Tuchel: Lukaku 'the kind of profile we're looking for'

Updated: 10 Aug 2021 12:50 BST
4 min read

Chelsea signing Romelu Lukaku celebrates scoring against Torino for Inter — © ProShots

Romelu Lukaku's move to Chelsea is all over the news at the moment, and rightfully so.

The Belgian striker is set to complete a €115 million(£97m) move back to Stamford Bridge after he left on a permanent deal in 2014.

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It represents a huge statement of intent from Chelsea, who will now be, alongside Manchester City and Manchester United, favourites for the Premier League title.

The 2021 Champions League winners were massively improved under Thomas Tuchel, who managed to organise a solid defensive structure immediately, while the attack was slightly neglected.

It was defence and counter-attacking that won Chelsea the Champions League, but with the addition of Lukaku, they now have a clinical striker.

Both Timo Werner and Kai Havertz struggled in their first season in England, underperforming their xG, while Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud weren't favoured under Tuchel.

Havertz certainly improved as the season progressed, but Lukaku is a far better number nine right now.

Jorginho was Chelsea's top scorer in the Premier League last year, and they were one of only three teams (Fulham and Wolves were the others) who failed to have a single player score eight or more league goals; Lukaku fixes that problem having scored 30 or more goals in both of his seasons at Inter.

Tuchel has been surprisingly quiet on the Lukaku situation, but he has spoken up about why the club have targeted their former striker.

What has Tuchel said?

Speaking to SkySports, Tuchel revealed that "He [Lukaku] was the kind of profile that loves to play with his back towards the opponent's goal, who likes to hold the ball and create space for Kai Havertz, for Timo Werner, for Christian Pulisic, who love to play around him.

"This is the kind of profile that we don't have in our squad right now and are looking for.

"If it is possible to sign him, we will try to sign him. If it is not possible to sign a player, we will find other solutions.

"It is still not the moment to talk about names because we have nobody signed yet and we will show all the respect to all other clubs by not starting to talk about their players."

Of course, Giroud was a player who also liked to play with his back to goal, but the Frenchman isn't as clinical as Lukaku, and can't play on the counter-attack like the Belgian.

Giroud was therefore sold to Milan, and Lukaku has been targeted.

Olivier Giroud has today completed a permanent transfer to AC Milan.

Thank you and good luck, Oli! 💙
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 17, 2021

Erling Haaland had been heavily linked with a move to Stamford Bridge, but those rumours die down as Chelsea ramped up the pressure to sign Lukaku.

It remains to be seen how Tuchel sets up his attacking line up, with so many options now available to him, and how he keeps everyone happy.

One thing is for sure, however, Lukaku is an excellent bit of business by Chelsea who, if they sell Tammy Abraham, will have funded the entire move by selling squad players and academy graduates this summer.