"His movement is awful" - Craig Burley slams Chelsea star for his performance in 1-0 Crystal Palace win
Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku had another disappointing outing during the 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace in the Premier League yesterday, struggling to get the ball throughout the encounter.
Following the game, ESPN pundit Craig Burley hit out at the Belgian, pointing to his poor movement as the reason behind his isolation.
"I'm not having two touches in the first half and one of them is kickoff," the Scottsman said on ESPN.
2 - Romelu Lukaku had just two touches of the ball in the first half against Crystal Palace, with one of those being the first pass of the game from kick-off. Ghosted. https://t.co/lS4zCe3FQp
"I'm not having that as Chelsea keeping the ball because I've never known anybody even with a possession-based team, that's telling me his movement is awful because you can still come short.
"You can still make these 5 yard runs, give and go, comes into your feet, alright, you have a bad touch you lose it, defender comes in and nicks it off you, whatever."
Craig Burley insisted that it was nobody's fault that Romelu Lukaku struggled to get the ball during the game. The Englishman added that the striker needs to start moving backwards to connect with his teammates.
He continued:
"I'm not having it, he's not making the right movement for Chelsea for them to play it into his feet and get runners off of him, if you're only getting one touch apart from the kickoff, you're not moving your backside.
7 - Romelu Lukaku had just seven touches against Crystal Palace, the fewest in a single Premier League game for a player with 90+ minutes played since this data is available in full for the competition (2003-04). One of those touches was from kick-off in the first half. Quiet.
"It's not anybody else's fault because people are not passing to him, he's not getting into the right areas, that's the only reason it can be.
"As guys who played the game, I can't put my head around how you can put yourself in the park in a position where you are a dominant side and you're able to get only 1 touch of the ball."
Romelu Lukaku's stats for Chelsea so far this season
The Belgian has had a mixed start to life since sealing a big-money transfer to Stamford Bridge last summer. So far this season, he's made 28 appearances for the Blues across all competitions, recording ten goals and three assists to his name.
The striker has, however, struggled to impress in the Premier League in recent weeks, failing to find the back of the net in his last four games in the division. It remains to be seen if he'll bounce back in the coming weeks.