Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has insisted that he’s ‘not concerned’ over the recent form of Romelu Lukaku, albeit while admitting that the striker is ‘tired’.
The club’s latest, hard-fought 1-0 win over Brentford saw the Belgian forward withdrawn late on after having struggled to make an impact against the newly-promoted side, with it now just over a month since he last scored a Premier League goal.
The 28-year-old had initially hit the ground running after his return to Stamford Bridge on a £97.5m deal from Inter Milan in the summer, scoring on debut against Arsenal, before adding a brilliant brace in the 3-0 win over Aston Villa on 11 September.
He followed that up with the winner against Zenit St Petersburg in the Champions League a few days later, yet has since failed to find the back of the net for the Blues, albeit while recently scoring for his country in the Nations League semi-final defeat to France.
After that loss, the former Manchester United man then sat out the third-place playoff defeat to Italy due to ‘muscle fatigue’, before returning to action for his club in the win over the Bees on Saturday.
Romelu Lukaku has gone six games without scoring for Chelsea ❌❌❌❌❌❌ pic.twitter.com/JH2qhMKvCv
— Goal (@goal) October 16, 2021
Following that clash, Chelsea boss Tuchel admitted that the forward had looked ‘tired’ during the game, although he insisted that he has ‘no concerns’ with the player.
“I felt him a bit tired today,” Tuchel said at his post-match press conference. “Altogether we did a very strong 60 to 75 minutes, including Romelu and Timo. I am not concerned as I felt him a bit tired and then isolated because we were defending as a block too deep.
“Both of them, Timo and Romelu, were too far away to help us and escape the pressure. That was the problem today. But I have no concerns.
“Normally, the best thing is he scores but he is very unselfish at the moment, looking for Timo in good situations, and when we had him in the situation it was a close offside decision.”
