Tammy Abraham

[killer1257 3,282]

On 01/03/2021 at 15:56, Jason said:

Not sure if you have answered it before but I'll ask anyway - do you think Abraham is a title winning striker? Do you think Abraham is the striker that will lead us to major titles or at the very least challenge for them? 

And don't you mean 12 goals and 6 assists in 1500 minutes or so? 

Getting 15 league goals in his first season last campaign with us was a good return but if you just break it down, 7 of those goals came in the first 5 games, meaning he scored only 8 more in his subsequent 29 appearances. Add that tally with this season, Abraham has scored only 14 goals in his last 49 league appearances. His last league goal was 2 months ago, although admittedly he's played just over 200 minutes between the end of December and now. But the numbers may partly explain why the club aren't convinced with him to be the leading striker. 

I have already talked with @Magic Lampsabout that topic.

Currently, I do not think he is a title winning striker, but in my opinion, he is underrated. 

 

He had his goal drought for a period of time last season, but he also played with an ankle injury for a while, which people tend to forget. If he ever manages to fix his headers, I can see him becoming a top striker, yes. He is fast for his size, tall, wins his headers (sadly, he misses them lol), his hold up play improved compared to last year in my opinion and his conversion rate of total shots has improved a lot. He also plays in the most competitive league in the world. Haaland for instance still has to show how he handles PL defenders that will try to get the ball from him and also mark him. Rarely happens in Bundesliga. 

He is still top scorer as far as I know, even though he rarely plays these days. I think with better players like Maddison, he could easily score 20+ goals per season. Even without having any creative players in our squad, he manages to score goals. Is he Drogba? No. I think we have players in our youth team that overall have more skill, but if Tammy ever fixes his heading abilities, I am convinced he will be a top striker. Haaland btw is not good with his head either. Calvert Lewin for instance is very, very good at that

Edited March 2, 2021 by killer1257

[chelsea_4_eva 1,180]

The thing is I think Tammy wants to be the main man, the first choice striker. I would think that if hes confident in his abilities then he should stay and fight for his place, grab the game by the balls and create that winning moment. Last time I saw him do that was last season at the emirates where he got the winning goal.

Also did Didier shy away when Torres arrived? The mentality was there. Not to mention Torres cost a hefty 50M back then.

[killer1257 3,282]

3 hours ago, chelsea_4_eva said:

The thing is I think Tammy wants to be the main man, the first choice striker. I would think that if hes confident in his abilities then he should stay and fight for his place, grab the game by the balls and create that winning moment. Last time I saw him do that was last season at the emirates where he got the winning goal.

Also did Didier shy away when Torres arrived? The mentality was there. Not to mention Torres cost a hefty 50M back then.

First of all, Torres was a horrible striker back in the day. Drogba was much better, but AVB still played Torres before Drogba. When AVB was sacked, Drogba was again a starter, but before that, he was often on the bench watching Torres play. 

Tammy knows that Chelsea will not give him a fair chance. Tuchel always substitutes Tammy or CHO. Tuchel never subbed of Werner or Giroud during half time break. Why? Because they are big names. Tammy is just a youth team player. Tomori left and look what he is doing right now. 

Look at what Lukaku did. He knew Mou will never let him play. He left and did his own thing. He is one of the highest goalscoring CFs in Europe right now. He would still be sitting on our bench besides Tammy if he did not take his own career into his hands and left. 

[chelsea_4_eva 1,180]

10 hours ago, killer1257 said:

First of all, Torres was a horrible striker back in the day. Drogba was much better, but AVB still played Torres before Drogba. When AVB was sacked, Drogba was again a starter, but before that, he was often on the bench watching Torres play. 

Tammy knows that Chelsea will not give him a fair chance. Tuchel always substitutes Tammy or CHO. Tuchel never subbed of Werner or Giroud during half time break. Why? Because they are big names. Tammy is just a youth team player. Tomori left and look what he is doing right now. 

Look at what Lukaku did. He knew Mou will never let him play. He left and did his own thing. He is one of the highest goalscoring CFs in Europe right now. He would still be sitting on our bench besides Tammy if he did not take his own career into his hands and left. 

Yes I agree Drogba was miles better but what I meant was Drogs thrived under the competition.

And regarding Tammy, yes he has to take his career into his own hands and if he decides to leave then I wish him the best of luck, but if his preference is to stay with Chelsea his boyhood club then he will have to fight for places.

[Jase 43,479]

Tuchel on Abraham's ankle problem, which may explain why he hasn't played much...

I'm a bit concerned because the pain from the tackle against Newcastle is still there. It's been a long time since he's been 100% free and comfortable in training. Even if he finishes in training, I can see he isn't 100% free. I have complete trust in our medical department and they will take care of him.

Tammy had to leave the pitch during the warm-up yesterday and he will get all the time he needs. It's important he feels zero pain and then we can think about his comeback.

He also had a similar issue last season.

[Jase 43,479]

Uncertainty growing over Tammy Abraham’s future at Chelsea

https://theathletic.com/2445233/2021/03/13/uncertainty-growing-over-tammy-abrahams-future-at-Chelsea/

It’s finally clear that Tammy Abraham is struggling with more than Thomas Tuchel’s selection decisions.

“Honestly, I am a bit concerned because it’s the same (ankle) pain from the tackle against Newcastle,” Chelsea’s head coach said when asked about Abraham in a press conference on Friday. “So it’s been a long time now where he’s not been 100 per cent free and comfortable in training. Even if he finishes in training, I can see he doesn’t have 100 per cent trust that he is totally free. So I am a bit concerned but at the same time I have complete trust in our medical department and they will take care of him now.

“It was a bit of a setback (on Thursday) that he had to leave the pitch during the warm-up, but he will get all the time he needs. It’s most important he feels zero pain and then we can think about his comeback.”

A more cynically-minded observer might argue Abraham’s enforced absence simplifies things for Tuchel. The challenge of getting Timo Werner scoring again has been his No 1 attacking priority since taking the Chelsea job. Olivier Giroud was the favoured No 9 against Atletico Madrid and Manchester United. Kai Havertz was the hub of this team’s most fluid and impressive attacking performance to date against Everton. All three are higher in the pecking order than the 23-year-old from across the road at Cobham.

Tuchel made that much clear by playing down Abraham’s ankle injury as the reason why he was omitted from Chelsea’s match-day squad against United. “It was a hard decision,” the head coach explained. “It was about judging the alternatives that we have and we opted for Olivier Giroud to begin, Timo Werner on the bench. We have Kai Havertz who can play as a No 9 so there was no need to bring a fourth No 9 to the pitch.

“Things are difficult for him. Things are not as easy as they should be for him in the moment and he will get full support. This was the decision.”

Viewed within the context of Chelsea’s earnest pursuit of Borussia Dortmund scoring sensation Erling Haaland, every mention of Abraham seems to spark a referendum on his future at Stamford Bridge. His contract is not the pressing issue it was previously claimed to be; The Athletic reported in November that by scoring his 15th Premier League goal of the season against Liverpool at Anfield in July, he automatically triggered a two-year extension clause in his current deal that commits him to the club until June 2024. But even if the clock isn’t ticking just yet, Marina Granovskaia will have a delicate situation to navigate this summer.

Haaland will have his pick of elite European clubs if he decides to leave Dortmund in the next transfer window, his list of suitors limited only by the vast financial commitment it will take to sign him and satisfy his agent, Mino Raiola. There is no obvious reason why Chelsea would emerge at the top of his wish list, even if last summer’s success in attracting Werner and Havertz will reinforce Roman Abramovich’s belief that Stamford Bridge is attractive to the most coveted young names in the sport.

Giroud is also out of contract and if Chelsea opt not to bring him back for another year, Abraham could feasibly be the only true No 9 left on the first-team books. That isn’t a problem if all parties are prepared to buy into the long-term vision of him taking on the mantle of Didier Drogba and Diego Costa as Abramovich’s next talismanic, trophy-winning centre-forward. But the current reality is riven with doubt that such an idyllic scenario will ever come to pass.

Beyond their interest in Haaland, Chelsea have already invested heavily in players who are now taking Abraham’s minutes, and Tuchel has made it clear that he is prepared to play without a conventional No 9 altogether. Abraham could be forgiven for not feeling properly valued by his club or his head coach, despite his 12 goals across all competitions leading the entire squad.

The contract is understood to be a significant factor in this regard. Abraham got a pay bump when he triggered the extension last season but his salary, believed to be in the region of £70,000 a week, is relatively low within the Chelsea first-team pay structure. Sources have told The Athletic he has no interest in discussing a new deal while he remains on the fringes of Tuchel’s thinking and the club continue to chase attacking reinforcements but if he were to do so, Callum Hudson-Odoi’s weekly wage of £120,000 should be considered a relevant benchmark.

An alternative path would be to sell Abraham for maximum value this summer to a club prepared to make him their main man. He would have no shortage of suitors, though it remains to be seen whether any could make an offer that would tempt Granovskaia in a transfer market still feeling the aftershocks of the COVID-19 shutdown. If they could, Chelsea might even be able to offset his loss by bringing back another academy graduate, Armando Broja, from a highly productive loan at Vitesse Arnhem to serve as squad competition next season. It would certainly be a timely statement of faith in the academy, if also a bold one.

In order to commit to Abraham, Chelsea need to satisfy themselves that he is good enough to merit building around. That looked easier to do last season, when the advanced stats indicated that he was scoring at a similar rate to Harry Kane in his breakthrough campaign at Tottenham. So far in 2020-21 his attacking threat has declined, both in terms of quantity and quality.

Smarterscout is a tool that uses advanced metrics to give players a rating from zero to 99 based on how often they perform a specific action compared to others playing in their position, or how effective they are at it. Here is Abraham’s profile from last season:

And here is his profile for 2020-21. You can see that, while his numbers in possession and without the ball remain broadly comparable, almost every aspect of his attacking contribution has taken a noticeable hit:

Abraham has gone from taking 3.57 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2019-20 to 2.74 shots per 90 minutes so far this season, and his non-penalty expected goals (npxG) rating per 90 minutes has also fallen from 0.57 to 0.5. Compare his shot map in the Premier League last season…

… with his shot map so far this season…

… and it’s clear that while he is still broadly shooting from good positions, he is doing so less often. Part of the reason for that is Chelsea as a team are threatening the opposition goal less regularly; they average 14.07 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season, down from 16.29 in 2019-20. Another part of it is that last summer saw the arrival of Werner and Hakim Ziyech, two other high-frequency shooters at Stamford Bridge. Both are averaging more shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season than Abraham, as is Giroud when he plays.

Chelsea's most frequent shooters

PLAYER	SHOTS/90 IN 2019-20	SHOTS/90 IN 2020-21
Tammy Abraham	3.57	2.74
Olivier Giroud	3.53	3.06
Mason Mount	2.45	2.3
Christian Pulisic	3.24	2.13
Callum Hudson-Odoi	2.29	1.93
Timo Werner	3.77	2.76
Hakim Ziyech	4.98	2.74
Kai Havertz	2.13	1.25

No attacker has found it easy to shine in a Chelsea team that has spent this season trying to establish a reliable identity in the final third, first under Frank Lampard and now under Tuchel. The stakes feel higher for Abraham, though, because he is an academy graduate competing against some of Abramovich’s shiniest new signings and because as recently as last season his career trajectory seemed so much more encouraging; when COVID-19 first brought the Premier League to a grinding halt in March 2020, he was in pole position to fill the injured Harry Kane’s boots leading the line for England at Euro 2020.

A year on, now it is far from clear if he would even make Gareth Southgate’s squad for the delayed tournament. An indicator will be the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against San Marino, Albania and Poland later this month. As well as Kane, Danny Ings, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Patrick Bamford could all make credible arguments that they have a stronger claim for inclusion.

If these decisions go against Abraham, they could further raise the temperature on the conversations regarding his future in the months ahead.

[Jap Si. 50]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Uncertainty growing over Tammy Abraham’s future at Chelsea

https://theathletic.com/2445233/2021/03/13/uncertainty-growing-over-tammy-abrahams-future-at-Chelsea/

It’s finally clear that Tammy Abraham is struggling with more than Thomas Tuchel’s selection decisions.

“Honestly, I am a bit concerned because it’s the same (ankle) pain from the tackle against Newcastle,” Chelsea’s head coach said when asked about Abraham in a press conference on Friday. “So it’s been a long time now where he’s not been 100 per cent free and comfortable in training. Even if he finishes in training, I can see he doesn’t have 100 per cent trust that he is totally free. So I am a bit concerned but at the same time I have complete trust in our medical department and they will take care of him now.

“It was a bit of a setback (on Thursday) that he had to leave the pitch during the warm-up, but he will get all the time he needs. It’s most important he feels zero pain and then we can think about his comeback.”

A more cynically-minded observer might argue Abraham’s enforced absence simplifies things for Tuchel. The challenge of getting Timo Werner scoring again has been his No 1 attacking priority since taking the Chelsea job. Olivier Giroud was the favoured No 9 against Atletico Madrid and Manchester United. Kai Havertz was the hub of this team’s most fluid and impressive attacking performance to date against Everton. All three are higher in the pecking order than the 23-year-old from across the road at Cobham.

Tuchel made that much clear by playing down Abraham’s ankle injury as the reason why he was omitted from Chelsea’s match-day squad against United. “It was a hard decision,” the head coach explained. “It was about judging the alternatives that we have and we opted for Olivier Giroud to begin, Timo Werner on the bench. We have Kai Havertz who can play as a No 9 so there was no need to bring a fourth No 9 to the pitch.

“Things are difficult for him. Things are not as easy as they should be for him in the moment and he will get full support. This was the decision.”

Viewed within the context of Chelsea’s earnest pursuit of Borussia Dortmund scoring sensation Erling Haaland, every mention of Abraham seems to spark a referendum on his future at Stamford Bridge. His contract is not the pressing issue it was previously claimed to be; The Athletic reported in November that by scoring his 15th Premier League goal of the season against Liverpool at Anfield in July, he automatically triggered a two-year extension clause in his current deal that commits him to the club until June 2024. But even if the clock isn’t ticking just yet, Marina Granovskaia will have a delicate situation to navigate this summer.

Haaland will have his pick of elite European clubs if he decides to leave Dortmund in the next transfer window, his list of suitors limited only by the vast financial commitment it will take to sign him and satisfy his agent, Mino Raiola. There is no obvious reason why Chelsea would emerge at the top of his wish list, even if last summer’s success in attracting Werner and Havertz will reinforce Roman Abramovich’s belief that Stamford Bridge is attractive to the most coveted young names in the sport.

Giroud is also out of contract and if Chelsea opt not to bring him back for another year, Abraham could feasibly be the only true No 9 left on the first-team books. That isn’t a problem if all parties are prepared to buy into the long-term vision of him taking on the mantle of Didier Drogba and Diego Costa as Abramovich’s next talismanic, trophy-winning centre-forward. But the current reality is riven with doubt that such an idyllic scenario will ever come to pass.

Beyond their interest in Haaland, Chelsea have already invested heavily in players who are now taking Abraham’s minutes, and Tuchel has made it clear that he is prepared to play without a conventional No 9 altogether. Abraham could be forgiven for not feeling properly valued by his club or his head coach, despite his 12 goals across all competitions leading the entire squad.

The contract is understood to be a significant factor in this regard. Abraham got a pay bump when he triggered the extension last season but his salary, believed to be in the region of £70,000 a week, is relatively low within the Chelsea first-team pay structure. Sources have told The Athletic he has no interest in discussing a new deal while he remains on the fringes of Tuchel’s thinking and the club continue to chase attacking reinforcements but if he were to do so, Callum Hudson-Odoi’s weekly wage of £120,000 should be considered a relevant benchmark.

An alternative path would be to sell Abraham for maximum value this summer to a club prepared to make him their main man. He would have no shortage of suitors, though it remains to be seen whether any could make an offer that would tempt Granovskaia in a transfer market still feeling the aftershocks of the COVID-19 shutdown. If they could, Chelsea might even be able to offset his loss by bringing back another academy graduate, Armando Broja, from a highly productive loan at Vitesse Arnhem to serve as squad competition next season. It would certainly be a timely statement of faith in the academy, if also a bold one.

In order to commit to Abraham, Chelsea need to satisfy themselves that he is good enough to merit building around. That looked easier to do last season, when the advanced stats indicated that he was scoring at a similar rate to Harry Kane in his breakthrough campaign at Tottenham. So far in 2020-21 his attacking threat has declined, both in terms of quantity and quality.

Smarterscout is a tool that uses advanced metrics to give players a rating from zero to 99 based on how often they perform a specific action compared to others playing in their position, or how effective they are at it. Here is Abraham’s profile from last season:

And here is his profile for 2020-21. You can see that, while his numbers in possession and without the ball remain broadly comparable, almost every aspect of his attacking contribution has taken a noticeable hit:

Abraham has gone from taking 3.57 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2019-20 to 2.74 shots per 90 minutes so far this season, and his non-penalty expected goals (npxG) rating per 90 minutes has also fallen from 0.57 to 0.5. Compare his shot map in the Premier League last season…

… with his shot map so far this season…

… and it’s clear that while he is still broadly shooting from good positions, he is doing so less often. Part of the reason for that is Chelsea as a team are threatening the opposition goal less regularly; they average 14.07 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season, down from 16.29 in 2019-20. Another part of it is that last summer saw the arrival of Werner and Hakim Ziyech, two other high-frequency shooters at Stamford Bridge. Both are averaging more shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season than Abraham, as is Giroud when he plays.

Chelsea's most frequent shooters

PLAYER	SHOTS/90 IN 2019-20	SHOTS/90 IN 2020-21
Tammy Abraham	3.57	2.74
Olivier Giroud	3.53	3.06
Mason Mount	2.45	2.3
Christian Pulisic	3.24	2.13
Callum Hudson-Odoi	2.29	1.93
Timo Werner	3.77	2.76
Hakim Ziyech	4.98	2.74
Kai Havertz	2.13	1.25

No attacker has found it easy to shine in a Chelsea team that has spent this season trying to establish a reliable identity in the final third, first under Frank Lampard and now under Tuchel. The stakes feel higher for Abraham, though, because he is an academy graduate competing against some of Abramovich’s shiniest new signings and because as recently as last season his career trajectory seemed so much more encouraging; when COVID-19 first brought the Premier League to a grinding halt in March 2020, he was in pole position to fill the injured Harry Kane’s boots leading the line for England at Euro 2020.

A year on, now it is far from clear if he would even make Gareth Southgate’s squad for the delayed tournament. An indicator will be the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against San Marino, Albania and Poland later this month. As well as Kane, Danny Ings, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Patrick Bamford could all make credible arguments that they have a stronger claim for inclusion.

If these decisions go against Abraham, they could further raise the temperature on the conversations regarding his future in the months ahead.

Y not just say he is not good enough instead of long posting ha ha.

[King Kante 1,643]

Personally, I see Tammy leaving this Summer. I don't see him signing a new contract unless he establishes himself as CF1 (very unlikely), he only has two years left (so this Summer is the best to sell) and he would have a number of clubs interested in him so would raise a decent fee. 

Personally, I am a bit torn on Tammy, I think playing CF is generally a tough gig and a lot of top CF do not hit consistency until they reach 24-25. As a result, selling is a bit of a risk. No one wants to sell a top player who just needed a bit of time to develop. 

However, counter to this is the fact that he has clear weaknesses that we haven't seen develop much since he came back last year, which leads you to think he may not be more than a CF2/CF3 for a top club. 

As a result, I do see him sold, but I do think there is some risk he becomes a lot better down the line. 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

5 hours ago, King Kante said:

Personally, I see Tammy leaving this Summer. I don't see him signing a new contract unless he establishes himself as CF1 (very unlikely), he only has two years left (so this Summer is the best to sell) and he would have a number of clubs interested in him so would raise a decent fee. 

Personally, I am a bit torn on Tammy, I think playing CF is generally a tough gig and a lot of top CF do not hit consistency until they reach 24-25. As a result, selling is a bit of a risk. No one wants to sell a top player who just needed a bit of time to develop. 

However, counter to this is the fact that he has clear weaknesses that we haven't seen develop much since he came back last year, which leads you to think he may not be more than a CF2/CF3 for a top club. 

As a result, I do see him sold, but I do think there is some risk he becomes a lot better down the line. 

If he can't accept a role as cf2/cf2, I am quite happy to see him leave. He will fetch a mammoth fee.

[Jase 43,479]

5 hours ago, King Kante said:

Personally, I see Tammy leaving this Summer. I don't see him signing a new contract unless he establishes himself as CF1 (very unlikely), he only has two years left (so this Summer is the best to sell) and he would have a number of clubs interested in him so would raise a decent fee. 

Personally, I am a bit torn on Tammy, I think playing CF is generally a tough gig and a lot of top CF do not hit consistency until they reach 24-25. As a result, selling is a bit of a risk. No one wants to sell a top player who just needed a bit of time to develop. 

However, counter to this is the fact that he has clear weaknesses that we haven't seen develop much since he came back last year, which leads you to think he may not be more than a CF2/CF3 for a top club. 

As a result, I do see him sold, but I do think there is some risk he becomes a lot better down the line. 

Unless there's a typo, that article from The Athletic said his contract expires in 2024 (not 2023 that was previously, widely talked about) and if we're really concerned about him becoming great next time, maybe we should just include a buy back clause. 

[King Kante 1,643]

10 minutes ago, Jason said:

Unless there's a typo, that article from The Athletic said his contract expires in 2024 (not 2023 that was previously, widely talked about) and if we're really concerned about him becoming great next time, maybe we should just include a buy back clause. 

Pretty sure he had a contract to 2022 and then last season he met some clause that pushed it to 2023. Last year people were widely discussing that he would only have two years at the start of this. 

If you're correct, then maybe he will stay another year. 

[R2D2 368]

Sell him in the summer while his value is still up and give Broja his place in the squad.

[killer1257 3,282]

https://twitter.com/Matt_Law_DT/status/1379041135289581571?s=19

[MoroccanBlue 5,375]

Was Law ever this outspoken when Lampard took Tomori out of the squad for no apparent reason?

[Pizy 18,850]

Not good enough to be the starting #9 at Chelsea or any club with title ambitions. He’s simply not a good enough all around footballer. 
 

As romantic as the idea of a homegrown English striker leading the line sounds to the fans, we won’t be near the big boys in Europe with a striker who can max out at about 12-15 goals in a season.

Don’t think he should be sold but also think we need a massive upgrade in his position or we’ll be fighting for 4th again next season.