Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, has revealed his reasons for dropping Romelu Lukaku from the squad facing Liverpool on Sunday.

Lukaku attracted the German tactician’s wrath after revealing he “was not very happy” at Chelsea during a recent explosive interview with Sky Italia.

The 28-year-old Belgian also accused his manager of “playing a different formation” than the one that gets the best out of him.

Lukaku who rejoined the club about four months ago for a club-record fee of £97.5m caused more confusion when he revealed that he would love to return to the Serie A side while he is still in the prime of his career.

Speaking during an interview with Sky Sports shortly before kick-off, Tuchel explained why Lukaku was left out of the matchday squad.

Tuchel said, “The thing got too big, the thing got too noisy, so close to the match, so I decided to protect the preparation of the match, so that is why he is out.”

Asked if he has spoken with Lukaku, Tuchel said, “Yeah. Of course, we have spoken, we’ve spoken twice, I’ve spoken to the main players, of course, but after that, we had to realise it was too close to the match, it’s too big.

“We delayed the decision over what to do, but while we are delaying we have to protect the preparation of the match.

“We have a big game to play and we need full focus, which is hard to get even without this decision, but it was easier in my opinion if he is not in the squad, and that is why we did it.

“For sure it was a difficult decision, but in my opinion, it was the decision to take.”