`Lukaku is receiving a lot of criticism, and we will protect him. Sometimes that happens with strikers, when they lack confidence and have difficulty finding space against a solid defense. Of course
In the summer of 2021, Lukaku returned to Chelsea under the most expensive contract – 135 million USD) and received the highest weekly salary in the club’s history – 350,000 USD.
Lukaku only touched the ball 7 times in the opponent’s half in Chelsea’s win over host Crystal Palace last weekend.
Besides his unconvincing performance, Lukaku was also sidelined twice due to injury and Covid-19.
Before Lukaku, many other expensive strikers also had trouble playing for Chelsea during the Roman Abramovich era, such as Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Fernando Torres or Alvaro Morata.
`The team requires a lot from the strikers in terms of defensive ability. We want a strong, hard-working team. That may be part of the reason. In many matches, Chelsea created many opportunities, but had difficulty in scoring them.
Tuchel once commented that Chelsea’s performance is down this season because of the tight schedule.
After today’s match against Lille, Chelsea will face Liverpool in the League Cup final at Wembley on February 27.