Monaco is a fairly storied club which has hosted some pretty big players of the years: George Weah, Thierry Henry and Jurgen Klinsmann to name a few. Of course, they've also won the UCL.
This is a terrible game for Pulisic. Maybe a 5. He looked tired. Or in the words of the announcer (indifferent).
He'd played about 215 minutes in 10 days leading up to the game today. I was very surprised to see him start.
Brutal game for him. He's so inconsistent in the middle of the part with the quickness of his decision making, as well as the clarity of it. He's just not ready for that type of role outside of when it's a necessity for club or country. Quality of opposition just doesn't matter much. This was against Ingolstadt and they are effectively a 2. BL club. Tough to compare them to the likes of Honduras and Panama. Mexico and Costa Rica are much better than Ingolstadt. Seems to more depend on the day as to if he plays well in that role or not. He should be used out wide right now, the wider the better pretty much, with guys like Reus, Kagawa, Dempsey, and Kljestan/Feilhaber inside instead. At least he left the game with his legs in-tact. Onto WC qualifiers where he hopefully plays much better. He'll be asked to at least be #2 creator, maybe #1, so we may not be able to withstand performances like that as much as BVB. Without Feilhaber and Kljestan in the roster, I feel like we almost have to start Dempsey as a second striker. That decision boxed us in.
He was tired man and the team was missing Dembele and Weigl for most of it. No attacker on Dortmund other than Auba had any impact. This game doesn't move the needle a single bit on Pulisic.
Was a difficult game for him. He lacks the bulk to ride some of those center of the park challenges. Many of the times he can offset it with quickness and neatness on the ball but looking tired as he was he was just getting run over. In fairness the other center players got destroyed also Guerrero and Castro impressed like a stinky dumpster fire. Kagawa did a little better but not much. On balance, this performance is somewhat mitigated by what appears to be a tactical issue given the struggles of all central players. Still that was crap.
The kid is tired, playing against a very defensive team, with very little space and a lack of movement from the players around him. He'll play better, this was just an off day for him.
I get PSVue's $35 package, and get FS1, FS2, FSPlus, ESPN1,2,3, NBCSN, beinSports. NBCSN and ESPN3 have VOD for replays. Of course I don't get all of Dortmund's games, but I do seem to get a lot of them. And that's just soccer. You get all the other tv channels so I got rid of my TimeWarner cable which cost me $140 a month. Now, it's just basic internet $35, and PSVue $35, and of course Roku sticks or AppleTV connected to my TVs. You can use other sticks as well. And, you can use the dedicated apps on your smart devices like FoxSportsGo.
Pulisic was bad. Guerrero and Castro were shocking. Kagawa was alright I guess but he spent most of the match going backwards.
He was making really poor decisions. That doesn't have to do with teammates and physical tiredness, which is conjecture anyway. We've seen plenty of stints off the bench or with more than sufficient rest where he turned the ball over super frequently when asked to operate in the middle. I think some of the responses were overly defensive and presumptuous.
What? Those are more natural and experienced central players with some quality right now. Don't get your point at all. You could make it clearer what you meant Pulisic is comparatively better playing out wide right now over a sizable sample so that's where he should play usually. It's as simple as that.
Look at your grouping. If it's logical to you, then we probably aren't going to find agreement on this matter.
They are central players who play under a cf, in a creative ss or 10 role. Is it throwing Kljestan/Feilhaber in there because they couldn't near hack it at Dortmund or something as simple as that? They are alternative USNT options and I wouldn't say Pulisic has either, as a central player. He's made his mark as a wide player. Centrally, it's just something they've tried, it's occasionally worked, but he's a more long-term prospect in that role because his decision-making with a few options and in a crowd isn't advanced at this point. Reliability does matter to a manager. And of course if you take Pulisic out of the center you don't lose him from your lineup. He just plays a different position, creating from a wide role, where he's more efficient and dangerous, and when he's off you still have another orchestrator in the center of the park to offset him, plus to make his life easier by outletting to him and serving him through balls.
Dortmund fans on their reddit have a bit of a hard on for Kagawa, some even suggesting him for MOTM, hint to Dortmund fans that like his pretty dribbling to no where: the man of the match was your keeper, and then Auba. Everybody else was either mediocre or shite.
Interesting that, that Pulisic made UCL team of the week, had 3 goals/2 assists in four games largely playing centrally, then has an off game likely due to tired legs and he suddenly shouldn't play centrally. Silly Tuchel.
It's not just how your team plays, but how the other team plays. Ingolstadt is strong through the middle. Anyone who endures their games knows that. You can't crack them through the middle, what they do to break them is open up the game. That's why Hoffenheim has an easier time with them than Bayern: they have a five man super-wide midfield, which completely borks Ingolstadt on the sides. Benfica, on the other hand, is soft in the middle. They rely on their wing play to win games, but centrally they lack any form of "fortress" to protect their keeper. It's expected for an 18 year old prodigy to do well versus Benfica, but to disappear when facing Ingolstadt.
that goal was 80% Auba imo. A half chance with an amazing first time finish. Kagawa was mediocre overall, just like most of Dortmund.