Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel refused to defend Romelu Lukaku after the striker had a record low number of touches in yesterday’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace.
The £97.5million star touched the ball just SEVEN times – and one of those was the kick off.
It is the lowest ever number of touches in a game by a player who has played 90 minutes since these stats began being collated in 2003-04.
Tuchel said: “I’m not so sure I have a good answer to your question.
“It says obviously he was not involved and could not make a good point.”
There were moments against Palace when the Belgian looked unwilling to put in the hard yards. He should have done more than to get on the ball — the Lukaku that Chelsea paid £97.5million for would have done so.
His 10-goal tally in all club competitions isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great either and it’s only natural for Chelsea to expect more from their record signing. By this point last season, Tammy Abraham — now at Roma — had scored 12 goals for the Blues.
So it begs the question: what’s eating away at the 28-year-old? The fact he hasn’t scored in the Premier League since December won’t be helping.
