Thomas Tuchel has just ended the Romelu Lukaku episode. The Chelsea technician gave a press conference on Tuesday 48 hours after the superb draw against Liverpool (2-2). It was about this match, but especially the great absent from this meeting, the striker with whom the Blues could have, perhaps defeated the Reds.
Recruited for 115 million euros this summer at Inter Milan, the star striker of the Red Devils gave an interview to Sky Italia in mid-December where he said he was unhappy with his situation and half-heartedly criticized the game advocated by Tuchel. Images which were broadcast three days before the match against Liverpool and which caused his exclusion from the group. “He apologized and he’s back to team training,” said the German coach.
“It’s his responsibility to clean up this mess”
The club even posted a video of the Belgian striker’s apology on social media. “For the supporters, I am sorry for the disturbances I have caused. […] Now it’s up to me to regain your confidence and I will do my best to prove my commitment in training and in matches, he explains. I also apologize to the coach, my teammates and the management. I don’t think it was the best time to do what I did ”
“For me the most important thing was to understand and understand very clearly,” adds Tuchel. He didn’t do it intentionally to create an uproar before this important game. And this is the very first time that he behaves like that ”. The former PSG coach also relativized the scope of the words which particularly struck the London supporters. “It wasn’t as huge as some would have liked, but not tiny either. It was small enough for us to stay calm, accept the apologies and move on, ”added the Blues coach.
“He is fully aware of what happened and what it caused and he feels that it is his responsibility to clean up this mess (…) He can manage it and, moreover, he has no choice. He couldn’t expect everyone to be happy the next day, ”he said. “But he remains our player and we have good reasons and many reasons to make him play for us (…) We are happy that he is our player and we will protect him”, concluded Tuchel.
The Belgian international therefore has chances of playing in the semi-final first leg of the League Cup on Wednesday against Tottenham.