Romelu Lukaku has failed to win over fans at Chelsea.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, as quoted by Football.London, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was critical of the way Romelu Lukaku played in the all-important Premier League match against Manchester City.
Chelsea suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat against the Citizens, which has now created a mammoth 13-point gap between the league leaders and us. Even though we only played defensive football in the first half, Lukaku had a glorious chance of opening the scoring with just 9 minutes on the clock.
After gliding past John Stones, the Belgian had a clear view of the goal, but rather than taking the shot, he played a through pass on his right attempting to find Hakim Ziyech. The pass was out of reach for the Moroccan star, but even if he controlled it, it would have been ruled out for offside.
In the post-match press conference, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel heavily criticized Lukaku’s decision and further added that the Belgian forward’s passing abilities weren’t up to the mark today.
“He had many ball losses without any pressure, many ball losses in very promising circumstances. He had a huge chance. We want to serve him, but he is part of the team, and the performance up front, particularly in the first half, we can do much, much better.”
Last summer, Chelsea spent a club-record fee of €115m (£97.5m) to sign the Belgian striker from Inter Milan. However, he still hasn’t managed to justify the amount through his performances on the field. He did get off to a good start this season, but has now slowly faded away when it comes to influencing Chelsea’s attacking play.
The Belgian striker has only managed five premier league goals in 14 appearances this campaign, which is not really the mark of a top-scoring number 9. Performance-wise, he did step up for Chelsea in a few crucial matches, but his overall influence has been relatively limited recently.
To add to his misery, Sky Italy released an intimate interview with Lukaku recently, where the Belgian striker talked about his current club in a poor light as compared to his ex-team, Inter. Thomas Tuchel let him off the hook after the former Manchester United star apologized for his actions. However, only his words aren’t enough to wash away the rift he created with the fans.
Today was a massive game in the title race and losing it has certainly left a massive mountain for us to climb if we are to beat Man City to the PL crown. Lukaku would have certainly found favour with the fans again if he played well today, but instead, went on to deliver an infuriating performance.
The season is still not over, however, and it is time for the former Everton and Manchester United striker to set things right and show everyone whyle Roman Abramovich decided to break the bank for him this summer.
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