Romelu Lukaku was signed to be Chelsea’s attacking leader but was the invisible man in Crystal Palace win

Statistics in football can be misleading, particularly ones as specific as the number of ‘touches’ a player has of the ball.

Joao Cancelo has had the most in the Premier League this season, followed by Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ruben Dias. As that top three suggests, it is a metric that is generally dominated by full-backs, central defenders and holding midfielders, although there are some notable examples – Bruno Fernandes tops Manchester United’s charts for instance, while Joelinton and Allan Saint-Maximin are ranked one and two for Newcastle.

Offensive players are expected to have less possession than their defensive counterparts: what is important is how they use it when the ball does come. Jamie Vardy, for instance, is renowned for being a ‘stats-buster’, a striker who scores goals and makes game-changing contributions despite often being on the periphery of a match. A lack of touches for a striker isn’t necessarily a problem until it becomes one. As was the case at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

During Chelsea’s dramatic 1-0 victory against Crystal Palace, Romelu Lukaku set an unwanted Premier League record by having the fewest number of touches of any player to complete 90 minutes since Opta began collating such data in the 2003-04 campaign. The Belgian managed seven in total, one of which came from a kick-off. It rather summed up his afternoon that he was flagged offside more times (twice) than he had shots, dribbles or key passes combined (zero).

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The contrast between Lukaku’s contribution towards Chelsea’s win – sealed by Hakim Ziyech’s 89th-minute winner – and Harry Kane’s involvement in Tottenham’s victory against Manchester City at the Etihad later that day, could not have been any starker. Kane carved City’s defence wide open with a sublime first-time pass in the build-up to Spurs’ first goal, scored the second and third ones himself and bullied his opposing centre backs throughout. Only Son Heung-min had fewer touches than him among the 20 outfield starters, but Kane made virtually every one of his 37 count.

As for Lukaku, it was another anonymous display that raised familiar questions over his and Chelsea’s suitability for one another. There is an argument to be made – one which Lukaku himself posited in that contentious interview with Sky Italia – that Thomas Tuchel is not catering to his star striker’s strengths. That he is being deployed as an auxiliary target man, when really, he wants to drop deep, drift out wide and run in behind like Kane does.

That line of thinking is strengthened by the indifferent form of Chelsea’s other attackers under Tuchel. The club’s most impressive and consistent performers during the German’s reign have, with the exception of versatile playmaker Mason Mount, been Edouard Mendy and the defenders and wing-backs in front of him, rather than the expensively assembled ensemble of forwards at the other end.

The counter-argument is that a player of Lukaku’s talent, reputation and experience should have adapted better to this team by now. Lukaku was expected to be the focal point around whom the rest of the team would pivot, not as was the case at the weekend, its invisible man.

from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/UP1h9Ow