: Thomas Tuchel on suggestions that Chelsea play better without Romelu Lukaku:

“He scored some very decisive goals for us already, to bring us in a position where the young players and other players can take over, step in and show their qualities.”
: Thomas Tuchel on Romelu Lukaku:

“We started strong and we started the season with Romelu. The things he brings when he is in the dressing room, in the building, even when he is injured, he is every day here, positive, determined, he pushes everybody.”

“He is a top professional and a top top striker. He will be super and he is actually in the moment very important.”
: Thomas Tuchel on Chelsea injuries:

“”I am happy that we can survive a long period without him [Lukaku], without [Mateo] Kovacic, without [Timo] Werner, without [Christian] Pulisic.”

“It shows we function as a team absolutely and we rely on top qualities like every team but they bring so much more than only their presence on the field.”

“We miss all our players when they are injured and we will Romelu a lot and we are capable of finding solutions and the team is doing so well as Romelu is pushing, he is here and he is part of the team.”
: Tuchel details Rudiger’s importance: “I will give you one example. If you look at the goal from N’Golo against Leicester when he runs more or less half the pitch and scores a fantastic goal with his left foot I was surprised when I saw it and realised that Rudiger was [among]…
: Tuchel: “…the first ones to be there, to congratulate and hug him because I thought ‘how fast is he for this to happen? Kante scored from the edge of the 18-yard box?When you look at it in detail you see that while N’Golo is driving forward Toni is closing the space…
: Tuchel: “and doing this kind of ‘invisible work’ to close the striker down. I think it was Lookman who was in that corridor and if the shot is blocked and the ball goes there Rudiger would be the first one to go into a counter-press. He takes the responsibility for covering that”
: Tuchel: “So this is the kind of work which means we are taking care of our roles and in that moment Toni is doing this, this very humble work, because how big is the chance that N’Golo scores from the left foot? He [Rudiger] could have just stood back and watched but he didn’t.”