Why Lukaku is Tuchel & Werner's perfect striker

 The 2021-22 Premier League season

 will be a shock to the system – and 

Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea might be the 

biggest surprise of all.

Over the last 18 months, the pandemic

 made football into a sluggish, soulless 

version of the sport we love, as empty 

stadiums, a congested fixture list, and 

the psychological impact of lockdowns 

dulled the spectacle.

Clubs were forced to adapt and few 

made as sharp a left turn as the Chelsea

 manager, whose trademark tactical flexibility

 and hard-pressing, fast-transition football

 was traded in for a slow and steady 3-4-3 

defined by calm possession and elaborate 

building through defence and midfield.

Like Pep Guardiola, Tuchel knew to control

 the chaos of pandemic football by calming

 things down; through deep breaths and 

a steady rhythm.

And so it is understandable that some 

Chelsea fans are unsure whether new 

£98 million ($136m) signing Romelu 

Lukaku, officially unveiled on Thursday, 

is the right player to energise the Blues

 and take them to title-winning level.

 After all, he was last seen in the 

Premier League as a lumbering target 

man at Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United.

But after a full pre-season to get his ideas

 across, we will see Tuchel’s Chelsea 2.0 

this season: a team of intensive verticality, 

of gut-busting tempo changes, of constant

 tactical tweaks, and of the sort of high-

pressing Germanic football that perfectly 

suits Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, and – 

above all – Lukaku.

The 28-year-old has improved considerably

 during his two years at Inter, becoming

 a more rounded and confident player; a 

leader now renowned for his link-up play 

outside the box.

He is the perfect Tuchel striker.

In Antonio Conte’s 3-5-2, Lukaku and 

Lautaro Martinez linked superbly, often 

on the counterattack or when the ball 

broke in midfield as the two forwards 

bore down on goal in tandem.

These are exactly the patterns Tuchel 

wishes to create with his high press, similar 

in theory to how Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool 

first exploded into life.

Werner was often put in behind last 

season by long through balls from Mason

 Mount, but with Lukaku in the team there

 will be two forwards dropping and spinning, 

which should create more space for both.

Werner has always worked better with a 

forward to feed off – see Yussuf Poulsen 

or Patrik Schick at RB Leipzig – and in 

Lukaku he has an intelligent partner to 

help him get into easier goalscoring

 positions.

He is not the only Chelsea forward 

Lukaku will help either. Those buzzing 

transitional attacks, aiming to pierce the 

defensive lines with one-touch football,

 should quickly develop now; Lukaku 

averaged 0.34 assists per 90 last season, 

a career high, and his positional flexibility

 plays a big role in this.

He often drifts out to the right, dragging 

defenders out of position to make more

 room for the likes of Havertz, Mount,

 and Christian Pulisic.

Lukaku moves around a lot, coming 

short to influence the play as well as 

roaming into the channels to assist, 

and as Chelsea become a more tactically

 flexible and high-energy side, this will

 be priceless to Tuchel.

More specifically, historically one of 

the main features of Tuchel’s forward 

play is a three-pronged attack that sees 

one-touch backwards passes play a vital

 role in releasing third-man runs to tear 

quickly through the lines.

As such, Werner should get even more 

chances to bear down on goal and will 

often be joined by Lukaku - after he 

backs into his man and lays the ball off -

 providing tap-ins for both players.

Chelsea fans should be excited, then, 

by how much Lukaku will help create 

slick, piercing attacks in the transition 

– and that is before we even consider 

the attributes he is most famous for: 

speed, power, and goalscoring.

Lukaku is not a target man, but as 

Tuchel recently noted Chelsea will benefit

 from a player who plays with his back 

to goal. The Belgium international holds 

off defenders superbly, before flicking 

the ball round the corner to set himself 

away or playing a simple lay-off which, 

again, is about creating extra space for 

a quick attack.

This is something Chelsea clearly 

lacked last season. Werner has a poor 

first touch; Havertz would come too short

 to get the ball with his back to goal; and 

Olivier Giroud is unable to spin in behind

 after laying it off.

Furthermore, Tuchel is happy to play 

longer balls over the top when up against

 high-pressing opposition. This is how 

he pushed Manchester City back in the 

FA Cup semi-final and Champions 

League final, with clipped passes 

forcing Guardiola’s side to step back 

and concede territory.

Lukaku has an uncanny ability to pluck

 the ball out of the sky, using his pace 

and strength to win a bouncing ball 

and leave the defender looking foolish

. Chelsea will utilise this more than 

you think, as Tuchel changes his 

system very frequently and will not 

hesitate to deploy a direct approach 

as a secret weapon when games are 

congested.

Finally, there is the simple fact of lukaku

 goalscoring.

He scored 30 goals in 44 games in 

all competitions last campaign and 34 

in 51 the year before, making them the 

two most prolific seasons of his career. 

And unlike Werner or Giroud, he is 

reliable, scoring at a rate of at least 0.5 

goals per 90 minutes every single year 

of his career bar a difficult 2018-19 

at United.

Lukaku will score plenty of solo goals,

 goals from bursts off the dribble, and 

goals from sharp touches in tight spaces,

 but the most interesting for Chelsea fans

 are the smart finishes from crosses.

Ben Chilwell and Reece James can be 

expected to play higher up the pitch this

 season as Tuchel goes more aggressive, 

and their excellent crossing ability 

should see those mistimed Werner 

slides replaced by clinical strikes from 

the new number nine.

Whether creating or scoring in the 

transition, sprinting in behind on 

the counterattack, linking sharply with

 Chelsea’s inside forwards, or finishing

 wing-backs’ crosses, Lukaku slots neatly

 into any of Tuchel’s various methods

 of attack.

He is the perfect signing to complete

 this Chelsea team and turn them into 

Premier League champions.