Timo Werner has dismissed suggestions he might be worried by Romelu Lukaku’s pending arrival at Chelsea and believes he will benefit from the player’s presence.
The Blues are on the verge of completing a club-record £97.5m deal with Inter for the Belgian star, who has undergone a medical in Milan before flying to London to finalise the move.
But far from fearing for his place in the team, Werner is confident he can form a deadly partnership alongside Lukaku and is looking forward to playing with him.
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Asked if he is affected by Lukaku’s pending arrival, Werner told Sky Sports: ‘He’s probably one of the best three strikers in the world at the moment, no question.
‘I don’t think we need to say too much about him. He’s a world-class striker who will benefit any team. ‘I certainly think at Leipzig it always helped me having a big striker alongside me.
‘I think that’s always good because I’m not the biggest and when you play on your own up front you obviously always have the attention of one or two brawny defenders.
‘It’s a good new weapon to have in our game when you know that if you play a long ball he’ll hold it up. And then the fast players around him can set off. I think that’s good for any team.’
Tuchel echoed Werner’s sentiment, saying: ‘We lost Olivier Giroud who played a crucial role in the club.
‘He was the kind of profile who likes to play with his back to goal, who likes to hold up balls, who creates space for Werner, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic; who is ready to fight physically with defenders.
‘This is the kind of profile that we don’t have in our squad right now and that we are looking for.’
