Romelu Lukaku dropped by Thomas Tuchel days after horror showing for Chelsea

Thomas Tuchel has dropped Romelu Lukaku from his starting line-up to face Lille in the first-leg of their Champions League knockout tie.

The Belgian had a game to forget on Saturday against Crystal Palace, registering just seven touches across the 90 minutes, one of which was from kick-off.

The £97.5million signing has been named amongst the substitutes rather than leading the line at Stamford Bridge, a week after he helped Chelsea claim the Club World Cup title.

Tuchel's decision marks yet another low point in Lukaku's return to Chelsea, which has been dominated in controversy as well as injury since moving from Inter Milan in the summer.

Lukaku's tally of seven touches during the 1-0 win against Palace on Saturday was an all-time low for any player over the course of 90 minutes in the Premier League, since such statistics began to be recorded during the 2003/04 season.

As a result, Lukaku has been dropped by Tuchel despite the German seemingly defending his summer signing in the build-up to their clash with Lille, as he asked fans to stop making jokes about him.

Tuchel said regarding Lukaku's form: "Sometimes it's like this with strikers if they struggle a little bit with self confidence and find the space to get involved with a good defensive side.

Is Romelu Lukaku's future at Chelsea in doubt? Comment below

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"It can be like this, of course it's not what we want and what Romelu wants but it's also not to the time laugh about him and make jokes about him.

"He's in the spotlight and we'll protect him."

It appears that Tuchel's method of protecting him is to drop him from the starting line-up, and Chelsea will instead play Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic in a front-three.

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