Shearer Highlights One Stat Chelsea No.9 “Must Improve” If He Is To Become A Top Striker

Shearer Highlights One Stat Chelsea No.9 “Must Improve” If He Is To Become A Top Striker

Former England international Alan Shearer believes Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham must score more goals from crosses if he is to make it at the highest level.

When told that the 23-year-old has only scored four times from deliveries into the box, Shearer responded by saying that the Blues no.9 needs to show some improvement in that area to keep his place in the team:

“I like him but I also think he has to go to the next level and to do that, that stat (only scoring four goals from crossed) has to improve. He is very good at finishing balls that come from midfield and in behind the defence. Where he can improve is when balls come into the box, he needs to have that intelligent movement where number nines score on a regular basis.”

For somebody who is 6ft 2, Abraham has not always used his height to his advantage but, while he is still nowhere near as good as someone like Olivier Giroud, he is working hard on his heading ability.

You only have to look at the difference between his aerial duel success rate this campaign and last season to show he is on the right track. He managed to win just 37.9% of his challenges in the air in the Premier League in 2019/20 but in 2020/21 that has shot up to 62.2%. All he now needs to do is to turn that dominance into goals.

David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.