Thomas Tuchel will put his faith in Kai Havertz in his bid to salvage Chelsea’s season.
And that threatens to leave Romelu Lukaku out in the cold, with £97.5million striker facing a fight to regain his place at the point of attack.
Tuchel knows his only chances of further silverware this term are in the Champions League and FA Cup after falling away in the race for the Premier League title.
After failing to make it work with club record signing Lukaku up front, he has turned to Havertz, who struck twice in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Burnley.
The German is Chelsea’s leading scorer since Tuchel took charge last year with 13 goals, and his manager has stated that the striker’s role is now his to lose.
“The players, they put themselves on the pitch,” said the German. “He gives a lot of intensity and he’s involved in goals. He scored again, so it’s a very good moment and it’s on him to keep going. This is how it is.”
Tuchel’s comments raise further questions over Lukaku, who has failed to rediscover the form that convinced Chelsea to sign hm from Inter Milan last summer.
While Tuchel’s ideal plan was to form a partnership between the Belgium international and Havertz, Lukaku’s struggles adapt to his teammates has increasingly seen him pushed to fringes.
He was on the bench for the crucial Champions League tie with Lille last month and again for last week’s Carabao Cup final. He started and scored against Luton in the FA Cup – but was benched again at Turf Moor.
Tuchel has made it clear that Havertz currently offers more than the man who was supposed to be the final piece in Chelsea’s bid to win the title.
“What he gives us is huge volume,” he said. “He covers a lot of metres in high intensity, so he finds the intensity no matter what system the opponent defends against us, he finds intensive runs, he finds distances. This is what makes him and he uses his body more and more.
“He loves to create overloads and half spaces and this is what he gives. It’s just his style of play, his characteristic as a player. He’s in good shape, he’s confident.
“We played the last cup match without him. Timo [Werner] was very strong and was very close to starting against Burnley.
“Romelu got his goal [against Luton] and we will need everybody, but at this moment, he’s in really good shape.”
Tuchel also hailed the return of Reece James, who scored a wonderful solo goal and had a part in both of Havertz’s strikes.
There’s no need to be fully disappointed. We have a lot to fight for.
He added: “I said it many times, I think the biggest struggle for us in this season is the injuries of key players and long-term injuries of key players and Reecey is one of the key players, and also Ben Chilwell.
“We had players out for many weeks and that cost us. On top of that was the Covid situation where we sometimes struggled in a crazy way, where we arrived in Wolverhampton with 14 players and stuff like this.
“I think this is the biggest reason for the period where the gap opened, because we need everybody. Having these kind of players available doesn’t mean they are automatically always on the pitch, but it does something to the group because everyone needs to fight for it. Then you create an atmosphere where you are better than individuals and you start getting better.
“It’s the key reason. We are still in third place, we are still in the FA Cup, we are still in the Champions League, so there’s no need to be fully disappointed, absolutely not. We still have a lot to fight for. The race continues.”
