Mats Hummels concedes after letting Lukaku score: “My job is to defend, next time I’ll do better.” | OneFootball

Mats Hummels had the tall task of guarding Romelu Lukaku in last night’s defeat to Napoli.

The German defender came on at halftime and was there when Lukaku scored the Partenopei’s decisive goal.

After the match, Hummels took accountability for his mistake.

“It was a complicated ball to defend, so it’s not a full-on error,” said the veteran centreback in his post-match presser. “I was afraid that if I stuck out my leg I would have scored an own goal. There was also the possibility of Svilar getting there.”

“But my job is to defend and next time I hope to do better,” said Hummels.

“What happened during the last 3 months? I had very few opportunities, apart from the snippet with Fiorentina. It’s quite obvious what happened. There was a coach who didn’t think I was suited to his style of play.”

“I need to play and get minutes in my legs. I thought the minutes would increase gradually, I had also spoken about it with De Rossi, unfortunately the opposite happened but these are things that happen in football.”

“Tonight I played 45 minutes and I felt good. It’s true that there was the goal situation but there were other situations where I did well.”

“It had never happened to me in my career to not play for so long and now I’m also of a certain age. We’re training well but I need to get some minutes in my legs.”