Craig Burley has suggested that Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel should avoid picking Romelu Lukaku in the remaining home games at Stamford Bridge this season.
Lukaku, who returned to the starting XI last night in the 4-2 home loss against Arsenal, had a quiet hour performance before being substituted off.
There was certainly some frustration voiced towards him from the home crowd during stages of yesterday’s Premier League defeat, too.
ESPN pundit Burley has made the remarkable suggestion that the 28-year-old shouldn’t play in the remaining home matches because of the response from supporters to him.
Tuchel’s side still need to host West Ham, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and Watford in league games at the Bridge this campaign.
“There’s not much good is going to come out of playing Romelu Lukaku at the moment at home because there is a clear discord there between the manager, him, and the fans,” Burley told ESPN.
“If you heard the fans in the first half, it wasn’t bad booing, but there was groaning when he didn’t make a move, when he didn’t challenge physically for a ball, when it looked a bit half-hearted.
“If there is an opportunity to play him, and I’m not sure there really needs to be, it’s probably better at one of the weaker teams away from home.”
In fairness, there were a few murmurs at the ground last night in incidents involving Lukaku. It’s certainly not as bad as being made out, though.
He needs to continue being professional as long as he’s a Chelsea player, so let’s see how the rest of the season plays out for him before the summer window rolls around.
If you think his campaign is finished, just remember Timo Werner looked at rock bottom only a month ago before finding a purple patch of form from nowhere.
Havertz a big winner yesterday
Unfortunately, Lukaku didn’t make the most of his chance to get back into Tuchel’s good books.
You’d expect Kai Havertz is now in pole position to return to the line-up and continue impressing in the centre-forward role.
It’s now even clearer that Havertz is the preferred attacker right now, with Werner complimenting him nicely in this kind of form.
Keep up to date with all the latest Chelsea news and opinion by following The Chelsea Chronicle’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox
