He has figured out how to be a better version of himself at Milan than he has been with the USMNT. He seems to understand the need to play without the ball for his club and that’s something that he doesn’t quite seem willing to do for the national team. I’m all for him having a free role with the nats, but I don’t want him to use that role in order to be ball dominant.
I just don't think that's really about him. I think it's that he was the team's only remotely chance-dangerous player* for years, and the team got too used to it. All of what's been going on in his absence these last few months should hopefully change that a lot. (* And even there, if we look at the games where he played alongside a fit Reyna, I think this was much less true.)
I can’t agree with this. Pulisic goes looking for the ball too much with the nats and holds onto it too long when he gets it. It’s not like he hasn’t had champions league caliber players around him in most USMNT games either. The guys he’s played with have mostly been capable pros. And I think Poch, in Pulisic’s absence, has done a wonderful job of demonstrating that.
We saw the problem Pulisic has in that Nations League game against Panama. Opposing coaches aren't dummies. Panama said "shut Pulisic down and make somebody else beat us." What came to pass? Guys like Sargent and Agyemang missed their chances. Pulisic is noticeably frustrated in the 2nd half of that game. I think we underestimate the guys we were without in the spring/summer of 2025. In-form forwards like Pepi and Balogun change A LOT for the program. We didn't have Dest or Antonee in the Nations League. Dest is undervalued on these boards. Christian Pulisic is 27 years old. He's sitting 5th all time in goals and 5th all time in assists. He has a higher goals per cap rate than anyone other than Clint Dempsey with more than 15 caps. And that's 0.40 to 0.39. He'll imminently be 4th all-time in goals as he's 2 back from Wynalda for that position. He'll quickly become 4th in assists as he's 2 back of Dempsey for that. You look at his record for the USMNT and its extremely amazing and impactful, and yet folks on this board seem to demand more from him. I don't know why. He can't be superman EVERY game. That's not how this sport works. At the World Cup we WILL need somebody else to step up and win a game. Opposing coaches know Christian Pulisic is the danger man.
I think people sometimes underrate how much different a coach prepares for a friendly or games in a tournament setting. Pulisic demands a lot of attention from coaches and players and in theory creates space for others. I think a long session before the WC should allow him and his teammates to gel better. Please, please don't get hurt before the WC even a small one where he can't practice. The team really has more offensive weapons than they have ever had before. So much that some of them will be on the bench and there's enough depth to rotate. The problems will be in the defensive end.
But stylistically, the MMA midfield was not there for distribution and combination play--Pulisic is doing what that kind of lineup was set up to do. We've tended to lack both a 10 linchpin to combo with and a 9 who could put stuff away for most of his tenure.
Which we could have had last summer but he decided to rest. Besides, the team seems to be gelling just fine without him.
I'm pretty sure Berhalter had plans to mix in Reyna into that MMA mix depending on opponent and situation but Reyna just wasn't healthy enough. Berhalter even kept Reyna when a lot of managers would have sent him home as he was kind of desperate to keep him as an option. To me the most surprising thing in the whole WC Reyna kerfuffle was that the Reyna parents were ridiculous critical of Berhalter when they should have been grateful.
With Christian and how he plays, I think we need to allow for a few things: I don't know that it's absolutely certain that his amount of time on ball or coming back for it with the USMNT isn't unneeded. I don't think it's a complete coincidence that he's having this great run with Luca Modric behind him. We do not have a Luca Modric. There may need to be a balance. Christian has improved a ton since he was younger, but this is also a hot streak. Seven goals on 14 shots (13 on fbref!) isn't sustainable. No one does that. While formation adjustments may influence how Christian plays, there's also plenty of other instructions that can be given to do so. Neither Poch nor Christian are dumb; sometimes it's just coaching.
Christian Pulisic, imo, is inarguably already one of our best players all time. Period. That being said, nobody is perfect and he is no different. For me, the one area that he has shown to be "less than elite" is vision and at times distribution. It is one reason, imo, that we have not been particularly dangerous on the counter (not just Pulisic but Aaronson and others). While I think we have a general consensus that Pulisic is currently our "best" player (if not at least one of 2 best), there has been at times disagreement over who our most important player is. Jedi? Adams? Pulisic? For a player like Adams to even be considered as being as or more important to USMNT than Pulisic, who is so obviously talented and....good, there must be an area of relative weakness. The question is: what is his relative weakness? Dempsey had relative weaknesses, Donovan did. What are Pulisic's and how "fixable" are they? (I believe, for example, that one Donovan's major relative weakness was a lack of elite technique...which isn't very fixable at a later age but I think decision making tends to improve with age)
Sometimes the most important player is that because there is co depth behind them. I thought that we would suffer badly without Jedi but although Arfsten is a very different player he has done fine. I thought the same with Adams but we have looked fine without and now without Pulisic the same. It's not been lately in competitive matches and especially WC level but just chatting about how best and most important can be different and how it can change quickly.
Yeah, I've never really gotten the idea that just because someone is a very good player for us, we can't discuss weaknesses. Christian has had three major weaknesses his whole career: One is the one you listed -- for his general level, he's had subpar vision, especially when facing multiple defenders. His actual crossing has improved, but he's never been an elite player at finding the open player in more crowded situations. The second is that his finishing for much of his career was below average for his level. Again, we're talking about where Christian rates versus players at his overall level -- he's not a subpar finisher for the USMNT, but especially early in his career and at Chelsea, his finishing was not to the level of his club. I think this has vastly improved, but has gone more to average (hot streaks excepted) than anything elite. His ability to stay healthy has been an issue. In addition, with the US, one other thing happens: For whatever reason, he tends to get on ball more for the US and when on ball, he holds onto to it even longer than with club, often attacking multiple defenders off the dribble to poor effect. Can he improve these? He's improved the finishing. The USMNT-only issue is easily improvable, no matter the cause. It's mostly conscious decision making. Health is a combination of genetics, luck and smart, hard work. I have no idea if Christian has pursued every avenue to be more reliable, but it's entirely possible he has and it's not really in the cards. He has improved his passing, but I suspect the vision in tight spaces, etc., is something that is pretty hard to work on directly. The best mitigation is simply not pursuing those situations rather than trying to get much better in them.
I think you're in general agreement that CP as Superman is a bad usage. Let Malik dictate and Pulisic can operate from wherever he's most dangerous.
No one should dictate. Play as a team. Trust your teammates. Find the defense's weakness and exploit it. The problem really isn't Pulisic in specific so much as it's becoming too easy to defend by focusing too much of the offense on a single player.
I should have worded it better but I want Malik getting on the ball centrally and releasing Pulisic into dangerous areas.
I think Pulisic's relative weakness is his inability to change his approach in-game when things aren't working out. If he gets the ball, and gets double or triple-teamed every time, he just continues to try to dribble through it. Sometimes it'll work out, but mostly it won't. He has shown a propensity to continue to try to dribble, when he should recognize that the better option is to draw the defenders and then PASS and run. But he doesn't do that for the USMNT. And when those repeated attempts result in him being fouled, he will often complain to the ref (rightly or wrongly) instead of seeing what's going on and making the appropriate change in action. He's got to recognize that when he's got two or three guys marking him on the ball, that means that there are one or two other players who have no marker.
It could be decision making on his part (as you see it), or it could be simply him not seeing the pass. Both would look very similar.
The thing is, he doesn't even have to see the best pass in those situations. The ball moves faster than the man, so just MOVING the ball to another player works. Any player, pick a player. Doesn't need to be an insightful ball. Especially since the entire team is capable of continuing to move the ball around quickly.
Wow. I think sometimes we find a narrative and stick to it. He is not now nor has he ever been a poor finisher. If you go look at his x/g he consistently outperforms that. Regardless of what folks think, the data indicates otherwise. I think most of the critique stems from people's tendency to focus on the failures and don't realize just how hard scoring goals in football really is. I mean PKs get converted at a rate just under 80%. Creating chances is no small feat. Attempting to do it five times in a game, looking stupid four of them, and then pull it off one time makes people forget all about the four "bad" choices. Some games it can get you man of the match. Under Berhalter, he was often throttled by the laborious advancement of the ball. He plays best in a direct set-up that pushes the ball forward with purpose. He can function in tight spaces, and isn't bad, but he is all world in open field. The USMNT under the previous coach did not even attempt to play like that. So naturally we did not see best Pulisic for the Nats. His vision is also much maligned. His assist numbers for both club and country clearly undermine the idea he is poor in passing or in finding an "open" man. He really isn't "bad" at corners, just not great. He has been mostly healthy with Milan, and I will go to the grave believing his early health issues are more related to overuse while at Dortmund and early CFC, when he was a little boy playing against GAM. Just like last year he was "injured" shortly after running damned near 30k in a 10 day period mid January. I do think he works on his weaknesses, and I think he has gotten better every year. We are finally seeing him being used almost exclusively like a few of us have hoped to see for ten years. At the end of the day while he can still get even better, but he is already one of the best players on the field in nearly every match he plays.
He had a negative g-xG in '17-18, '18-19, and '20-'21 and was dead even in '19-'20. For a guy who is scoring 21 goals over that period, being -4 in that stat is a below average finisher. Assists stats don't exclusively speak to vision, particularly not in the situations we're talking about There's lots of ways to get assists and still struggle with finding the open man at times. He definitely works on his weaknesses and has improved, but your post is basically acting like he's never had weaknesses or it's always someone else's fault. It's really okay to point out where he could be better.
nobody said he was a poor finisher. The comment was “below average for his level” In my opinion, that is nowhere close to meaning he is a bad finisher. It means he is not an elite finisher. It only becomes a negative assessment if your assessment of pulisic’s overall level is below where I think most would put it. you yourself said he works on his weaknesses. I agree and believe he has improved in many areas. He seems to be more “mature” in his game and trusts his teammates more than sometimes in the past. in my last post, I mentioned Donovan and Dempsey. Let me share an opinion about Donovan that I had: for the longest time, I felt that finishing was not one of his strengths…especially/primarily when he had time to think about it. I believe very strongly that, unlike Dempsey, Donovan had a confidence issue that made it difficult for him to succeed when he had too much time. (1v1 etc). Did that mean I felt he was a bad finisher? No. I did feel that, for him. It was a weakness. I also feel that it is a weakness that he mostly overcame. I say this because I think the criticism of Pulisic falls under the same category.
Yes, thank you -- my point was that he was a below average finisher for the starting winger on a Chelsea or Dortmund. And he was. And that it was a relative weakness of his game. And it was.
Pulisic broke a first half deadlock with a goal off a corner kick. Pulisic started in the box, drifted to the far post, and finished a Rabiot header.
Yup. Milan taking care of business this morning against Hellas Verona. Good to seem them punch a team in the mouth. What's with all of the internet chatter that Pulisic is dating Sydney Sweeney? It seems like total Italy-based paparazzi gossip based on nothing. Sydney Sweeney reportedly sparks romance rumors with Christian Pulisic - Yahoo News Canada