Roy Keane has questioned the extent to which wants to fight for his future while Joe Cole claims he may only have six weeks to save his career at the club.
The Belgian, who is the west Londoners’ record signing, has struggled for form and fitness in recent months and has failed to net a Premier League goal since the end of December.
Since then, his only strikes for Chelsea have come in the Club and against Chesterfield, Luton and Middlesbrough in the .
Against Crystal Palace in Sunday’s 2-0 win at Wembley, Lukaku’s struggles were summed up by a bewildering miss from six yards out with the goal gaping, and Keane has suggested the forward lacks the will to want to turn his Chelsea career around.
Speaking on ITV Sport after the match, Keane said of Lukaku’s miss: ‘Hit the target. Sometimes you ask your striker, “How badly do you really want to score?”
‘It’s obviously his mindset. He’s clearly not right.
‘He’s got to make the change. It’s got to go back to the player. That’s what I’m saying to you, how badly does he want to save his Chelsea career?’
Fellow pundit and former Chelsea player Cole felt similarly, saying: ‘Lukaku has six weeks to save his Chelsea career.
‘You look at Timo Werner and he doesn’t give up. Lukaku wants to be that focal point but he missed a chance. When it’s not going for you, it’s not going for you.
‘When he came into the club at the start of the season people were thinking of him as the missing piece in the jigsaw, that target man.
‘It didn’t happen for him, he got an injury, and then it’s just sort of gone away from him. But it can come back as quickly as it can go.
‘If he had scored against Real Madrid, if he scores today to take us to a Cup final, he could be starting in the final all of sudden, things look rosy. Things can change in one game.’
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