Thomas Tuchel has dismissed Romelu Lukaku's criticism of his Chelsea system as the war of words between manager and player intensifies.
Lukaku, 28, admitted he is "not happy" at Stamford Bridge and suggested Tuchel is not playing to his strengths during a no-holds-barred interview which emerged earlier this week.
"I think the coach has chosen to play with another system, I just have to not give up and continue to work and be a professional," the striker told Sky Sport Italia.
"I am not happy with the situation, but I am a worker and I must not give up."
Tuchel responded by branding Lukaku's comments as "noise we don't need" after Chelsea dropped points for the third time in four Premier League games by drawing 1-1 with Brighton.
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He has also rejected the Belgian's claim he has changed the Blues' system and appeared to draw a line under the incident as he spoke ahead of Sunday's clash with Liverpool.
"What I read is that he said we changed a system," Tuchel said in response to Lukaku's comments. "If you put a little bit of work in, in our systems, you will find not a lot of system changes, if you find any. So, end of discussion."
The German also explained why Lukaku has often had to settle for a spot on the bench recently.
The former Inter Milan, Manchester United and Everton star has only made one start in the top flight since mid-October, with an ankle injury and coronavirus limiting his involvement.
"We have chats with a lot of players, how we want them to have in position, where they should be when we arrive in certain spaces," Tuchel said.
"This is absolutely a super-normal chat and we have it with Romelu. We have a discussion now where it seems that he was on the bench and we benched him because other players suited our style of playing better.
"Romelu played when he came, then he got injured, then he caught Covid. It does not make it better, but that is my situation. He gave an interview so maybe he has a problem so he needs to speak up. I don’t have one."
In his press conference on Friday, Tuchel added: "Not at all, I don't feel him unhappy.
"I feel the exact opposite. If you ask me yesterday morning, I would say I feel the exact opposite. That's why I would say it's a surprise but I am the wrong person to ask."
