Four touches in 33 minutes! Lukaku's disastrous Chelsea return continues

Suraj Radia

• Updated: 7 Apr 2022 09:32 BST
• 4 min read

Most teams would love the chance to bring on a £100 million striker when they’re two goals down in a Champions League quarter final.

But for Chelsea, subbing on Romelu Lukaku in the 64th minute of their 3-1 home loss to Real Madrid felt more like a hail mary than a belief that he was the man to bring them back into the game.

And it didn’t take long for the out-of-sorts Belgian to showcase exactly why he’s been bereft of confidence and goals.

Romelu Lukaku at Chelsea: Goals, assists, results & fixtures in 2021/22

The 29-year-old managed just four touches (in his 33 minutes, including stoppage time) and painfully glanced a free header wide minutes after coming on, killing off any hopes of a comeback for his side.

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Where has it all gone wrong for Lukaku?

Most critics will cite Lukaku’s explosive interview in December as the turning point, where the ex-Inter Milan striker admitted his unhappiness towards the system implemented by manager Thomas Tuchel.

Lukaku has only scored four times since then – in the Club World Cup against Al-Hilal and Palmeiras and in the FA Cup versus Luton and Middlesbrough.

With just seven goals since the middle of September, even Lukaku’s biggest supporters may admit that the record signing last summer has been nothing short of a disaster.

Despite the open criticism of his tactics, Tuchel remained unphased by Lukaku’s comments and continued to play his striker, largely due to the lack of any other goal threat in the team.

However, Lukaku’s dismal performances reached rock bottom against Crystal Palace in February where he only touched the ball seven times despite playing the entire 90 minutes.

This prompted Tuchel to lead the line with Kai Havertz and the German has flourished in his new role, scoring seven times in his last 10 games including the only goal against Madrid on Wednesday.

The much-needed return from Havertz has seen Lukaku relegated to the bench and all but two of his last eight appearances have been as a substitute.

But having failed to make an impact in any of those games as well as back-to-back home losses for Chelsea, the patience is running out to try and make Lukaku’s spell in West London a success.

It appears a foregone conclusion that the club will cut their losses on Lukaku in the summer, although finding a suitor for an out-of-form player on £210,000 a week won’t be easy.

Of course, football is a fickle game and all it takes is one big moment for a player to turn it around, however Lukaku’s dismal cameo against Madrid might have been the biggest moment of all.