Thomas Tuchel has issued a response to Romelu Lukaku after the forward indicated he is unhappy at Chelsea.
Comments emerged on Thursday in which Lukaku suggested he was unhappy with his role in west London after an indifferent start to the campaign, fitness and form issues having hindered the Belgian since his £97.5m club-record move from Inter Milan last summer.
The 28-year-old discussed his start to the season during an interview that was filmed earlier this month, admitting he is ‘not very happy’ with his role in Tuchel’s side.
“Physically I’m doing great. I’m just not very happy with the situation, but that’s normal,” Lukaku said to Sky Sports Italia. “I think the boss has decided to play a different formation but I have to stick at it and get on with it professionally.
“I’m not happy with the situation but it’s my job and I mustn’t give up.”
Since those comments, Lukaku has returned to the side and netted two in two games for the Blues and has played an influential role, though Tuchel says that the forward’s comments are ‘not helpful’ as Chelsea look to rediscover their form, having won just one of their past four Premier League fixtures to fall eight points behind Manchester City.
The German says he is keen to not exaggerate the issue, however, and says Lukaku’s comments do not reflect the forward’s ‘work, attitude and behaviour’ on the training ground.
“We don’t like it of course. It brings noise that we don’t need and it’s not helpful,” Tuchel admitted at his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea’s clash with Liverpool on Sunday.
“We don’t want to make more out of it than it actually is. It is easy to take lines out of context, shorten lines, make headlines and then realise later that it is not so bad.
“If there is something then it is behind closed doors, for sure.
“Like I said, this is what you read into it. It is very easy, in general, to take lines out of context and make headlines to get the focus.
“I totally understand the process and that is why it is a lot of noise, not a little noise. But still, we are not here to read the headlines.
“We can take the time to try and understand what is going on because it does not reflect the daily work, attitude and behaviour which Romelu shows here at Cobham.
“If you are such a big player like Romelu, it is always in the public. He should know what kind of value he has when he speaks out with messages like this. Everything is easier when we win.”
