Former Chelsea forward Carlton Cole has defended Romelu Lukaku for his recent form in front of goal and has urged Thomas Tuchel to play to the striker's strengths. The 28-year-old is yet to score in the Premier League in 2022, but chances in the team have been limited for the £97.5million man.
Lukaku's last start in the top-flight for Chelsea came in February against Crystal Palace, with Kai Havertz's form in front of goal making him virtually undroppable from the central striker position. Tuchel, though, has now been told how exactly he can get the best out of the club's record signing as we enter the business end of the season.
Cole, who represented Chelsea from 2001 until 2006, told the Mirror at Masters Football and bookmakers.com's 'Evening With the Hammers' event: "He's never been a back to goal sort of guy, he's always been on the shoulder. If you see all his goals last season, or most of them, it's down the channels - that's what he does.
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"You can't hate on him for that, that's his strength and he plays to it. Defenders never like facing their own goal and he made them do that all the time. Chelsea need to change the tactics to suit him. If they play a deep line and counter-attack, then maybe that will suit him.
"We saw that against Aston Villa early on in the season. He came on and he was just a beast of a forward, just unbelievable, and they were so scared of him. It's not that he was holding the ball up and being a nuisance, it's that he was on the run, Lukaku gets on the end of it, gets in the box and is a problem always for any defender."
Despite the Belgian's dry patch in front of goal, Tuchel did not seem too concerned about the situation and also spoke about his future at Stamford Bridge. He said: "We don’t reflect on it. The situation at the moment is that we cannot talk to players, cannot sell, and cannot buy.
"At this moment, we don’t need to think about it. These are the players we have and Romelu still plays a big part in our plans. Not the part maybe he wants to play and I totally understand that, but he used his time to disconnect a little bit, had one week of a holiday, and then he was back with us."
