The Tammy Abraham situation
Simon Phillips's offers his opinion on the striker consistently being ignored by Thomas Tuchel
I’m not about to start digging out a manager who has come in and made such a positive impact and difference at Chelsea since he arrived in January, but it is time that I speak on the Tammy Abraham situation.
Could having Abraham in the squad in our FA Cup final loss or defeat to Arsenal last week made any difference at all? Maybe not. But his exclusion from squads week after week and basically being given zero minutes on the pitch, is simply ludicrous.
Top goal scorer for Chelsea last season, top (joint) goal scorer for Chelsea still so far this season, top goal scorer for Chelsea in the FA Cup. No matter what you think about Abraham as a player, the bottom line is he gets you goals, and that is a fact that is being ignored by too many, especially Thomas Tuchel.
Abraham is getting you 0.70 goals per every 90 minutes, but the guy who is consistently being picked ahead of him despite stuttering form, Timo Werner, is getting you 0.30 goals per 90 minutes. Again, that speaks for itself.
I understand why we are persisting with Werner, and I still do have some belief deep down that he will come good and be the player we all want him to be. However, it is growing too frustrating watching us stick with him (and others) game after game, when if that is any other player on the park, he would be dropped. It is the business end of the season, we need results, but most of all we need goals.
I am not saying we should be starting Abraham every game, and I also don’t think he is too much more than just a very good rotation player. However, for him to not even be getting into our squads these days, especially when we have two left backs on the bench over him, that for me is just absurd.
Abraham doesn’t have great link up play is what I keep hearing, and then I go and watch our current attackers again wondering exactly their link up play is? I didn’t see any good attacking moves in the FA Cup final at all to be honest.
But the fact is, both Werner and Abraham offer you pace, a high press, and full intensity for 90 minutes, but one of them is not even getting a sniff of the action and that is just wrong, and he happens to be the one who has proven to be a better goal scorer this season, we he gets the chance.
I’ll conclude this by saying that whilst this IS a criticism of Tuchel, I rate him highly as a manager and he has my full trust and backing. And by the way, as a fan, it IS absolutely fine to rate a manager whilst also pointing out what you believe to be are his mistakes as well, and YES, I did do the same with Frank Lampard before you spew that nonsense as well.
I wrote a piece on how fans need to have more rationale when giving their reactions, you can check that out here.