How can Thomas Tuchel get the best of Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku? Give him a friend to play with

"Romelu Lukaku sometimes needs to [deliver] the service. He is included in this, he had many ball losses in very promising circumstances. He had a huge chance.”

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel certainly didn’t hold back in his assessment of the performance of star forward Romelu Lukaku after Saturday’s critical 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday afternoon. Tuchel later doubled down in his Monday press conference suggesting that all of Chelsea frontline need to improve but the striker is very much a part of that.

As a unit Chelsea were lacklustre at best, a distant second to a dominant Manchester City side. The focus after the game was understandably on Lukaku, the performance of the attack as a unit, and Tuchel’s scathing post-match review.

Of course this all comes with the back drop of the explosive interview that Lukaku gave a few weeks ago where he not only batted eyelashes at some of Chelsea’s European rivals but also offered his critiques on the way Tuchel has been using him thus far.

Before we get to our idea on how Tuchel might best use Lukaku it’s worth discussing a few things about the interview and his manager’s comments on Saturday.

Firstly the interview and the fallout surrounding it was absolutely handled in the correct way by Tuchel. Lukaku’s interview was at best very naïve at worst outright idiotic. From a media perspective of course it’s nice to hear a player open up like that but if you’re associated with Chelsea as a player or fan it was the absolute last thing you wanted to hear.

By dropping him for one game Tuchel sent a message; no player is bigger than the club. That’s the way it should always be. But also he didn't make it into too big a deal by dropping him for multiple matches, similar to how Maurizio Sarri handled the hilarious Kepa Arrizabalaga incident in the League Cup final in 2019.

But it is equally true that it is on Tuchel to get the best out of the club’s biggest investment. Of course his job primarily is to win football games and if he feels that investment isn’t paying dividends then he is well within his right to find other solutions. But there is an expectation from the club that their money is well-spent. Now it is not necessarily Tuchel’s fault for some of the mind-boggling ways Chelsea have spent money over the years and as long as he brings success his methods won’t be questioned. But when there is such a big gap between they and City? Now questions have to be asked.

And with a blockbuster January transfer for Lukaku looking highly unlikely the question we are asking is this: how can Tuchel get the best of Lukaku in this marriage of convenience until the summer at least? It’s simple, find a friend for him to play with.

(Here is your caveat that we are not highly paid Premier League managers like Thomas Tuchel is)

To start with let’s make this clear if it wasn’t already, this is a £100-million (practically) striker who was the second-top scorer in Italy last year and the seventh top scorer in Europe. His 24 Serie A goals were enough to fire Inter to their first title since Jose Mourinho was in charge back in 2009-10. That figure would have been enough for the Premier League golden boot and was done in a league that is more defensively disciplined than the chaos of England.

So how did then-Inter manager Antonio Conte get the best out of Lukaku? By giving him a buddy to play with of course! For the first time in his career Luakku played in a two-striker system consistently. It happened briefly at West Brom and Everton but never really more than for the odd game or two. Plus he was playing with players like Arouna Kone or Kevin Mirallas. No disrespect to either, fine Premier League players, but neither were ever at the level of Lautaro Martinez.

The effect of Lukaku playing with Martinez was two-fold. Firstly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it avoided an issue that has plagued Lukaku’s career; namely getting isolated up front. Throughout his career when being played in a 4-3-3/4-5-1 Lukaku has often found himself isolated and only been used as a poacher or big lump.

Which brings us nicely to the second benefit. Conte was really the first manager in Lukaku’s career to realise he could be so much more than the aforementioned lump. Under Conte Lukaku’s game went to a new level, he became a complete centre-forward. Now he was dropping deep to link up with Inter’s midfielders, or going to wide to create overloads with Achraf Hakimi. All the while not hurting his team because Martinez would remain central, or even one of the midfielders or wing-backs would go into his space.

You would think this would work with Chelsea because Tuchel likes having two attacking midfielders close to his striker and has even tried playing with two up top at times. But it hasn’t really worked out so far, perhaps because Timo Werner isn’t as good on the ball as Martinez or because injuries have meant Lukaku hasn’t really played too many games up front with Kai Havertz.

Perhaps now though is the time to try a 5-3-2 with Lukaku paired with Havertz when the German is back available. You can play the trio of Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante together or even drop Mason Mount into the three and play the advanced role. This would offer more solidity when Marcos Alonso forgets he has to defend as well as push forward.

The problem is that you are sacrificing the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic but based on Saturday’s showing they’re not exactly giving you a lot so it’s worth the experiment. Plus with Havertz Lukaku would have more license to drift wider or deeper which could offer some interesting tactical combinations with the likes of Reece James, Alonso and Mount.

Tuchel’s tactical brilliance brought a Champions League title to Chelsea last season so he deserves the benefit of the doubt, but for most of this season and on Saturday the Blues looked a real step behind the league leaders. Lukaku was purchased to ensure Chelsea would have a regular supply of goals over the course of a league campaign to keep pace with City. If Tuchel can’t figure out how to make the Belgian that player then Chelsea may have to go hunting for a striker again in the window, something they have proven to be shockingly inept at since they lost Diego Costa.