‘In his pocket’: TalkSPORT pundit says Tuchel won’t start Chelsea player on Sunday because of £75m Liverpool man

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Gabby Agbonlahor doesn’t think Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku will get the nod to start at the weekend in the Carabao Cup final due to previous struggles against Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk.

Chelsea are currently preparing for this Sunday’s final at Wembley Stadium, which gives the Blues an opportunity to win some more silverware.

A lot of the talk within the Blues fanbase is over who starts in attack.

Kai Havertz started and scored playing as the centre-forward during Tuesday night’s Champions League win against Lille. In contrast, number nine Lukaku had to sit on the bench as an unused substitute.

TalkSPORT pundit Agbonlahor is predicting Belgian striker Lukaku will yet again miss out on a spot in the line-up.

He suggests the presence of Liverpool’s £75million centre-back Van Dijk will help make the mind up of Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel.

Lukaku didn’t score in his sole appearance against the Merseyside club back in August. Also, he draw a blank in two matches against Van Dijk’s Liverpool when playing for Manchester United in the 2018/19 campaign.

“I don’t see Lukaku starting on Sunday because he’s been very poor against Van Dijk whenever he’s played against him. Van Dijk has had him in his pocket, so I think he’ll try mix it up and play Havertz again on Sunday,” Agbonlahor told talkSPORT.

In fairness, Van Dijk has been bullying the large portion of attackers he’s faced for several years now.

The Dutch centre-half has the power to deal with physical battles, or the speed and intelligence if you want to try beat him in a foot race.

It seems fairly harsh to pin Lukaku out for individual criticism against a fantastic defender, though.

Havertz could suit Chelsea this weekend

Havertz, who has the confidence behind him of scoring against Lille, may be the right option to start at striker.

The German forward has shown he’s got a knack for scoring in big games and cup finals. He scored against Liverpool in the Premier League earlier in the season, too.

Rio Ferdinand explained earlier this week how difficult Havertz can be for opposition defenders to face.

For certain, he’s someone that will ask a different range of questions of Liverpool’s centre-back, who you’d guess will be Van Dijk and Joel Matip.

A true surprise would be to start a Havertz-Lukaku partnership.

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