Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku is suffering from a crisis of confidence and is actively avoiding the ball when he plays, according to Dean Saunders.
Lukaku is enduring a difficult spell at Chelsea, with both Timo Werner and Kai Havertz preferred by Thomas Tuchel. He has not started a Premier League game since February 19 and was once again left out of Tuchel’s starting line-up for the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
When he did come on as a substitute for Havertz in the 77th minute, it did not go well for the £97.5million man. He looked off the pace and somehow hit the post from six yards out with a simple chance from Werner’s pinpoint low cross late on.
Chelsea won the game 2-0, but Lukaku’s future at the club is now being questioned. Lukaku’s performance led former Blues winger Joe Cole to claim he’s “got six weeks to save his Chelsea career”, and former Aston Villa striker Saunders believes the problem is a psychological one.
“I think he’s lost all his confidence, he’s lost all his self-belief,” he said on talkSPORT. “I’m looking at him and thinking, ‘I’ve done that’. You can’t even control the ball when you’ve lost your belief and you’re not scoring.
“Even coming off the centre-backs and trying to control a simple ball that comes into your feet – the ball is like a live snake coming at you. You’re nervous, you tighten up and you mis-control it, then you hear the boos from the crowd. I think he’s putting himself in positions where he doesn’t want the ball to his feet, so that he can’t give it away. It’s a shame really, because he’s a top player.”
Lukaku arrived back at Chelsea in the summer to much fanfare after firing Inter Milan to the Serie A title last season. But he has struggled for consistency, due in part to injury problems, and has scored just 12 goals in 36 appearances across all competitions for Chelsea.
His lack of game time recently was explained by Tuchel on Sunday. "He's not fit enough to play 90 minutes, not fit enough for the intensity of our game, it's as easy as that,” he told ITV Sport. “He had an injury, he missed minutes, so his match fitness isn't there, otherwise there's a big chance he'd be playing today.”
Lukaku missed two good chances against Real Madrid last week, but Tuchel believes he can turn around his fortunes in front of goal soon. “Wait, be patient, work hard and put the team first, be ready to help the team, because as a striker you can help within seconds,” Tuchel said when asked what the club’s record signing needed to do to get back in the side.
“Especially for strikers, things can be turned around in minutes, in moments. Whole careers can be upside down and in any direction but always as a striker you can have a chance to put things into your favour, as a substitute or if you have the chance to perform from the beginning.”
