Romelu Lukaku is not happy with his situation at Chelsea – Thomas Tuchel has confirmed.
The club record £97.5million striker has been forced to the fringes by Kai Havertz, who has been given the responsibility of leading the line for the European champions.
Tuchel has decided to put his faith in the German after seeing Lukaku struggle to settle at Stamford Bridge since his move from Inter Milan last summer.
The Chelsea manager confirmed the role of central striker is Havertz’s to lose after he scored twice in Saturday’s 4-0 win against Burnley.
That has placed further doubts over Lukaku’s future after failing to rediscover the form he produced when firing Inter to the Italian title last season.
Tuchel admitted: “Romelu fights for it like everybody else. This is what we need. He is as positive as can be.
“He does not like the situation, nobody does. He handles it very professionally. I try to do my best to be respectful and supportive like for everybody else.
“Of course, it is not easy in the moment for him, but he is a member of the team, an important member of the team.”
Tuchel still hopes to build a forward partnership between Havertz and Lukaku, but has not been able to make it work on a consistent basis.
Havertz, meanwhile, has impressed in the central role he took up when leading Chelsea to Champions League triumph last season.
Tuchel has made it clear the forward will lead his attack for the foreseeable future.
Tuchel added: “Nobody is undroppable, but if he plays like this, he stepped up in his mentality in his game. He is very good and has a huge influence physically and from his quality in our game.
“He is very important, in a good shape, he turned things around for himself. He was strong in the beginning of the season then a few weeks ago had a spell where he was not so involved like we feel he is now.
“He fought his way out, full credit to him. It is the right mentality, he shows how important he can be. It is very important to us.”
