obviously I told him I’m multidimensional,” Lukaku told ESPN Brasil in quotes picked up by Sport Witness.
“It’s just about having a bit of clarity about how he wants to use me. And then whatever he wants from me, I can do whatever aspects he wants for the game. I can run in behind, I can press, I can hold the ball up.
“So I think throughout the years these are qualities I added to my game. So I just wanted an opportunity, I got it today, I’m happy that I helped the team, now I just want to move forward.”
After Sunday’s game, Lukaku has 6 goals and 2 assists from his 17 appearances, not a bad return at all. He will be hoping that a little more work with Tuchel and his teammates will see those ratios rising even faster.
