Chelsea’s record signing and second most expensive player to join the Premier League, Romelu Lukaku had one of his worst seasons in the just concluded 2021/22 season.
This is one of the reasons why he wants to go back to Inter Milan where he had a wonderful season before coming to Chelsea.
Recently, former Chelsea and Nigerian midfielder, John Obi Mikel noted that Lukaku is not built for the Premier League style of football.
According to Mikel who played for Chelsea from 2006 to 2017, the style of Premier League football is “too strong” and “too fast” for the Belgian striker. He added that Lukaku is not a player who can play at such speed and strength.
Recall that Chelsea spent up to £98 million to bring back Lukaku from Inter Milan in August 2021. Note that Lukaku first played at Chelsea before he joined Everton and then Manchester United. After a troubled spell at Old Trafford, he left the Red Devils for Inter Milan and helped the Italian side to win the 2020-2021 Serie A title.
His performance in the 2020/21 season was what attracted Chelsea to Lukaku. The Belgian striker accepted the big move and became the most expensive player the club has ever signed.
The Blues expected to see a repeat of Lukaku’s performance in Milan but that has not happened so far. He struggled through the 2021/22 season even though he started on a good note by scoring in four successive matches.
At the end of the season, the Belgian had a poor record of just 15 goals in 44 appearances across all competitions for Chelsea and that was below the expectations of the club’s fans. His performance brought a lot of backlashes especially after he blamed coach Thomas Tuchel’s style for his poor form.
In reaction to Lukaku’s return to Chelsea, Mikel Obi revealed that Lukaku’s style of play is better in the Serie A than Premier League, adding that the Premier League is too fast for the 28-year-old Belgian striker.
“The league is totally different”, Mikel Obi said on Naija FM. “The English league is too strong, too powerful, too fast, whereas the Italian league is too slow. The English league has too much quality. The pace of English football is way too much for the Italian league. In the Italian league, you can play until you’re 40 years old, but in the English league you’re putting in way more work.”
"Why do you think Romelu Lukaku has struggled at Chelsea?"
— ♡🍃 @OneJoblessBoy 🐳 (@OneJoblessBoy) June 12, 2022
Mikel Obi: pic.twitter.com/pPc7Uie7fG
The player in question, Lukaku has made it known that he regrets leaving Inter Milan for Chelsea. According to him, Thomas Tuchel’s style of play is different from what he wanted.
Due to his drop in form, coach Thomas Tuchel didn’t use Lukaku as a starter in most parts of last season as he preferred the lineup of Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic, and Kai Havertz.
