Americans also benefit some from nationality bias. I'm sure there's a winger in the championship who wishes he were American so he could make millions in MLS like Jordan Morris has.
My man, Morris is not even in the top-5 highest paid Americans in the league (Jozy, Ferreira, Zimmerman, Arriola, and Nagbe were all on bigger contracts at the start of 2023). Only Jozy cracked the top-25 highest paid players in the league. Morris gets like 1/7th of Chicharito's salary, but has 2 MLS cups and a CONCACAF Champion's League to Chicharito's nada. Calling Morris "over-paid" is laughable...
With what Pulisic has done and other Chelsea players in the past I have to wonder if those four moved to a great situation in another league like Pulisic did if they'd also being having much better seasons. Sancho looked great at Dortmund while Pulisic was there so perhaps if Leao is sold Sancho could be bought cheaply like Pulisisc was as a replacement and restart his career.
I never said anything about him being overpaid. Just that plenty of championship players would love to be on his contract.
The context of the post you quoted was about British players like Sancho and Mount being overpaid in the PL due to their nationality, so I don't know why you'd bring up JoMo unless you're trying to find an analog between him and Sancho / Mount in terms of players being over-valued in certain leagues due to their nationality... like, yeah... sure... I bet lots of English players in the EFL Championship would like to be paid more. If they're better than Jordan Morris, I would suggest that they transfer to MLS, help a team win a few trophies, then sign a contract extension. My point is that Morris is both a. not one of the highest paid Americans in MLS, and b. has been incredibly valuable to Seattle in terms of his contributions on the field, which cannot be said for the likes of Sancho, Mount, etc (minus Grealish who helped city win a couple of titles).
I saw these combinations a lot at Dortmund, for me there have been long stretches in CP's career where he has not had the environment around him to replicate it. I see him now able to return more to his roots at Dortmund here at Milan.
When I initiated this discussion, I honestly didn't see a debate over Jordan Morris popping up. My point was that at this point, the other guys aren't worth their wages as much as CP is. If Grealish and CP had the same salaries, I might take Grealish if I specifically needed a left winger as opposed to someone who can also play on both wings as well as behind the strikers. But even there, I don't see a huge gap. But maybe that's my red, white, and blue glasses coloring my opinion of the situation. To be fair, Grealish is more physically suited to the physicality of the EPL. FWIW, I hope that Sancho turns it around. He can be a great player when on form. Like Gio or Rashford, he's young and hopefully not out of chances.
I don't think your point is invalid, I only take issue with the other poster using JoMo as a counter example of "America does it too". Outside of college and his 4 match loan to Swans, Morris has been a one club player who helped Seattle achieve undeniable success. Earning one of the top 10 salaries for a US player in MLS isn't a result of MLS "over-valuing" JoMo because he's American, it's a result of him being correctly valued, as he is one of the best wingers in the league. MLS has a problem over-paying under-producing players but I don't think "American" is the trait that gets you a huge contract regardless of your on field performances... Pirlo, Horta, Gio dos Santos did not get overpaid because they were American. That said, I think it's worth noting that 2 of the 3 English players being used as examples are at a club that rivals Chelsea in terms of toxicity. Are Mount and Sancho over-paid? Maybe... but they have both shown signs of incredible talent in the past, and said talent did seem to disappear around the time they started wearing red...
Still a bit early in the season with a little over a third of the games played, but I looked up some stats on FBRef, and Pulisic is among the league leaders in the following categories right now: Non-PK Goals: Pulisic is tied for 5th with 5 goals (Lautaro Martinez is first with 12, and Romelu Lukaku is tied for 2nd with 6). Pulisic is also 5th in outperforming his expected goals and expected non-PK goals. Non-PK Goals per 90: Pulisic is 3rd with 0.57 goals/90 (Martinez and Gianluca Scamacca are ahead of him) Non-PK Goals + Assists per 90: Pulisic is 7th with 0.8 (with Martinez, Scamacca, Andrea Belotti, Marcus Thuram, Olivier Giroud, and Paulo Dybala ahead of him).
Well said! It was painful to watch him at Chelsea sometimes, with teammates unwilling to trust him or try to play the BvB-style 1-2’s in passing. I am not one of those that blames Pulisic’s issues at Chelsea entirely on everyone else but him - he has to shoulder some blame. But you can’t deny that CFC and its current state did not have the structure nor intention to play the style that CP was groomed to play at BvB. It was more hero ball in London.
It's only hero ball if your successful and most of the time they weren't . It was very selfish play over different coaches and something any of us would take issue with with u8 teams. The opposite of hero is villain?
I've said it before, while Pioli may get fired by Milan (and as a Milan fan I get that) he was the perfect coach for Pulisic to come to Italy as I don't really think he ever had a coach as supportive as Pioli... heck I don't thin Chelsea's fanbase every embraced him like Milan's either
Great stats. I (and others) stated before the season that if Pulisic is contributing to .5 goal contributions a game (goals and assists), it would be a successful season. He's far surpassing that for now.
Along with other players, you really got to wonder how Lukaku could have been so poorly utilized at a Chelsea that could have used a few more goals. Guy has better G/90, GA/90 and GAPK/90 at every other club he's played at - and for Belgium - relative to Chelsea. Just kinda weird how Chelsea was/is a black hole for certain players.
Mount was not good last year at Chelsea in any way shape or form. It was weird that United bought him to be honest because I couldn’t figure out where he would fit in their midfield. Sancho died at Man U but I think it’s as much that he is less special in England compared to Germany. But seeing RLC, Mkhitaryan, and Pulisic do so much better in Italy and Germany (not RLC) than in England I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sancho be able to find form for Juve or Napoli and I would think Mount too. Havertz, Werner, Sancho, Pulisic, Mkhitaryan…they all had great final seasons in the Bundesliga (except Pulisic) and never came close to that in England. Part of that is style, part quality and environment.
15 plus goal contributions would be really good. I do think they have been a little more careful with him after running his legs off for a bit. He needs minimal national team duties and careful load management when fixtures get congested. I am really excited and if Milan can get over the injury bug they might get enough of goals out of OG Rafa CP and Theo to keep Pioli employed while they get past the injury bug. Their top 11 are formidable but the next guy up in many instances is a huge drop off.
I think part of it is they don't have an excess of players so the ones there play together a lot and develop chemistry. Pulisic never got this consistent run of minutes and teammates at Chelsea.
To be a star you have to first play a lot, then have your teams playing team ball, looking for you, and have the talent. Chelsea was a cesspool. They did not play as a team and couldn't identify the true talent and style that need to be played.
I see you support Dortmund and by their fairly recent past I could say that about the way they play under this coach. Not talking wins but they just don't have that swagger and joy they have had so often. Also a reason Reyna doesn't play because he fits the old but not the new. I keep wondering if the brain trust is happy about that.
Fiyako Tomori has become a poster boy for hyping up Serie A. He has said in multiple interviews that Serie A is much more like half court basketball where the EPL is more fast break. Didn't necessarily say Serie A was the better league but he felt that you needed to be more cerebral and have high soccer IQ in Italy because of the emphasis on defense where as in England you had to be more instinctive and be able to react quicker
An English national team defender of Nigerian descent playing in Italy, carrying a Canadian passport, analyzing Footie in B-Ball terms... what has the world come to?
Pulisic's last couple of years at Chelsea were a dumpster fire but he had a magical run for about 6 months or so. His form was bordering on world class for a stretch post Covid startup and he won the freaking champions league with Chelsea and played a significant role. Sometimes it seems like it almost didn't happen. His entire tenure at Chelsea was not poor. There were some very very high highs.