Antonio Conte Claims Chelsea Haven’t Figured Out How To Use Lukaku, Sees Similarities With Haaland.

Written By Jacobs Dunga

Antonio Conte was coach of Inter Milan for two years and in those years he had a certain Romelu Lukaku at the peak of his powers, spearheading his team’s atrack that led to a scudetto triumph.

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Romelu Lukaku moved to Chelsea from Inter Milan over the summer in a record £98m deal after two hugely successful years at Giuseppe Meazza under Antonio Conte.

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The Belgium striker had endured a torrid time at United before being bailed out by Conte who broke Inter’s transfer record to bring in the Belgian.

He would go on to score a whopping 64 goals in 94 appearances in the colours of Inter reaching the Europa league finals and winning the Italian league with Antonio Conte at the helm, maximizing the 28 year old’s potentials.

Lukaku started his second Chelsea stint on fire netting four goals in his first four games but has since fired blanks in each of his last three appearances in all competitions.

His former coach at Inter has however come to the defence of the bulky striker saying it is the coach of Chelsea who is not bringing the beat out of the 28 year old.

‘I think he can still do better, above all with his technique,’ Conte told Sky Sport Italia.

‘He is already at a very high level, but a player must keep improving until the day he retires.

“During the game, there are moments when Lukaku needs to be turned on, but other than that he is one of the toughest forwards to play against, because he can do damage in any area of the pitch. If you have a centre-forward like that, you need to use him and I don’t think Chelsea have quite figured out how to use him yet.”

“Last season, they didn’t have a proper centre-forward, so they rotated positions, whereas Romelu is a real reference point in attack.

‘If they can figure out how to use Lukaku, then Chelsea can become the team to beat in the Champions League this season.”

Conte expects Thomas Tuchel to get the best out of Romelu Lukaku as he did in his two years with the Belgian at Inter.

“A coach is good if he can improve players. I think we did great work with Romelu over two years,’ Conte added.

‘He is a very specific striker. Bringing Lukaku into the box, he is dangerous. However, when he starts from midfield, he is incredibly quick. It is very difficult to find a player who is both a target man, but can also run from midfield. These are also characteristics I can see in Erling Haaland. I had been tracking Lukaku for a very long time and wanted him when I was at Chelsea, even when he was at West Brom.”

Conte has been working for SkySports Italia as a pundit since he left his job at Inter due to a fall out with the management.

Meanwhile…

Second half substitute Ben Chilwell admitted they weren’t at their beat as they bowed to Juventus’ game plan in the 1-0 defeat.

The English defender had barely spent ten seconds on the pitch before Chiesa fired past Mendy to score the game’s only goal which ultimately handed Juve the win and condemned Chelsea to their second 1-0 defeat in as many games.

The 24 year old during his post match reaction told the club’s website that they tried to create something but for Juve’s resolute defending and compactness.

They built from that as the longer the game went on,’ he continued.

“They had a game plan and executed it very well. They grew in confidence, the crowd got behind them and it got more difficult for us to score. We did have a few chances but not enough clear-cut ones to win the game.”

They built from that the longer the game went on,’ he continued.

“We had a lot of possession, we weren’t at our best but we stayed in the game until the very last minute when we had a chance to get a draw, which when you are not playing your best football is a good result when you come here.”

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