Romelu Lukaku (No. 9) Right striker, Belgium
No one knows what Romelu Lukaku needs to do to start a game for the Blues other than not being named Romelu Lukaku. There’s a very serious problem at Chelsea if the consensus is that Kai Havertz is the solution to Chelsea’s scoring problem and Lukaku should be on the way out. Havertz has been poor in the last six games for the Blues. At some point, Tuchel has to field different attackers because whatever he’s trying to do with the Mason Mount-Havertz-Timo Werner combination is either not working or has stopped working.
Lukaku has played well in his last few games. There’s no easy way to play as a center forward, especially for Chelsea. People are trying to vilify Lukaku for playing the way center forwards are supposed to play. A center forward can only create space for his teammates by pinning centerbacks and making sure they limit their movement. Many are expecting him to move around and run to the midfield to pick up the ball. Yeah, because it’s a good idea to be far away from the centerbacks where the centerbacks know that he’s not threatening them at all. He’s definitely going to be scoring more goals when he starts moving further away from the opposition’s goal regularly—that makes sense.
Hakim Ziyech (No. 22) Central attacking midfielder, Morocco
At this point, it’s clear that I’m going to keep predicting Hakim Ziyech to start until he finally does start. I’m unapologetic about it. Ziyech should start if any of Mount’s performances in the last four matches have been any indication.
Timo Werner (No. 11) Left striker, Germany
Werner needs to play to force Wolves’ defenders to move. He has not had a good season as he only started getting minutes very recently. Werner has been in good form though, so it only makes sense that he starts again.
Who do you want to see in the starting XI? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!