Good experience for a debutante, and regular the subsequent two seasons. Would expect a discernible upward trajectory, for the black and yellow. Wasn't an all-inclusive list for club. Could have added Batshuayi. You could throw in Maxi Philipp, who made gains himself. Also, for the national team the coaches didn't impact Dempsey much before the total decline from age, nor even a Matt Besler. I think the reason for this is that those players either possessed the physical or mental ability to succeed in spite of the poor tactical instruction or setup from the coach.
Yeah, they are also near their mid-20s. Dempsey was nothing to write home about as a player until basically his late 20s, and Besler has been a mediocre player in a bad league his entire career. Why are you comparing these guys to Pulisic? This is a gigantic stretch by you... and that's coming from someone that agrees CP hasn't been that good.
Besler has never been a mediocre player in a bad league, and he was the best, most consistent defender for the USNT the last 5 years, thru the Klinsmann/Arena eras, which is where the comparison is being made. And you're missing the point, which is that heady and/or physically imposing players aren't influenced much by bad coaching, which is being used as an excuse for Pulisic that he hasn't shown better for club and country recently. If he didn't have mediocre football i.q. at this point it wouldn't really matter much like it doesn't for those other guys. His football brain is where he needs to improve, with making smarter, not so aimless runs off the ball (so many times he doesn't make himself a target for his teammate). Also make quicker, sharper decisions so he doesn't spark dangerous counters off to's. Finally, develop a counter move to beat opponents off the dribble more efficiently, if he's going to be aggressive.
Where did you hear this? It means there needs to be a change in tactics. It means there needs to be a change based on the opponent. It means there needs to be a change in style based on the score and minutes left. It means his ankle could have been an issue. Stoeger would not have put him in as a starter in the fist place if he thought CP sucked. Big clubs have big squads with variety and their managers are allowed 3 subs for a reason. BVB was almost 30 minutes away from being eliminated from yet another competition. Stoeger acted. I like the kid and I want to him to stay at BVB but I think we can admit that this is on CP more than on Stoeger. Good players play well no matter of the situation. I don't think CP would be much better today under Klopp or Wenger just because they try and play high-press football. When CP has the ball, no one is telling him to play it back. Goetze and Schuerrle along with Reus are high-tempo attacking players by design. When BVB has the ball - it matters little if the manager is Klopp, Tuchel or Stoeger with that top 3...they are going forward. He's in a slump - or maybe his first season was one of those seasons that so many wunderkinds have and then kinda fade into normality...that happens a lot more than world class stars being created. There is nothing wrong with that. Maybe we just give the kid a break. He's doing his best and he's played a lot more than most here expected. Heck, a year ago people thought he should move to Fulham, for crying out loud because he rode the bench once while Dembele started.
... the US defenders suck, they've sucked for years and years now. Besler has never been tested in a decent league. He's mediocre at best. But if the argument is suddenly that club pedigree doesn't matter and play for national team does... CP is the best US attacker! So... your whole point just kind of falls apart under any examination, from any angle. The fact that you're defending Besler as more than a mediocre player suggests you're not really the one to judge things like this. People can grow in lots and lots of different ways from the ages of 19-23 or so, and even at that age CP would still have an entire career in front of him if he could remain healthy. So, agree to disagree.
I think you're being stubborn at this point and ignoring the point, that players with football i.q. and/or elite physical ability aren't majorly impacted by bad coaches let alone 4 different ones. Occam's razor would be, as of this time, this is who he is, for good and bad. And I could also make the claim that if you assess Besler as a mediocre player in MLS or for the USNT you don't gauge subtlety in the football game so you aren't equipped to judge in cases like this. Besler was on some best XI's this year, a former league defender of the year, and I can't remember the last time the U.S. lost because of him or if they ever did. CB, pool-wise, was one of the strengths. Those players between Besler, Brooks, Cameron, and Miazga were just never coalesced due to poor personnel evaluation and biases.
Pulisic has hit the proverbial "brick wall". It will take time for him to figure it out and adjust. You just have to hope the manager doesn't bury him while he figures it out.
MF Christian Pulisic, 3 -- The slump of the 19-year-old continues. Atalanta created most of their attacks in the first half by waiting for Pulisic to run head first into a wall and lose the ball.
He's 19 and a fairly regular starter for the second strongest team in the fourth strongest league in the world. I mean, look around you and tell me: how many countries outside the Big 10 have 19 year olds doing that well?
I keep saying this, but Pulisic is more effective playing on the left. His best games against top competition this year (Tottenham Away and Bayern home) came when he was on the left. His low cross with his left foot is very effective when driving towards the goal, and his dribbling is more effective as he obviously has the option to cut in. Only problem is, Schurrle, Sandro and Reus all almost exclusively play on the left, and Pulisic can still be effective on the right, so right he goes!
Because that happened 2 times. That writer is and has always been a village idiot. Buczo or something like that. His BVB reporting is drivel. Not saying he had a great game or even a good game but consider, for context, his motm for Dortmund was Gotze with a 6 iirc. Dudes chicken little.
Agree. There's good news and bad news. The bad news is that Pulisic was dawdling on the ball again to start the game. He passes to Gotze 3m away and sashays past him and looks down again too late to see that Gotze passed right back to him. C'mon, you don't have that kind of time. Wake up, dude. He grew into the game, Stoger had planned to sub Reuss in anyway, they were in good shape because Atalante were winning the series and being all cautious, one goal and Dortmund walks off with the series victory, Dahoud and Sahin were doing surprisingly well as a midfield pair, the attackers needed a goal, time to put Reuss in. All perfectly logical, I don't see a problem. Pulisic is fresh as a daisy and ready to go next game. But, for cripes, sake, wake up and stop the "oh, gee, I just made a pass I think I'll relax now."
This is dishonest. If Atalanta created most of their attacks this way ... then clearly Dortmund absolutely dominated possession. If someone can show me a good attacking play by Dortmund in the first 60 minutes not initiated by CP or Gotze, I'm all ears. He is supposed to try to beat people off the dribble sometimes. He's basically the only person on the team who does it. Atalanta twice lost their minds and sent five people to the ball to stop him and he successfully passed out of it. He created danger. Obviously, this wasn't his best ever game, but subbing on Reus for someone was an obvious move by Stoeger, and probably the game plan coming in. And if that was the game plan coming in, Reus was probably coming in for CP or Schurrle. I find all of this completely sensible and not an insult to CP or a sign of a coach who is sour on him. If anyone else in our national team pool is this aggressive against opposition this good, we would all be drooling. It's the best attacking play we've seen by a Yank since at least Dempsey in 2012. Our expectations are ridiculously high at the moment, and for some reason people seem to think it's cool to criticize our best player constantly.
This #Vela tool would be banned in a millisecond if the shoe were on the other foot. It's so stupid and spineless there's such a double-standard on these forums between American and Mexican fan behavior simply because of political pressures. Judge people equally on their own actions. Don't group them together and give one much better treatment, only in the opposite direction than was done historically. That's the social neoliberal disease.
I've been recording and watching BVB games a lot this year. Pulisic isn't necessarily playing bad. He just seems out of sync from his teammates. I think it is also a lot harder starting and playing in most games versus coming in every other game like he did last year. For me the one thing I've noticed is that when they are attacking the box a lot of times he ends up occupying the same space as the center forward while looking to receive crosses instead of staying out a bit wider or sitting the the spaces vacated by the defenders. A lot of the great forwards create space simply by slowing down and walking and letting the full backs run away from them. Right now when watching him it feels like he is in that zone where he is not accomplishing a lot simply because he is trying too hard versus letting the game come to him. So he runs and runs and runs but tends to always be in the wrong spot, arriving a hair late, or arriving too early. But for as much as he has played he should have more goals and more assist. He just seems to be out of sync a bit. Of course BVB as a team has looked a bit out of sync as a team all year. Sort of like they are making it all up as they go along. Or a bunch of pieces that quite haven't figured out what the other is going to do.
I'm glad he's going through this. Our players need to know that competing at the highest levels is not easy. That there will be lots of adversity. That they will have to overcome it, or they will be swallowed by the bench. It's obvious to me that the burden Pulisic now has on him is having an effect. That's also really good. If he wants to get to the highest level, he'll have to grow accustomed to that as well. I think he has the backbone to handle it, though, he just needs to adjust. Pulisic will be better for this at the end of the day. He'll also be able to serve as a guiding post for future American players who also aspire toward similar greatness. They'll be able to text, call, and Skype him when they're going through their own struggles.
This it's mainly because our mods are generally much cooler and not dicks but yeah if you post a contrary opinion on bsmx you're yellow carded within the hour.
Well, they have even admitted to and justified the major double-standard before. And within the American sub-forum themselves there are a number of them. More about popular opinion and shared politics.
Considering the demographics of the true fans of the game, I wouldn't be surprised if most of our mods here are actually Tri fans. Otherwise I'm ok having an open forum that allows for dissenting opinions. Not one where they can come and mock us and be protected by the mods.
Yeah, I agree with your post entirely. Namely the part about his reading of teammate movement, especially off the ball. One instance that really stands out to me was a few games ago when Schurrle was double teamed and the only little space his opponents were giving him was to the end line. So he drove to it and laid ball across the six yard box, while Pulisic had drifted to the middle of the box inexplicably. Tap-in goal, if he made the correct run. If he thought about it, he was not where he'd want his teammate to be as the passer. Generally his runs are too straight and redundant with the center forward, instead of starting further out wide and moving diagonally off the shoulder. Maybe if he had a better teacher like Klopp these problems would be remedied, and for that reason it would actually be a positive to transfer to Liverpool, to continue his development (ironic to suggest a club in the EPL would benefit him in that regard esp. v. where he's coming from, but have to look at each situation individually). Otherwise I would suggest remaining at Dortmund.