Pulisic's movement is all over the place - his pass map doesn't look like a wide player. When he is in possession, he can be anywhere in the attacking half. We need to talk about his heading though. It's on him that he lost possession whenever the ball was in the air. With a ball to his feet or in space, he is all class. But...
Kid is a complete player, he's just fine tuning now. The bright lights phase is over, now he's going to just play, it's all slowed for him. He's going balls deep this season and cementing himself as one of the best wing talents in the world, regardless of age
Shouldn't be surprising: people who know fútbol realize Bradley is a quite good player. Abroad, he gets a decent amount of praise. It's mostly the Americans-fans-of-Europe who dis him for returning. I think right now CP is the best CONCACAF field player, to the point that I don't worry about him doing well: I know he will, I watch him with the confidence of knowing beforehand he'll be at least decent. Of course form varies. So things could be different in a couple of months. I'd love for BVB to retain enough talent to challenge Bayern. IMO, Club Hollywood has been a nefarious influence on the Bundesliga popularity.
I agree with all of this except the "just fine tuning" part. His trajectory over the last two years suggests that, while CP is a complete player, he is nowhere near his ceiling. If he continues on the growth path one might expect for an 18 yo, we'll look back from the vantage point of the 25 yo CP and recognize the seeds of his potential, but he may grow to be far more than what we see today.
That's what I was saying. The skills are all there, he's just taking them to the next level. A lot of times you see youth struggle with a part of the game ", i.e. Passing , shooting, positioning....hes not, he's just getting better, aka fine tuning. It's like the difference between a 650i and an M6, both are nasty, one just has that extra umphf....I love this part of the game, watching all these kids from 14-15 turn into pros....it's really enjoyable and exciting. Love watching people come up, I feel like that's what me and @ussoccer97531 live for lol. We will argue at any moment too lol
Understood. However, using your car analogy, we're looking at an M3 today -- all the pieces and enough edge for Orcrist to drool on his keyboard. Five years out, given the growth we've seen since CP joined the senior team, we could be looking at a contemporary F1 Ferrari. Totally different beast.
M3 is selling him short, he was the best player on the field today....probably the 2nd best player overall behind one of the top goal scorers in the world. I expect a monster year from him. You are already an M3 if you are starting for Dortmund, he was the best car on the lot today, showroom series
Why stop at m3 or f1 ferrari??? He could be the Space-X, surging through the deep blue sky to new heights.
One area for improvement many of us identified last season was picking out fellow attackers on crosses. last year, Pulisic did a good job getting in dangerous positions and playing balls in, but often seemed to play to general space (back post) instead of a specific attacker. This resulted in many dangerous moves ultimately not resulting in shots. In the preseason and early season this year, he seems to have corrected this issue. He is now a bit calmer, allowing himself to take the extra fraction of a second to find a teammate. You see this on both the Castro near goal and the Auba assist.
I hope he wins at least one Bundesliga title with BVB. If the new coach can sort out the defense, I think another deep Champions League run. We forgot how deep this team is. They looked top notch today while missing many top class players.
On the westline forums, a few posters are suggesting they sell Dembele and use the money not to (only) buy new players, but to foremost sign CP and PEA to fat new contracts.
He's getting his swag on. The way he coolly corrected the ref on the corner he earned just before subbing out, then started juggling the ball before nonchalantly flicking it to the flag just oozed confidence. He's not a global superstar yet, but he's definitely creeping into "regular star" levels.
you the real MVP. You were in here like CP's second week in Dortmund telling all of the nervous nellies he was as good of a talent as the academy folk there had seen.
Yeah I do because, aka all those big name clubs have OLDER star players right now -Ronaldo is 32. Bale is 28. He's probably as good as Mayoral/Asensio/Vázquez -Suarez is 30. Messi is 30. I'd take CP over Deulofeu, etc. -Di Maria is 29. Cavani is 30. Pastore is 28. Lucas will probably be sold within a year or two. -Who knows if Draxler stays depending on how much playing time he gets. -Juventus has younger wings in Dybala and Costa. -Only team I could see him having a harder time breaking into in the future is Manchester United. Since they're his favorite team, however they have young guys around his age. Realistically, he'll be at the ripe age to sign for those teams in two years or so. I hope he stays at BVB and ignores the EPL. And doesn't become a bench guy at Real Madrid or something. Transferring to those big clubs have stunted players like Affelay, Shaqiri, James Rodriguez, etc. I'll honestly compare Pulisic to Leroy Sane. So far has moved to Manchester City has proved to be good.
I realize the headers thing is tongue in cheek but he challenger for headers most wingers wouldn't even bother with. Today he didn't win a single one but it's better than j he's a fast little ********er, clever, skilled, composed -- getting stronger too. Nice beats on that highlight, I can't stand the ********ing euro rock shit.
Pretty much a perfect game. I counted like 3 bad touches and none were just giving the ball away randomly like some of our other MLS based players whose skills have deteriorated. Christian is seemingly picking guys out at will in the box. He is serving perfect up chances for his teammates like burgers at the diner; he puts it on a platter. He is consistently destroying his marker and even breaking down zone and double team defenses and always creating and solving problems with just his movement. Top 10 player in the world potential here and he's still growing...