Tuchel – Abraham FA Cup final omission ‘not personal’ | OneFootball

Thomas Tuchel has explained his decision to leave Tammy Abraham out of Chelsea’ FA Cup final squad and admits the forward’s absence was ‘not personal’.

Abraham is Chelsea’s joint-leading scorer this season with 12 goals in all competitions but has struggled to win favour since the arrival of Tuchel has head coach in January, featuring for just 140 minutes across six Premier League appearances.

The 23-year-old has been omitted from the squad entirely on occasion and was a notable absentee from the Chelsea squad for this weekend’s FA Cup final defeat to Leicester at Wembley.

Abraham’s lack of minutes has seen him linked with an exit with clubs including Aston Villa, West Ham and Leicester believed to be monitoring his situation, following a frustrating period on the periphery at Stamford Bridge.

Speaking ahead of Chelsea’s clash with Leicester in the Premier League tomorrow, Tuchel says his decision to leave out the forward was tactical and ‘personal’.

“It’s just the amount of people I can nominate for a game,’” Tuchel told a pre-match press conference.

“I decided to start with Timo as the nine and we also had Oli [Giroud] and Kai [Havertz] who can also play as a nine. It’s not personal.

“Kova wasn’t in the squad and when he comes back, maybe I have to eliminate Andreas Christensen because of the number of players.

“Everyone deserves to be in the squad. I understand Tammy’s frustrations and it wasn’t the first time. We have other guys in the same situation. This isn’t the moment to complain and explain too much. It’s the moment to live in the moment as these are the decisive weeks of the season.”

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