How did GGG make him look like a complete buffoon? I love it when he plays well, but I am also OK when he gets subbed off after a poor outing.
He was running around like a chicken with his head chopped off for most of the game trying to initiate attacks by himself with 4 defenders on him and no outlets to pass to. He missed that one semi-sitter but other than that I wouldn't characterize his play as poor as much as I would say he looked like he didn't know what the hell he was doing, along with the rest of the team. Morris looked decent, maybe like he had played the game before. He must be some type of soccer Savant as he seems to be the only one that gets "the system". Then GGG pulls Puli who is an attacking player in his prime and one of the top two talents that the US has ever produced...ever. And all the while, we desperately need a goal. It' not like CHO or someone of that ilk was waiting in the wings to spell him either. He obviously did not want to come out and had told GGG he was fit, but GGG pulls him anyways and frustrations of the prior few weeks at club and the mess that is the USMNT boil over and Pulli is on the verge of tears on the sideline. It was not a good look at all and I put 99% of it on Gregg. GGG might have done him a favor though. It seemed to me like Lumpy's hard line rhetoric and tough love stance softened considerably after the international break. He immediately started playing him and CP responded bigly. My guess is that Lumpy thought Puli was on the verge of breaking after the Canada game and if he didn't build him up a bit he might lose him.
Great observation. Pulisic went from unused sub in previous 4-5 games to getting sub minutes and straight into the starting 11. Lamp recognized the kid's breaking point. If I am Lamp, I'd be very nervous every time CP is called up for USMNT. That moron 3G is going to do his best to break CP mentally and emotionally.
One common characteristic of American players under Berhalter is that they often look like they don’t know what they’re doing out there. I wouldn’t put that on them.
Only by not playing for the national team will Pulisic become the greatest U.S. national team player in its history.
But if he doesn't get caps now will some Gregg Berhalter wannabee play him years past his prime while he chases Michael Bradley's caps record and history repeats itself? Let get as many caps as possible before his form dips and some future coach feels compelled to keep playing him.
Is scoring the only measure for good or bad performance? I heard that many on this board thought CP was great even in the days when he did not score much.
He is a menace offensively like very few players are. His pace and skill in close quarters is very disruptive -- and it is beginning to show. I expected more assists than goals from him coming in because he just beats people so often and otherwise creates seams in the defense. I expected a lot of balls like the assist to Batshuyai (sp?) a few weeks ago. Maybe those will come. To my mind he has two important weaknesses. First, he is a so-so defender: he tracks back but lacks aggressiveness and even a willingness to tackle. Second, his long crosses and shots are very incsonsistent. One would think that someone who creates as many openings as he does would strike the ball more consistently and accurately. I think he will fix the second issue in time and ascend to great heights as an offensive player, barring a big injury.
Comparing Morris to Pulisic doesn't solve anything as it's not a Manichean death struggle between light and dark. Morris has been playing well enough to deserve to start - all USMNT fans should be happy with that. That being said, I think that pulling Christian was the wrong move as even when he's been ineffective all game, he's the one guy I'd pick to score at the end of the game. There have been plenty of times where our emo-Ultraman Landon Donovan has been poor/invisible for the entire game and then delivered the goods out of nowhere. [Please don't turn this into a discussion about Landon or please move it to another thread - I just think he's a great example of a player who could pull a rabbit out of a hat irrespective of his prior play in the game.] Pulisic didn't look gassed to me - rather just trying to do too much all by himself.
I don't understand your expectations. He is one of only two players in the PL that has five goals and five assists in all comps, with Mo Salah being the other. He is on his second or third straight EPL team of the week and is for the second week in a row the highest rated power rating player in the PL. His shot conversion rate is < 30% which is outstanding and has improved dramatically. Long crosses and shots are not his thing, his is a force multiplier in the final third. Just like Ngolo Kante is in midfield. He creates chaos and unbalances defenses, that is what he does like few in the world. I mean if he can even stay in the neighborhood as he is now, CFC will be saying Hazard who? His performance since returning to the team after his benching have been statistically all world. He simply needs to keep doing what he is doing. Asking for more is unrealistic, he can't be all world at everything, he is a central attacking midfielder, not a winger. He is serviceable as a winger, but playing a forward attacking wide player in an asymmetric attack or centrally as a CAM he has unlimited potential. I don't necessarily agree with the tackling narrative either
I believe Pulisic likes playing for the national team but not Berhalter, so much. I'll leave it at that.
I try to resist conspiracy thinking but when CP bailed on the MNT this game I suspected it was a minor vote of no-confidence in Gagg. The hip injury is not invented (CP was pulled in the last game because of it) but there are some coaches for whom you'll play through minor injuries because they inspire you to take the field and give your all. My guess is that Gagg is that coach for no one, CP included.
As I've posted previously. CP had come into camp before with some knicks/knocks. This is his "No thanks" to 3G.
GGG made him look like a complete buffoon in this, very obvious, sense. GGG set up the team, and had them play a style, that was so self-defeating, so counter-productive, so artificially restrictive, that every player out on the field like a fool wandering the heath in search of their king. Pulisic was cast out onto the heath, with them, and no one looks commanding on that heath. When the whole team has a poor outing, and consistently has a poor outing against any opponent beyond the level of the pathetic, then the one who should get "subbed off" is the manager. And that, "Striker", is General Egg himself.