Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has insist he is defending Romelu Lukaku. After the Belgian forward was criticized in the face of a downturn in form.

Lukaku has scored just five goals in 17 Premier League games this season. This is the first season in the return to Chelsea for the second round. After moving from Inter Milan for a huge fee of 97.5 million pounds last summer. Tuchel, who gave a press conference ahead of the ufabet UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg match against French side Lille on Tuesday, spoke about Lukaku, who has not score in the Premier League since that day. December 29 last year.

“Sometimes the forwards have to go through something like this. If they have a little trouble with their self-confidence. and finding space to play against teams that are defensively good.” “Things like this can happen, of course, it’s not what we want. It wasn’t what Romelu want, but it wasn’t the time to laugh at him. Or say something funny about him.” “He was caught in the eye. And we will protect him,” Tuchel said.

Those two goals took the 28-year-old’s overall tally for the campaign to 10 from 28 appearances, but only five of those have come in the Premier League.

The Blues faithful will hope that Lukaku can rediscover his scoring touch against Lille on Tuesday night before Tuchel’s side turn their attention to a Carabao Cup final date against Liverpool on February 27.