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Tammy Abraham chose to fight for Aston Villa place – now he must show that fight
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- Tammy Abraham chose to fight for Aston Villa place – now he must show that fight
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Tammy Abraham chose to fight for Aston Villa place – now he must show that fight
Tammy Abraham's situation at Aston Villa is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. There was a point during Saturday's defeat against Nottingham Forest when I stopped wondering whether we were simply watching a player short of confidence and started questioning whether, physically or mentally, he is currently capable of giving Unai Emery what he needs from a centre-forward.
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Abraham came on at half-time for Nicolas Jackson , seemingly with Villa concerned about Jackson's yellow card and the possibility of the game becoming increasingly heated, and whatever you think about that decision in hindsight, it gave Tammy 45 minutes in a Premier League game to make an impression. Brian Madjo is injured, Jackson is still building himself towards being able to play regularly for 90 minutes and Villa need somebody capable of pushing their first-choice striker, but unfortunately I saw very little against Forest to suggest Abraham can currently provide that competition.
I want to be careful with this because I have an enormous amount of affection for Tammy from his first spell at Villa. He was absolutely outstanding in the Championship and while Jack Grealish understandably receives plenty of credit for dragging Villa back towards the Premier League after returning from injury, that promotion doesn't happen without Abraham's goals either. He scored 26 times that season, embraced the football club and became somebody supporters genuinely connected with, which was one of the reasons there was so much excitement around his eventual return.
There is also an important distinction between questioning his performances and criticising him simply for staying at Aston Villa. The club gave him his contract, Villa pushed to bring him back and Abraham himself made financial sacrifices to make the move happen, so when an opportunity to leave emerged during the summer and he decided he wanted to remain and fight for his place, he was perfectly entitled to make that decision. There are still several years remaining on his contract and I don't subscribe to the idea that a footballer should automatically have to disappear simply because circumstances at the club have subsequently changed.
The problem for Abraham is that once you make that decision, everything that happens afterwards becomes your opportunity to change the manager's mind. Villa were prepared to let him leave, he chose not to take that route and Emery has still been prepared to use him, so there can be no argument that he has simply been frozen out and denied an opportunity. Madjo's injury has opened the door even further and Saturday gave him an entire half of Premier League football, but rather than looking like somebody desperate to force himself back into the manager's thinking, he looked like a player struggling enormously with the physical demands of the role.
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The biggest concern for me is simply his movement. I don't understand why he currently looks unable to move with anything approaching the sharpness required at this level, because even when he is running in a straight line it appears to take him an enormous amount of time to build any momentum. He was never a striker whose game was based entirely around explosive pace, but I don't remember seeing this version of Abraham last season and I certainly don't remember him looking this laboured during his previous spell at Villa.
That becomes an even bigger problem within this particular Aston Villa team because the striker is already being asked to operate in difficult circumstances. One of the things that has become increasingly apparent during the opening weeks is how isolated Villa's number nine can become, with Jackson often positioned a considerable distance from the players behind him and Villa struggling to consistently keep somebody close enough to offer support. Morgan Rogers could do that brilliantly last season because he had the power and athleticism to carry Villa up the pitch and remain connected to Ollie Watkins , whereas the current combination behind the striker hasn't yet recreated that relationship.
Buendia can drift away from the central number ten position, Barkley doesn't have the mobility to continually get up and down the pitch from deeper areas and Villa haven't consistently found a way of progressing the team together, which means Jackson has frequently been asked to occupy centre-halves almost by himself. The difference is that Jackson has the mobility to make something out of those situations, whereas when Abraham replaces him the same structural issue suddenly looks considerably worse because Villa lose another level of movement and intensity at the top of the pitch.
That was apparent against Paris Saint-Germain as well, when Madjo went off and the intensity of Villa's pressing dropped, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss as simply a player needing a few minutes to find his rhythm. Abraham's work without the ball isn't currently at the level Villa require, he isn't consistently making the sort of runs which stretch opposition defences and there were moments against Forest when his frustration at not receiving the ball didn't necessarily reflect the reality of the passing option available to the player in possession.
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None of this means Abraham is a bad professional or somebody Villa need to remove from the dressing room. Everything we know about him suggests he is well liked and there is a big difference between a player not currently performing and somebody becoming a problem around the football club. Emery has also shown throughout his time at Villa that if somebody remains part of his squad he will generally find a way of using them, even when the club might previously have been prepared to facilitate a departure.
That leaves the responsibility with Abraham now. He chose to stay, he is receiving opportunities and with Madjo unavailable there is currently a genuine role there for him as Jackson's alternative. Villa have Coventry coming up and I would expect Tammy to get another opportunity, perhaps from the start, and football can change very quickly if a striker scores a couple of goals and suddenly begins to feel better about himself.
At the moment, though, Villa cannot pretend there isn't a problem. Jackson cannot necessarily be expected to play every minute of every game and Madjo's injury means Abraham is the senior alternative, but what we saw against Forest wasn't somebody offering genuine competition for the number nine shirt. Villa need considerably more from their back-up striker, and after deciding that his future remained at Aston Villa this summer, the next few weeks are an opportunity for Tammy Abraham to show that he can still provide it.
