Chelsea will be without record signing Romelu Lukaku for their season's opener against Crystal Palace on Saturday - but Thomas Tuchel is still expecting big things from his Blues stars.
The manager is backing £97.5 million Lukaku ($134.7m) to bring out the best in his fellow big-money buys Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner when he becomes available next weekend.
The Belgium striker is tasked with spearheading an expensively assembled forward line and after watching his squad prepare for the Palace game, Tuchel said: “Let’s be honest, when I thought about Chelsea before I even entered the club and had the chance to be part of it, I thought of personalities up front of a certain category of striker, like Didier Drogba, like Diego Costa.
“This, for me, is something that embodies Chelsea and what Chelsea stands for.
“He (Lukaku) is a true No 9; he is a No 9 that I see in a Chelsea shirt. I see Chelsea with strong strikers, strong personalities and also physical strikers – the league demands it.
“For me, it’s a perfect fit to Chelsea to have this kind of player up front. He is happy to take responsibility, he has matured, he has played abroad, he has had success in various big clubs.
“He will take weight off the shoulders from our younger players and this is a huge part of the story: that he does not step away and he is happy to make life easier for players around him."
Pictures from the Chelsea training session can be seen in the gallery above. To view the next image, click on the arrows or swipe if on a mobile device.
