As we chronicled in depth yesterday, Christian Pulisic has not lived up to his full potential yet at Chelsea FC. As a post commenter pointed out, neither have Timo Werner, Kai Havertz or Romelu Lukaku. Maybe the constant musical chairs at the managerial position is to blame?
It can’t be good for an individual footballer to constantly have different bosses in his ear telling him to do different stuff, right? Pulisic went an unused substitute in Chelsea’s last two Premier League contests, but that may have been due to squad rotation, as he had played in the previous six contests.
Ahead of tonight’s massive World Cup Qualifier against El Salvador (preview content here). Pulisic did a media conference call. Pulisic has been asked to play out of position quite a bit this season, and when he does, most of the time it has been at wing back, so it’s literally a forward playing defender.
Chelsea News did a piece on how Pulisic, as well as Kai Havertz, have seen their offensive statistics plummet this season, and no doubt the 23-year-old American’s having to play in the back has a whole lot to do with it.
“It is tough,” Capt. America responded when asked about having to play out of position so much this term.
“I haven’t always been playing in the positions I want to play in. But I think it is a good quality to be versatile and able to play in all kinds of positions and have different strengths on the pitch. I’ve learned a lot and I’m ready to hopefully be in a spot over the next few games that I’m more comfortable in.”
Pulisic’s career has seen the ups of winning the UEFA Champions League this past May, and the Project Restart period, during which he was as dominant as just about anybody in football.
It’s also seen the downs of prolonged goal-scoring droughts and a lot of time on the shelf due to injury and coronavirus.
. Goal did a good analysis of this aspect, listing out all seven of his injuries and how much time that he’s missed, combined, at Stamford Bridge from all of them.
Pulisic was also asked about his recent club form at Chelsea, and if those lackluster performances have had any impact on his form for country. Also, does his drop in form/failure to reach the heights impact future at club level?
Where he could be headed next, should he leave?
“It doesn’t affect me too much coming in to U.S. camps,” he answered.
“I am ready when I come in here and to do whatever I can to come to help this team so I’m not thinking about that. Obviously it has been up and down this year, for sure. Not exactly where I want to be and how I want things to be right now.
“I’m just going to keep going and it doesn’t affect me when I come here. So I am excited to be here.”
Tuchel has gotten results, to be sure, as he saved a mid-table team and brought them into the top four. And, obviously, as we mentioned before, he delivered the goods in Europe for ’20-’21.
But maybe Pulisic just isn’t all that well suited for his system, long term, we’ll just have to see.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.