“It’s clear, you can’t blame him” – Lineker and Shearer reveals who to blame for Lukaku’s poor performance against Crystal Palace
Chelsea striker, Romelu Lukaku was isolated throughout the Blues’ 1-0 win at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon and touched the ball just seven times in 90 minutes, with one of them being kick-off.
However, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer has defended Lukaku’s performance against Crystal Palace on Saturday and have blamed Chelsea’s tactical approach for Lukaku’s struggles.
Speaking on Match of the Day, Lineker and Shearer both sympathised with Lukaku and suggested Chelsea were not playing to Lukaku’s strengths.
Shearer said: “It’s clear that they [Chelsea] aren’t working on things on the training ground as they are not doing it during the game for him [Lukaku] or for the team.”
Lineker was even more scathing, adding: “When I played, if I wasn’t getting much of the ball, if I wasn’t getting service, I would be hammering people.”
According to Opta, Lukaku completed just four of his six attempted passes on Saturday and his 66.7 percent completion rate was the worst of any player in Chelsea’s starting XI.
Meanwhile, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has dismissed the suggestion his tactical system was to blame for Lukaku’s struggles.