Someone needed to be the hero to do this. So here we go. raise your hands if you thought the Tuchel hiring would actually be counter-productive to Pulisic and his playing time........
Hell, I’d bench him if I were the coach. Pulisic has done everything in his power to be benched. Honestly, he’s playing like he doesn’t even care to play anymore. That’s not on Tuchel, that’s on Pulisic.
Hopefully Pulisic gets in top form and leads the US to be World Cup Champs with him scoring the winning goal in extra time, giving a kiss to the crowd that becomes known as the Hershey Kiss.
I think Tuchel looked at the team and decided to start like most managers coming into a dumpster fire start, from the back. He came up with a 5-back system that has gotten results just by not giving up dumb goals by the boatload. However, he has about 7 attacking players for 3 spots. Pulisic is #4 because there is no reason to burn him out as a wingback. I doubt long term they will continue this way. Even if they do, I'm sure CP will be worked in. With his injury history, I really don't care. I have no doubt he would be the best player on the field in a WCQ'er now and more important to keep him healthy than play 5000 minutes for Chelsea. Lots of guys are getting zero time. Only Ziyech seems upset about it.
my flavor is Nova. He's scoring and assisting regularly. Not breaking records, but involved in goals. He's an out and out 9. He holds up play, is the target and feeds others as well as score. I think a tall, skillful CF is quite an asset.
We're having a wee bit of an over-reaction on these boards about Pulisic. Chelsea had a midweek cup game that Christian started. Other guys played yesterday. 1361464398548762629 is not a valid tweet id
I wondered if he had followed Pulisic's progress. I still think it's too early to make any judgements.
Not every opponent is the highest level. Especially in CCF. We need a forward that is doing it somewhere consistently. Nova is. He may not be remembered in as one of the best forwards ever, but right now he is producing. Hence forth, flavor of the week.
None of our center forwards are playing well at the highest level. I have a hard time understanding the hype for 2.Ligue Gioacchini, Norwich U23 Soto, Barnsley loaner Dike, and the like, yet nobody thinks Novakovic has "done enough" to warrant a look. If you're not with Weston McKennie and the top Euro contingent (e.g Adams, Puli, Brooks, Steffen, etc), and you're not Jordan Morris, then you're fighting for a spot in the team. Lots of prospects and mid-career vets at various playing levels and current forms. Nova is deserving of being in the conversation. Where he is in that conversation, I suppose, is up for interpretation.
Yankfest in the Championship today. CCV versus Olosunde. 🇺🇸 vs 🇺🇸 as Bournemouth hosts Rotherham.CCV and Olosunde both starting! pic.twitter.com/rhrWZ5v2kf— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) February 17, 2021
I'm keeping perspective. It's not long ago, I'd be stoked to have a fullback playing UCL ball with Barcelona. So, he got burned by one of the best forwards in the world? And, a guy playing UCL ball with RBL And, a guy at Chelsea - even a well respected squad guy. And, a guy at Dortmund, who is considered one of the top 10 U-20's in the world. There are going to be ups and downs in the climb to greatness.
For Tim Ream and Jedi, Fulham have climbed to only 6 points back in the relegation race. Relegation no longer seems completely unavoidable. Fulham have played this game of scrapping for survival before, and Newcastle are equally efficient of getting drawn into it.
90 mins and another shutout for CCV. Good to see, and hope he gets a fair shot with the US soon. Our CBs are a real weak lump, and we can't afford to ignore a top half Champ starter. Looks like he's started the last 4 and they've given up 2 goals total, including a shutout against Burnley.
I agree that outside Brooks, center back is a place where upside can be developed. There is obviously a lot riding on Richards too. But Miazga and Long are ........okay. Ream and CCV dont entirely inspire confidence currently. Id love to see Zimmermann and Miles get up to that next level, I think both have the capacity to get there.
I just don't get how you lump CCV and Ream? Ream is too old and was replaced at fulham, having proven he wasn't an EPL player at more of his prime (no harm in that, CCV might not be either). He's also not playing. CCV is 23 and in the middle of helping his team to 3 straight shut outs. I'd say he inspires confidence currently, it's whether he can keep it up. Richards is the hope, and simply a run of BL starts puts him in line. But outside of him, I'm not sure anyone has a better argument than CCV.
We have the best CB group of any team in CONCACAF by a fairly sizeable margin. One starter currently in the Bundesliga Champions League places. A 2nd player likely to be a Bundesliga starter the 2nd half of the season in Richards. Plus a boatload of young guys excelling in Belgium, Austria, the Championship, MLS, etc. Some of those will take the "next step" soon. Hell, people never mention that Geoff Cameron starts in the Championship. CB isn't our strength, but its certainly not a weakness. The uncertainty there is simply who the starter is going to be next to Brooks. There are a boatload of options. Any one of them is more than good enough for WCQing. Consider our Olympic eligible, aka considered USYNT, centerbacks. I mean, Keita was a starter at the U20 World Cup in 2019. He just won an MLS Cup. He's so far down on the depth chart that we never talk about him. And this is simply to be in the discussion for the Olympic team. Mark McKenzie, Genk Chris Richards, Bayern Munich; on loan at Hoffenheim Erik Palmer-Brown, Manchester City; on loan at Austria Wien Cameron Carter-Vickers, Tottenham; on loan at Bounemouth Miles Robinson, Atlanta Mauricio Pineda, Chicago Henry Kessler, New England Aboubacar Keita, Columbus Donovan Pines, DC United Justin Che, FC Dallas; on loan at Bayern Munich Jonathan Tomkinson, Norwich Nico Carrera, Holstein Kiel The list goes on and on and on..................Owen Otasowie has played CB. I'm not worried about centerback. The only thing making folks worry about our CB crop is a crippling inferiority complex. Mexico doesn't come close to this. Not close.