DBasia.news – Romelu Lukaku has not performed optimally since joining Chelsea back from Inter Milan, especially when compared to last season when Lukaku won the Scudetto and became Inter’s top scorer under Antonio Conte.
This season Lukaku (28 years old) has only scored 9 goals in all competitions and provided 2 assists. One of his goals was scored when Chelsea won 1-0 over Al Hilal in the 2021 Club World Cup semifinals.
Many have highlighted Lukaku for his difficulty playing in his second spell at Chelsea, but not with team mate Hakim Ziyech. According to him, the public must also understand the difficulties experienced by Lukaku.
In addition to several problems such as injuries and Covid-19 that made it challenging for him to perform optimally, Lukaku is also often isolated when opponents pile up a lot of defenders in their defense.
“Of course (Lukaku is shining at Chelsea). He has shown it over the years. His quality is unquestionable. But I mean, he came here. At first everything was fine,” Ziyech explained about Lukaku as quoted by Football London.
“He’s come back from injury, he’s got Covid. Is there a question of his quality or what? He’s shown it over the last few years. It’s only a matter of time.”
“If you look at some of the teams we played against, they played in five at the back. He was alone against three defenders. Isn’t that difficult? It doesn’t matter who you are, if you have three defenders of course it’s difficult to find your space or whatever.”
“For example he made an action against one, but the others also came. He also needs space to run or whatever. It’s quite normal if you play against three defenders every time. It’s difficult when we play football now. It’s challenging,” said the Moroccan player.
In contrast, Ziyech enjoys a role as a winger in a 4-3-3 formation after Thomas Tuchel has often used 3-4-3 before.
“It (the new formation) gives me more freedom to act and do what I have to do to attack. I feel more free,” Ziyech added.
“It’s a different system. You have a different way of playing, different responsibilities and positions of course. On the right wing you have more space and more freedom. I think I’m the type of player who can use it well.”