Rio Ferdinand and Eni Aluko have urged Chelsea’s midfielders to be more creative and run in behind Romelu Lukaku more often after the Belgian forward completed three games without a goal in the Blues’ 1-0 Champions League defeat to Juventus on Wednesday night.
Lukaku was martialled well by the impressive defensive duo of Leonardo Bonucci and Matthijs de Ligt during the match at the Allianz Stadium.
However, he did have arguably Chelsea’s best chance to score when he was put through on goal by substitute Ross Barkley, only for his shot to sail over Wojciech Szczesny’s goal.
With Mason Mount ruled out of the game through injury, both Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz were named in an attacking starting XI by Thomas Tuchel in the hope that they will be able to bring that creative spark for Lukaku.
But former England internationals Ferdinand and Aluko both believe that Chelsea’s attacking midfielders have to do more to make sure the 28-year-old target man doesn’t become too isolated.
‘You’ve got Lukaku, it’s another element of their game. Get the ball into him and run off him. Drogba, players ran off him, Lampard, Robben, Malouda, there would be players running by him or facing him off,’ Ferdinand said on BT Sport.
‘Only once maybe where one person ran past, unless you’ve got people running around or rotating up front you’re going to be easy to mark.’
Aluko added: ‘The Messi goal last night, I loved it because of Mbappe’s touch, it made that goal.
‘Lukaku will only need one touch and he’ll be on his way. Sometimes you’ve got to think ahead, it has to be a bit more creative. Havertz, Ziyech can play one touch around Lukaku and help him a bit more.’
Chelsea will be hoping to bounce back from the disappointment of the defeat to the Italian giants when they host Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday.
MORE : Thomas Tuchel says his Chelsea team were ‘tired’ and ‘slow’ during disappointing Juventus defeat
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
0 Commentaires