Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel chose to play down concerns over Romelu Lukaku’s struggles in front of the goal which have been evident as of late.
The Belgium international, who made the return to England’s top flight in this summer’s transfer window from Inter Milan, had got his life back in the Premier League off to a flying start and looked to have solved Chelsea’s bag of mixed returns up top on the pitch.
Lukaku, however, looked a shadow of his former self in Saturday’s 1-0 win over the league’s new boys Brentford for Thomas Tuchel’s Blues as the Belgian failed to find the back of the net for the fourth game running.
Chelsea claimed a narrow win away at Brentford courtesy of a Ben Chilwell wonder strike and Lukaku’s under-fire form had Tuchel coming to his summer signing’s defence during his post-match press conference ( via The Daily Mail).
Tuchel dismissed the concerns growing over Lukaku’s form with the German admitting that his star striker had looked tired and it was just a matter of time before he returned to his usual best on the attacking front.
“I am not concerned as I felt him a bit tired, and then isolated because we were defending too deep as a block.”
“I felt him a bit tired. Altogether we produced a very strong 60 to 75 minutes, including Romelu and Timo.
“Both of them, Romelu and Timo, were too far away to help us escape the pressure. That was the problem, but I have no concerns.
“Normally the best thing is that he scores but he is very unselfish at the moment, looking for Timo in good situations.
“And we had him in the situation to score, it was a close offside decision.”
