LUKAKU AN EASY TOUCH
Invisible Chelsea striker raises eyebrows
SEVEN touches in 90 minutes –– and one of those was the kick-off.
The service to Romelu Lukaku was as skeletal as public transport the day after a storm blows in.
But if Chelsea’s £97.5million record signing is to make any headway against Lille in the Champions League tomorrow night, a few decent crosses and him making an effort to reach them would help.
If Lukaku remains as static against the French underdogs, he will risk being evacuated from Stamford Bridge as a suspect package.
None of Blues messiah Thomas Tuchel’s excuses about jet lag, air conditioning, the extreme difference between Abu Dhabi’s heat and miserable, windswept south London can camouflage Lukaku’s barren lumbering at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
He set an unwanted record for the fewest touches by an outfield player over a whole Premier League game since stats started being collated.
When Chelsea brought Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge from Inter Milan last summer, they thought he would fire them to the title in his seven-league boots.
And it is true he scored in backto-back games at the Club World Cup, but this was Premier League stones and shingle, not sandcastles in the Arabian desert.
When Lukaku’s influence on a game is so ineffective, it is time to talk about the elephant in the room – and on a frustrating afternoon in Croydon’s hinterland, the elephant was Dumbo.
What happened to the rampaging powerhouse who looked like one of the world’s best forwards at the Euros for Belgium?
On his game, he is the complete striker. Virtually unplayable.
Normally, the chart showing a player’s touches of the ball will resemble a marksman’s shooting practice, a target riddled with bullet holes.
Lukaku’s contribution in the first half at Selhurst Park was basically a dot on a map.
You might argue Chelsea are not creating enough chances for him. But
Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer, who knows the centre-forward’s beat better than most, was scathing.
The former England captain said: “Just seven touches in the game is absolutely incredible and at times he’s not showing enough for the ball.
“He’s actually stopped running at times because the ball is not coming to him and there were numerous examples of that.
“There’s no point in paying £97m for a striker and not playing to his strengths.
“It’s very frustrating and I know what I would be doing at half-time or on the training ground.
“He’s got to demand the ball and make sure his team-mates are prepared to pass it to him.” Chelsea may be champions of Europe and champions of the world, but for long periods they were not even the best team in south London on Saturday. Palace deserved a point but they were betrayed by wayward finishing.
Ultimately, Tuchel was grateful for Hakim Ziyech’s 89th-minute winner, the Morocco midfielder volleying home substitute Marcos Alonso’s deep cross from a forbidding angle with the finesse of stroking a cat. Chelsea are not going to win the title, but they are still going to take some shifting in the Champions League if Ziyech can sustain his best form since his £33m switch from Ajax to Stamford Bridge.
He said: “The past couple of months I have been in good shape and I am enjoying playing football.
“At this time, with a busy schedule, it is most important to win games – it doesn’t really matter how.
“Of course, you want to play good football but it doesn’t always go that way.” Ziyech admitted the switch from the Arabian heat to the south London chill was a challenge, not an excuse, for a fitful performance, adding: “It is difficult, but it is not a reason to complain. “As players, it is difficult to adapt every time to something new. We must be as professional as we can. “At the end of the day it is all about results.”