Tuchel defends Chelsea's use of Lukaku after Conte criticism
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 2 Oct 2021 07:43 CDT
- 5 min read
Thomas Tuchel has hit back at Antonio Conte after the former Chelsea and Inter boss criticised how the Blues use Romelu Lukaku.
The Belgian striker revitalised his career under Conte in Italy, scoring 64 goals in two seasons for Inter as the Nerazzurri ended Juventus' dominance to claim the Scudetto in 2020/21.
Lukaku's performances would earn him a dramatic move back to Chelsea, whom he was with between 2011 and 2014.
He would start superbly in his second spell with a goal against Arsenal and a subsequently double against Aston Villa, while he scored the only goal of the game in Chelsea's Champions League win versus Zenit.
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Lukaku hasn't scored in his last four, though, which crucially involved to major games against Manchester City and Juventus which Chelsea lost.
Conte, who utilised the player so well in Italy, suggested Chelsea don't know how to use him.
“I think he can still do better, above all with his technique. He is already at a very high level, but a player must keep improving until the day he retires,” the Italian explained on Sky Sports.
“During the game, there are moments when Lukaku needs to be turned on, but other than that he is one of the toughest forwards to play against, because he can do damage in any area of the pitch.
“If you have a centre-forward like that, you need to use him and I don’t think Chelsea have quite figured out how to use him yet.
“Last season, they didn’t have a proper centre-forward, so they rotated positions, whereas Romelu is a real reference point in attack. If they can figure out how to use Lukaku, then Chelsea can become the team to beat in the Champions League this season.”
Tuchel's response
Tuchel has since responded to Conte's comments, and although he believes the Italian's criticism might actually be correct in reference to the Juventus loss, it doesn't apply to Lukaku's other performances, such as when he helped his team to a 3-0 away win at Spurs.
"He [Conte] was obviously not on the telly after the Tottenham game," Tuchel said.
"Of course, if you watch this game against Juventus isolated, he is right on that point and he's obviously in the TV studio to analyse this one game - so he's right, no discussion about it.
"But it's not a general thing. If you watch the other games he's maybe not right. I don't feel offended. I even saw [him on TV] while I was showering before the match in the hotel."
Chelsea face Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, with Lukaku poised to get among the goals once again.
