AS Roma striker Tammy Abraham believes that his snub for the England squad going to Qatar 2022 is a result of his being low on confidence this season.
The former Chelsea man was one of the best performing English forwards last season. After signing for Roma from Chelsea, he hit the ground running in a new league and ended the season with 27 goals in 53 appearances for them. He also ended up as the second highest top scorer of the new UEFA European Conference League tournament as Roma stormed to their first title in over a five years.
This season, however, Abraham has struggled for form. After 14 games in Serie A, Abraham has netted only thrice and four times overall in all competitions for the Giallorossi. This poor run of form, Gareth Southgate said, cost him his place in the World Cup squad.
AS Roma manager José Mourinho, has also admitted recently that he thinks the English striker of Nigerian descent has been distracted in the past few weeks. “You should ask him what’s the problem,” the Portuguese manager said to reporters when quizzed about his star striker’s form.
“If he is distracted, if he has a problem or if he thinks about the World Cup.”
Following his snub for the England World Cup squad, Abraham has now released a statement apologising to Roma fans who have treated him like one of their own since he moved to Italy.
“Before speaking about the game [against Sassuolo], I would like just to talk to the fans, my teammates, the coach, and everyone supporting me,” Abraham said, via Sky Sport Italia.
“I know I haven’t been the real me, I know I haven’t been playing the best I can be, but I am human at the end of the day. I’ve been low in confidence, but today I had to show the fans I’m still me and I am still willing to fight for the team and do as much as I can for the team.
“We have one more game to go before the break and after the break, you will see a better and stronger me.”
Abraham is not the only Italian-based Englishman who missed out on the World Cup call-up. AC Milan defender, Fikayo Tomori, who has constantly been snubbed despite being one of the best defenders in Italy, was also left out of the squad.
Reactions have poured in over his omission but recent patterns have shown that Southgate has favourites in defence, the same position he played when he was active for the Three Lions and in club football.
On Tomori’s omission, Southgate said: “We’ve picked our more experienced defenders. The younger ones have good qualities, but we don’t think they’ve quite done enough to push the experienced ones out.”
