Chelsea Manager Thomas Tuchel said on Monday that Romelu Lukaku should not be made fun of after the £98million ($133million) striker had just seven touches in the weekend to win at Crystal Palace.
It is said that last Saturday’s figure was made the fewest number of touches registered by any player who completed the 90 minutes since such data was first recorded in 2003.
Chelsea won the champions league without Lukaku last season but his signing was made with the intention of challenging for the premier league. Tuchel was grilled on how to get the best from the Belgian,who the Blues signed for a club record fee in August ahead of his side’s return to champion league action against Lille in the last 16. 
So far Romelu has just five premier league goals in his second spell at Stamford bridge,three of which came in his first three appearances. Seeming incompatibility between Lukaku and the rest of his teammates was summed up by the scarcity of his involvement at selhurst . Chelsea escaped with a late win , gratitude to Hakim Ziyech’s strike.
“It’s not what we want and not what Romelu wants but it’s not the time to laugh about him and make jokes,He is in the spotlight and we will protect him because he’s our player.” Tuchel defended accusation that it is his preferred 3-4-3 system Lukaku is failing to adapt to.
He added saying There’s even a history of strikers struggling a little bit at Chelsea so it’s not the easiest place in the world for strikers but I don’t know exactly why it’s like this,”We had many games throughout the year together where we created many chances but struggled a bit in the conversion. Now at the moment it’s a time where we struggle to create too many big chances for our strikers and I think this is a normal period in a long season.“We are well aware of it but like most of the time in football, there’s not one way to solve a problem. It’s a very complex sport and we try to keep on playing with belief in the team effort.”We should not think too much of how others could see us as the favourites against Lille,” said Tuchel.“We are confident of having a good performance because we deliver on a high level in knockout matches, cup matches and Champions League matches.” Also pointing the struggles of other strikers at Chelsea in recent seasons prior to his arrival such as Fernando Torres,Alvaromo and Timo Werner proving his point that Lukaku is not an isolated case.
Chelsea are strong favourites to reach the last eight of the champions league against french champion despite Lukaku struggles falling 13 points behind Manchester City in the battle for the premier league Chelsea still has perfect record of reaching four finals in the knock out competition under Tuchel.
