The Lukaku transfer mistake Chelsea need to avoid

Jacque Talbot

30 Oct 2023 03:58 CDT
3 min read

Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea, 2023/24 — © ProShots

Chelsea must not swap Romelu Lukaku for Tammy Abraham even though the club are clearly lacking in fire-power up front.

Article continues under the video

The Blues’ woes continued last weekend as Brentford beat them 2-0 at Stamford Bridge. It was a hammer-blow for Mauricio Pochettino’s side after such an encouraging display against Arsenal in the game before.

Once again Chelsea failed to find the net and they succumbed to another loss in front of their fans at home.

Despite their signing of Nicolas Jackson, the club are in much need of goals. Christopher Nkunku may help in that regard when he returns from injury, but the Frenchman plays a slightly deeper role than an outright No.9.

A report from the Mirror has suggested that Roma are considering offering Abraham to his former club in a swap deal for Lukaku, who is on loan with the Serie A giants.

© ProShots - Tammy Abraham is currently out injured

© ProShots - Romelu Lukaku is thriving at Roma

Would Chelsea bring back Tammy Abraham?r

But data from SciSports suggests that this would be a glaring mistake. Taking into account the way the striker plays and how Chelsea approach their games, he ranks as a club-fit ranking of 13th in the Premier League for the Blues. Abraham delivers high numbers for finishing, but is nowhere near the level he needs to be for passing and pressing.

By contrast, Lukaku has a club-fit ranking of third in the Premier League for Chelsea. The Belgian joined in a season-long loan deal for a reported fee of €9.3 million to Roma, who agreed to cover the striker’s salary. He has netted eight goals in ten games for the Italian club this term.

Abraham is currently out having torn his ar to his anterior cruciate ligament on the final day of last season. He has played 107 games for Roma across two seasons, scoring 27 in his inaugural campaign but finding the net on just nine occasions last term, despite playing a similar amount of games (53, 54, respectively) across all competitions.