If Christian is on the cusp of being World Class Liverpool is a great place for him. Torres, Suarez, Sturridge, and Coutinho have all made that jump there.
If Liverpool finishes top 4 (which seems possible) and gets a CL slot, I am okay with him going. He would fit well in Klopp's Heavy Metal Football system. He deploys youngsters. 17 year old Woodburn scored today. Speaking of CL, he is getting CL playing minutes, so the argument about lower table Bundesliga opposition is BS.
BVB, with a little push, can achieve a level of greatness L'pool is unlikely to see any time soon. They've focused on the Champions, so they're suffering at home, though.
Sturridge seems to be the outlier and I can't decide if its because he is lacking a Suarez type partner or because he is constantly injured. Also, wasn't Torres already WC (TM) before Liverpool (I genuinely don't recall)?
If they can keep the young core together and Reus and Auba stay then it could be a special team before being raided. It's easier to win the league and make the CL there so there's that.
I expect IF they can stay healthy they will make a push. Should go for a stud centerback in the next window. They are very weak defensively.
Stirridge isn't World Class and yes injuries have taken a tole but he also doesn't fit with what Klopp needs from his players. Torres was World Class for Athletico Madrid before Pool. Injuries at Pool ended that.
In Sturridge's last healthy season he had 21 goals in 29 appearances. It's not just about the numbers it's about how they were scored. It's also about overall impact. Maybe his health never lets him do that again. On Torres, there is something like a tautology in there but I would say cusp, his goal/game rate increased with Liverpool. He made the FIFA World XI in '08 and '09. He was bought for £20 million and sold for £50.
Another kind of timid showing from what I can tell. BVB drew the match but he was already subbed by the time of the equalizer.
He really should have had an assist but Castro whiffed from literally a couple yards out. If that's converted I think Pulisic is praised all over this forum.
Casemiro got a tackle in. Aside from a weak shot that he should've scored, I thought he did well. I didn't agree with subbing him out. He was the best of the line of three behind Reus, but Dembele seems to be preferred to Pulisic by Tuchel of late, so he gets preferred in that situation to Pulisic. Even though he did well, he needs to start finding more of a way to influence the game with goals and assists. Putting in good defensive shifts, and a few runs or crosses isn't going to be good enough. I believe he's went 4 games without an assist, and 7 without a goal. I'd assume its the main reason why Dembele's been preferred lately. He's getting goals and assists. Pulisic now has to start worrying about Mor as well. Mor was subbed in for him in this match. Tuchel didn't have to take Pulisic out. It shouldn't be a problem if he starts contributing to goals or assists, but the longer he goes without goals and assists, the more likely he's to drop to third in that pecking order.
Timid, and RM at the Bernabeu really cannot coexist. He had a pretty good hour and held his own against one of the better sides in the world. Deserves some blame for the cross on the first goal, but still a fair outing.
Yeah looking back at a couple plays Wynalda highlighted afterwards I feel better about how he did. I was a bit distracted watching live and hadn't heard his name called much.
I'm trying to come up with a list of USMNT players who appeared in any of the later rounds of the Champions League (i.e. beyond the Group Stage). Here's everyone I could think of: John O'Brien (Ajax) Damarcus Beasley (PSV) Landon Donovan (Bayer Leverkusen) Tim Howard (Manchester United) Jermaine Jones (Schalke) And then arguably Thomas Dooley (Kaiserslautern) and Tony Sanneh (Hertha Berlin), depending on how you count it, because the format was slightly different back then. Pulisic will likely join that list soon.
Caught Real-BVB on DVR this morning. Agree with most of you: Pulisic belonged (which is huge with all context) but didn't leave a huge mark. Would-be assist frustratingly tackled away; he did good work to get that one in. Actually, that came from taking defender on 1v1, and I thought he played backward a bit much of the match ... kinda Bradley-esque at points. Confident possession but not necessarily confident attack. Have to wonder how much of that is tactical via manager so as not to make a huge gaffe at this stage given his inexperience. All in all, though, agree he covered a lot of ground and had a good sense of how to fill in space on runs and defensively. You hope to see him continue to evolve to be more confident taking on a few defenders 1v1, especially to touchline where his play-ins are so deadly.
Re bolded text. That is my biggest disappointment, but not for the reasons you suggest. In no way is he timid in the attack. Rather, too often the only time he is sent the ball he is in a very wide forward position and the ball is played squarely to his feet with the nearest defender playing near, but not near enough to be turned and rolled on the dribble. CP's only real option is a side- or backpass. He works best when he is already in motion as the ball arrives, and he can beat the defenders who are already in motion, too. Some of the problem (if it is really a "problem") comes from CP's positioning, but I think most comes from the defenders failing to hit the pass to him quickly enough, with the proper pace and in front of him. When they don't, the ball is too static and must be re-cycled to create space and momentum. Then, usually anyway, it does not come back to CP until the next time Dortmund get the ball. I'd like to see him start dribbling toward the middle of the field to force the defenders into new positions and to open space for diagonal runs by his mates.
For a while, the field was tilted towards Schurrle and Pulisic didn't see a whole lot of the ball. When he did, he seemed to be more effective at penetration and possession than Schurrle.
I sometimes wonder what instruction Pulisic gets as he does seem to be used as a way to stretch the defense away from the other side sometimes. Usually the next half he will change what he's doing and he gets into the game more. Dortmund seems to like attacking down the left more than the right.
If you go to the Dortmund forums, they point some of these things out. They point out that he's way less flashy and probably less creative than Dembele and Mor. He's a very good dribbler once he gets started going at defenders, but he sometimes plays a very safe game. Its so odd though. When I saw him play with the USA at U-17 level, he played nothing like he does now. He was a real playmaker. In a few years, he's seemed to transform into an end line winger. Even if for some reason they play him at CAM, I'm not sure that changes the game he plays. He's a good dribbler when he gets going, he makes good decisions, sees passes, but the flash just isn't there, like it is for some other top young attackers. Did they teach it out of his game?
I think he's just far more effective playing on the left. We've seen him rip low left footed crosses playing on the left side, but I don't think I've ever seen him take an effective shot with his left foot from distance, which obviously limits his attacking repertoire while playing on the right. With Schurrle and Reus in the fold, it's understandable why Tuchel is playing Christian where he is. The fact that Pulisic was able to be effective against an athletic freak like Marcelo playing on his weaker side, on the road, is damn impressive.