Edin Džeko’s recent sale to current Serie A champions Inter left a glaring hole in attack for Roma and Jose Mourinho has moved quickly to fill the hole vacated by the long-time Bosnian servant with the young England forward Tammy Abraham.
Signed from Chelsea for a €40 million + €5 million in addons, the striker will look to get his career back on path in Serie A and could turn out to be good business for Roma with a rumored buy back clause inserted for €80 million.
The Chelsea youth product failed to establish himself at the club under either Frank Lampard or Thomas Tuchel and, with the return of Belgian Romelu Lukaku, Abraham saw his chances of any further first team action drift off into the future.
Blessed with a number of rumored admirers including cross city rivals Arsenal and West Ham, the England international settled on Roma after being cajoled by the personal touch of general manager Tiago Pinto and Mourinho.
This appears to be a very good move for Abraham on paper. The Englishman has shown his eye for goal, netting 12 times in all competitions and could have had more if he had managed to crack the rotation.
For Roma, Džeko was a striker that loved feeding off crosses into the box but also thrived on dropping short from the front or into midfield to link the play. The English striker prefers to hold his position as the striker and offers the option to run in behind or into the channels.
Standing at just over 6ft 2, the Camberwell born striker when in full flow is an intimidating athlete capable of occupying multiple defenders, creating space for fellow teammates to exploit.
This pace and strength is a valuable commodity in not only holding up the play before bringing other team mates in (an area he has been working to improve on since Lampard’s reign) but also on the counter-attack.
His long galloping strides with the ball under his spell allow the forward to turn defense into attack quickly. With quick attackers around him to keep up and Mourinho’s penchant for the counter attack, Abraham could help employ the Portuguese’s ideals perfectly.
The main area though that Mourinho will look to the striker in is replicating the goal scoring output of the Bosnian. Džeko plundered 119 goals in 260 games in the Eternal City.
Throughout his time at Chelsea and Aston Villa before, Abraham excelled at finding space in the box. Displaying excellent anticipation and movement, the striker is often in the right place at the right time to deliver the finishing touches on attacking play and can score from cut-backs, crosses and knockdowns with ease.
Last season the striker averaged 5.67 touches in the opposition penalty area and that was in a limited number of games (22 in the league/ 1040 mins). Knowing he will be guaranteed start time and with the return to fitness of young Italian star Nicolò Zaniolo alongside Lorenzo Pellegrini’s more advanced positioning, you can expect these numbers to increase as well as his goal output.
Recent travails abroad are becoming more popular amongst young British players and Abraham only needs to look to the success the likes of Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham have had in Germany, with their games developing rapidly and placing them firmly in contention for the national team.
The Londoner is hoping for much of the same and now has an excellent opportunity to show all those watching just how good he really is.