Lukaku was not used in the midweek Champions League win over Lille, with Tuchel talking about the mental and physical fatigue brought on by his heavy use of the Belgian since the start of 2022. He also spoke about the effect of the spotlight being shone after the player’s performance at Palace in the previous game.‘I will not say that this cannot happen but I try to not take things personally, especially not in my job and especially not from my players and not when it comes to performance,’ was Tuchel’s answer to whether he considers the current situation as a personal reflection on his coaching.

‘What I see from him [Lukaku], what I hear from him, what I feel from him and from every other player is that he wants to be at his top level, and he is not at the moment which can sometimes happen.‘The focus is so huge that it is a big thing, but one example is that maybe Jorginho goes through a little bit of similar dip of recent form, of freshness, and I can absolutely understand that because I’ve over-used Jorgi heavily because he was always available. But the focus is on the strikers, the focus is on Romelu, because of the circumstances.’

Tuchel accepts that this is the natural case with high-profile, big-name centre-forwards, but one principle remains paramount.‘It will not change the approach that it's a team effort,’ stressed our head coach, ‘and I respect Romelu’s approach to it so much that he sees himself as a team player.’