Kalidou Koulibaly has talked extensively about Romelu Lukaku’s prior season at Chelsea and also suggested that he will make a comeback.

Romelu Lukaku had a rough time at the club last season, according to new Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly, and he thinks that lack of confidence may have been a factor.

The Belgian struggled to match the heights he achieved while playing for Inter Milan despite making a club-record summer return to Stamford Bridge.

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Despite his struggles, the 29-year-old striker finished the year as the club’s leading scorer with 13 goals across all competitions. On the field, however, there were issues due to injuries, and off the field, worries increased as a result of a contentious interview with Sky Italia.

More was anticipated of the forward following his return to London, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel acknowledged earlier this year.

“Disappointed is not the right word but of course, we thought and for him as well, he wanted to produce the numbers right from the start but we are all humans and we demand a lot defensively from our strikers as well.”

Lukaku was the driving force for a summer of change at Cobham following his unsuccessful season, with Tuchel planning to restock his team. The international player from Belgium returned to Inter Milan on loan for the upcoming campaign as the team looks to change up their frontline.

Romelu Lukaku's failure at Chelsea explained by Kalidou Koulibaly — Kalidou Koulibaly believes Romelu Lukaku will comeback great after his loan spell

The Blues have also updated their lineup of alternatives under the new Todd Boehly regime, so the striker isn’t the only change. Koulibaly, who moved from Napoli to the Premier League following years of rumors, is one of the faces of that change.

The Senegalese defender and Lukaku faced off against each other in Serie A, and the center-back explains why the forward might have struggled at Chelsea.

On Wednesday, Koulibaly told the media that “Romelu is a good player, a nice player, and a talented player”.

“He is very strong and I was used to playing against him in Italy – I think he didn’t like to play against me! He scored a lot of goals in Italy and he won the Scudetto with Inter, so when he signed for Chelsea I was not surprised. Last year I think maybe he didn’t have the confidence he needed to play like he wanted. Maybe something else, I don’t know.”

It echoes Tuchel’s assertion that Lukaku only needs to regain the will to score goals, saying that he has done so “in his blood” and has done so ever since he was a small child. Even though he had difficulties on the field, a player’s struggles are only a small part of their overall situation.

Koulibaly speculated that the striker’s issues might not have been limited to football, but he also predicted that he will rejoin the team:

“Football is not all about the pitch, it is also about your private life and everything else, so maybe it was something that didn’t work with him over here”.

“But I still think he is a player for Chelsea, and maybe next year or in a few years he will come back and be better. I want to tell him that maybe he needs to keep continuing and keep believing and keep positive because it is like this, it can be more than a performance on the pitch”.