<<Print>>

The Blues striker will sit out the clash at home to Jurgen Klopp's side after his controversial interview.

Thomas Tuchel has dropped Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea's squad against Liverpool after the striker conducted a controversial interview behind the club's back that was published this week.

The Belgian is not even on the bench after he was judged to have criticised his manager's tactics.

It has since emerged that neither the club nor the player's representatives knew of the interview beforehand. It appears to have been arranged directly with the Sky Sport Italia journalist in London.

What has been said?

Explaining his decision to Sky Sports, Tuchel has 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, and that's why he's out.

"Of course we have spoken, we've spoken twice, I've spoken to the main players, of course and after that we had to realise it's too close to the match, it's too big.

"We delayed the decision about what to do. We need to protect the preparation of the match. We have a big match of football to play and we need full focus, which is hard to get anyway - hard even with this decision. But it is, in my opinion, easier if he's not in the squad, and that's why we did it.

"For sure it's a difficult decision to take but in my opinion, it was the decision to take."