Romelu Lukaku’s Chelsea struggle highlights worrying trend for Thomas Tuchel

In pictures: Crystal Palace v Chelsea

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A Crystal Palace ball boy reportedly had more touches of a ball than Chelsea record signing Romelu Lukaku. No public relations campaigns, post-match interviews, or social media apologies can put a positive spin on the £98million man’s unfortunate statistic.

It feels almost incomprehensible that Thomas Tuchel’s only signing of real note in his first full season in charge of the Blues; a player revered as the final piece of the puzzle, can be reduced to seven mere touches of a ball, one of which coming from kick-off.

Yet, while the former Manchester United and Inter Milan striker undoubtedly needs to raise his game at the reigning Champions League holders, this unflattering statistic is not all his own making.

Lukaku is not the first Blues striker to find himself reduced to the mere role of a passenger in Chelsea’s frontline.

Not since Diego Costa in 2017, has a Chelsea striker managed to score 20 goals in a Premier League season. Not coincidentally at all, it was also the last time Chelsea lifted the title.

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Kai Havertz and Timo Werner have not even contributed that many goals combined ever since their respective arrivals from Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig.

Poor finishing, poor composure, and poor accuracy was attributed as the reasoning for their poor numbers, with the latter in particular coming under intense fire.

However, Mason Mount’s place at the top of the Blues’ Premier League goalscoring charts this season, and penalty maestro Jorginho’s goalscoring gong from last season, does not exactly paint a picture of a team looking to feed its strikers.

When asked about the prospect of adapting their style of play to help get the best out of Lukaku, Tuchel almost looked insulted at the prospect.

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“It’s a team sport, not about ten players serving one player. This is not Chelsea or football. Every player serves one team, this will never change,” an almost agitated Tuchel said in January.

And Tuchel is of course right. No Premier League side should rely on the goals of one player to succeed.

However, it does ponder the question of why Tuchel invested a record breaking transfer fee into a player whose game almost lives or dies by the service he receives.

Unlike Lionel Messi, the one at Barcelona and not the one at Paris Saint-Germain, Lukaku is not going to drop back into his own-half, receive a pass, build an attack, before getting on the end of the opportunity he created for himself.

The Belgian is excellent at dropping in-between the lines of the opposition midfield and defence, pinning defenders down and popping passes around the corner, or spinning off the opposition and carving out a route to goal for himself.

Despite his lack of touches, Lukaku, when he did have the ball at his feet, did this excellently, almost score two goals with two of his seven touches at Selhurst Park.

Lukaku’s struggles are hardly unprecedented at Chelsea. Fernando Torres found himself in a similar position to Lukaku, except when he was presented an opportunity, he seemed to freeze in goal.

One of the only Chelsea strikers to really thrive in the Blues’ frontline was Tammy Abraham, but Tuchel offloaded him to Roma the first chance he got.

Lukaku does not need to become a constant beacon for Chelsea players to aim at every time they have the ball at his feet.

But whatever direction, style, strategy, or philosophy Tuchel has introduced at Chelsea, it is not befitting Lukaku’s main strengths – considering his arrival was so close to breaking the £100m barrier, this is perhaps something Tuchel will need to re-evaluate, if he wants to Lukaku to fire on a consistent basis.

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