“I said to him to be very honest..! as Tuchel finally reveals what he told Lukaku in 3-1 win over Aston Villa
Before the second half against Villa, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel understood at half-time he needed to bring on Romelu Lukaku to change things for the Blues. However, the Belgian was only just returning from Covid and had also not gained match fitness having recently returned from injury before testing positive to coronavirus.
However, The Chelsea boss Tuchel admitted after the game that he had to ask Lukaku if he can play 45 minutes against Villa.
Thomas Tuchel said: “I said to him to be very honest and tell me if he thinks he can play 45 minutes. He said yes and I said, okay, so try to play 45 minutes.
“There’s no doubt that he’s super important. Every player is super important but Romelu will be a key player, nobody doubts that, but last time he started for us was in October and not because of quality or because we have any doubts that we are better without him starting.
“It’s not the case. He was simply unlucky to get injured and after injury, while he was struggling to come back he caught Covid so he had again 10 days out and then suffered from symptoms.
Now we put him on the pitch for 45 minutes, which was more than the fitness and medical department recommended for him, but we thought we can take the risk and be more offensive with him, and I’m happy of course that it went well for today. Let’s see now how the reaction is and how he adapts from here.” He said.