Thomas Tuchel reveals Tammy Abraham talks amid Chelsea FC striker’s struggles under new management

Tammy Abraham has struggled to impress under Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea
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Thomas Tuchel has held talks with Tammy Abraham over his position at Chelsea after the striker was pushed down the pecking order under the German. 

Abraham is about to enter the final year of his contract at Stamford Bridge, with an agreement over an extension yet to be reached.

Meanwhile, the 23-year-old’s hopes of making the England squad for this summer’s European Championship are also in jeopardy due to his lack of playing time since Tuchel took charge in January. 

And with Erling Haaland a primary target for the summer transfer window, Abraham’s future is even more uncertain. 

He is set to return to the squad for Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Sheffield United for the first time since being named as an unused substitute against Atletico Madrid last month.

While an ankle injury has partly been responsible for Abraham’s absence, he has also struggled to fit into Tuchel’s system as the Chelsea manager has consistently rotated his attack. 

Now Tuchel has revealed his conversations with the forward.

He said: “We had some talks to encourage him to never give in, to accept the situation, to not overthink it, to just come back to the situation where the striker must not overthink it. He just needs to be in the flow and if the team is winning without him then you can feel a little bit excluded.

“But it’s not like this with him so hopefully he can be back now, back in the squad, be totally free and there’s some hard choices and he’s a part of the group.

“It’s been hard for him because he’s never felt fully free, never felt fully painless after this tackle (against Newcastle), so it was hard for him to really perform on the level that you need to perform in training to convince your coach to leave somebody else out.

“In the moment where we left him out, it was a strong decision, we had other options on the bench.”

Tuchel is still struggling to find the right balance in attack, but Abraham has had the most difficulty fitting into a fluid forward line.

Kai Havertz has looked most at home in the centre playing as a false No9 or orthodox centre forward. 

Tuchel added: “He [Abraham] had a bit of a tough time because he started twice for us in the league, got substituted twice, didn’t have the easiest games, couldn’t find the momentum and once he got the bad tackle then suddenly the momentum shifted a little bit.

“He suffers a little bit from me not finding the real formation up front. ‘OK, let’s play always like this, this is your position, these are the guys you compete against and compete against A, B, C and D.’ It’s a bit more complex because I have to get to know the team better.

“Sometimes we play with wingers, sometimes we play with players with No10 profiles, we have Timo [Werner] who can play as a No9, Oli [Giroud] and Kai who can play No9 so he suffers a little bit from all these circumstances and it’s not his fault. Maybe more my fault than his fault.”

The immediate concern for Abraham is getting back into the England fold after Gareth Southgate called up Ollie Watkins to his latest squad and also put Patrick Bamford ahead of him in the pecking order.

Tuchel said: “I actually feel him right now a bit more concerned about his role in our team because I think that he clearly knows a role in our team can improve his chances to have a role in the English national team.

“We did not talk about it, but it would not surprise me if it’s in his head. This is totally normal at this level that the players have their own interests, and one of the interests is to have a role in their team, but also their country. 

“These are two objectives for Tammy, but in our talks now it’s just about the next steps here, how to increase his involvement here. But, at the same time, when you give confidence to strikers who are actually on the pitch, we cannot change all the time so it’s not easy. 

“I accept that it’s not too easy, but it’s also not too hard, and I hope he is not too harsh on himself or overthinks it like, ‘If my situation is like this now what are the consequences?’ 

“He has to refocus on his situation and this is what I feel. We have talked about the actual situation here in the club and from here he has, every day, the chance to find his way back.”

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