New Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly believes that a lack of confidence may have impacted Romelu Lukaku's difficult stint at the club last season. The Belgian made a club-record return to Stamford Bridge last summer, but struggled to hit the heights he hit in his time at Inter Milan.
The 29-year-old scored 13 goals across all competitions and despite his difficulties, the striker ended the campaign as the club's top scorer. However, injuries caused problems on the pitch, while a controversial interview with Sky Italia only added to concern off of it.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admitted earlier this year that more was expected from the forward after his move back to London: "Disappointed is not the right word but of course, we thought and for him as well, he wanted to produce the numbers right from the start but we are all humans and we demand a lot defensively from our strikers as well."
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After his struggling campaign, Lukaku was the spearhead of a summer of change at Cobham, with a squad refresh on the cards for Tuchel. The Belgium international made the return to Inter Milan on loan for the upcoming season as the club look to take a different direction in their frontline.
The striker isn't the only change though, with the Blues refreshing the options available under the new Todd Boehly regime. One of the faces of that switch has been Koulibaly, who made the move to the Premier League from Napoli after years of speculation.
The Senegalese defender has played against Lukaku in their time in Serie A, with the centre-back explaining why the forward may have struggled at Chelsea. Speaking to press on Wednesday, Koulibaly said: "Romelu is a good player, a nice player, a talented player.
"He is very strong and I was used to playing against him in Italy – I think he didn’t like to play against me! He scored a lot of goals in Italy and he won the Scudetto with Inter, so when he signed for Chelsea I was not surprised. Last year I think maybe he didn’t have the confidence he needed to play like he wanted. Maybe something else, I don’t know."
It echoes similar thoughts to that of Tuchel, who claimed that Lukaku just needed the taste for scoring goals again, claiming he has it in "his blood" and has done so since a young age. While he struggled on the pitch, that is only a portion of what is actually happening for a player.
Koulibaly suggested that it may not have been a purely football-related problem for the striker, but he has made a prediction about a return to the club: "Football is not all about the pitch, it is also about your private life and everything else, so maybe it was something that didn’t work with him over here. But I still think he is a player for Chelsea, and maybe next year or in a few years he will come back and be better. I want to tell him that maybe he needs to keep continuing and keep believing and keep positive because it is like this, it can be more than a performance on the pitch.
“I believe maybe this season he will make a good season at Inter but I am also happy about us today. We have a lot of talents, a lot of good players, a lot of winners, a lot of experienced players, a lot of young players. it is a good mix. I am happy to have the players we have here and I wish Lukaku a good season but I wish Chelsea a better season.”
Given the investment the club made into signing the goal scorer, they will certainly be keeping a keen eye on his progression this season with the Nerazzurri. What his future holds beyond that remains a mystery though.
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