Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham scored a goal in Chelsea’s 3-0 win against Rennes and this goal will surely send him home happy. But not his goal, rather Blues’ coach Lampard praised him for his all-round performance.
Tammy Abraham was opted to play as a reference point centre-forward whose sole task was to stretch the opposition defence and lead the press while limiting their attacking play. German striker Timo Werner started the game from the left side.
The 23-year-old netted his only goal of the match in the second half from a lovely deft finish of close-range to secure the three points comfortably from the cross by Reece James. The first two goals were scored by Timo Werner and both were via penalties.
Lampard positioned him in a deeper area than Hakim Ziyech, Mason Mount and Werner on average and indicated him to let his teammates play off him by his ball holding.
“The quality Tammy can bring to the team are never short on me. I know what he can bring when he’s at his best. In his last two games, today and against Burnley, we saw him at his best,” Lampard said in his post-match press conference, as per Football.London.
“He got his goal tonight and he deserves it in terms of stretching teams, taking them long, setting off our press, jumping in. Not happy to just jump five yards but get the team up the pitch as the first man off the ball. Those things are very important for me. Sometimes it’s about the unseen.
“His goal was the culmination of his performances over the past two matches.”
Abraham had 10 touches- the highest amongst all the Chelsea players in the game out of which one was his goal and the other was a shot that eventually earned Chelsea a penalty as it struck the arm of a defender.
He is Chelsea’s number nine and he has scored in all three appearances for Chelsea in the Champions League. His deployment by Lamaprd in leading the press allowed Ziyech to play more like a roaming midfielder. This was revealed when Ziyech’s heat map showed the breadth o the area covered by the Morrocan.
The English striker repaid the faith of the coach by scoring a goal- a perfect opportunist. He has played 11 games so far and has five assists along with netting three goals this season in all competitions.
