Tammy Abraham’s Misfiring Form Has Gone Under The Radar

Roma’s Nicolo Zaniolo, down on the right-hand side of pitch, slipped in a tidy pass inside into the path of the onrushing Rick Karsdorp in the first half of the Giallorossi’s match against Verona at the Stadio Bentegodi.

Kardorp carried the ball deep into the Verona half before slipping his through ball into Tammy Abraham, who had timed his run to perfection and ghosted in behind Koray Gunter. Abraham diverted the ball around the sprawling figure of goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo and had the simple act of just rolling the ball into the net. It was a forgone conclusion; the English striker was going to give Roma the lead.

But with the goal at his mercy, literally wide open, he missed. Abraham hit the base of the post and it went out for a goal kick.

The camera cut to Jose Mourinho on the bench, whose face said everything.

The miss perhaps epitomises how Abraham’s second season in the Italian capital has gone so far. Abraham has struggled to find the back of the net, and Roma’s goals have come from elsewhere in the opening three months of the season.

Some of the sheen has been taken off Abraham due to the arrival of Paulo Dybala last summer, the attention from the Roma faithful diverted to the Argentine after his arrival was welcomed by tens of thousands at his official presentation in scenes not seen since Gabriel Batistuta rocked up in the Eternal City in the summer of 2000.

His arrival did seem like a great fit, Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini would service Abraham and the goals would, at least theoretically, flow. Abraham finished last season on 27 goals in all competitions and the feeling was that he’d improve on those numbers in his second season in Italy.

But it hasn’t worked out like that. Abraham’s only scored three times in 16 appearances and hasn’t scored in Serie A since mid September. He’s gone six matches without a goal in the league and his last goal came in the Europa League against Helsinki.

As a result, the goals have been shared out amongst Abraham’s teammates, with Roma having 11 different scorers this season. Dybala is way out in front with seven in all competitions, and the next best is Abraham and Chris Smalling, with three each. The fact that Smalling has scored as many as his compatriot speaks volumes about how his season is panning out.

“There’s always a feeling of disappointment when I’m not able to score,” said Abraham after the win in Finland. “I wanted to score goals and I know I can do it. I always want to help the team and I’m happy even when I don’t score and the team still wins.”

Abraham’s lack of goals isn’t due to a lack of creativity, despite Roma at times being styled in that classic Mourinho way. The truth is that he’s simply missing chances; no one in Serie A has missed more ‘big’ chances than Abraham this season, with 10. It’s not good enough for a player who became Roma’s second costliest in the club’s history two summers ago.

Abraham is at least working the goalkeeper with his shots, with only Lautaro Martinez, Ciro Immobile and Davide Frattesi ahead when it comes to shots on target, but Abraham needs to start converting those chances in order to make games a little more comfortable: six of Roma’s league wins this season have come by a single goal margin, and many of those against the lesser sides when they should be winning by more.

Abraham’s lack of form has went somewhat under the radar, and couldn’t come at a worse time, with the striker on the fringes of Gareth Southgate’s squad for the World Cup. Is the England manager really going to bring a misfiring striker to Qatar?

With four games left before the break, Abraham needs to regain the form he showed last season if he’s to make the plane for Qatar. If he doesn’t, the knock-on effect could bleed into the second half of the season, and it would leave Roma depending on an injury prone Dybala in a bid to secure Champions League football for next season.