No one on the team deserved an 8.... I do think CP deserved the best grade on O but an 8? That is too high. Jorgi with an 8? He got his pocket picked in the worst of places which led to the shot off the post. On top of that... he is generally in the lineup so that he can serve some passes that break the lines.... I saw very little of that from him and the entire midfield. He wouldn't even get a 6 in my book. I think the grades for Havertz and Ziyech were warranted though... they were pretty terrible on the day. Mount also played one of his worst games so I think a 5 is pretty fair.... I get why they want to try him at the dual-6 so that they can get more attackers on the field.... but they need him further up the pitch.
I never trust these ratings. Watch the game and form your own conclusions. Ziyech has to be the worse offensive player on the roster right now. Besides from a few nice passes he deliver per game, he bring absolutely nothing else to the table. He does not press, he does not defend, he looks slow and weak, and his body language makes him look even worse. Heck, Pulisic had to run all the way back to his own end line to steal the ball away from an opposing player.
But do they? He has one assist this year from the run of play. Mason Mount has never been a playmaker for Chelsea. He has a cannon for a right foot, which leads people to believe that he is a bigger threat on goal than he actually is. I think him being the team's "playmaker" for much of the season is a big reason why they are struggling to finish in the top 4.
It looked to me like after Giroud came on Pulisic switched to right wing back and Mount was playing higher up the field. Did anyone else notice that? It's why Pulisic made a couple of very nice defensive plays at the end of the game. To me, Ziyech played a better game than Havertz, but both were worse than Pulisic (who was by no means great). Havertz seemed invisible, at least Ziyech played a couple of nice through balls. It is frustrating to hear people complain that Pulisic wasn't "taking it to the Brighton defense". I mean, Brighton had 18 players behind the ball. There was no space...where exactly was he going to dribble to? In the past we've all been critical of CP for putting his head down and dribbling into traffic - that's exactly what he would have been doing in this game if he "took it to the defense"...beat one guy and three more would have swarmed him. To me, the problem wasn't even with the midfield, it was with the defense. They are just so slow getting the ball off their feet, allowing Brighton plenty of time to organize their defense. Watch Rudiger sometime...he'll receive the ball, turn up the field, then stop and stand with his foot on the ball and just pause. Eventually, he'll turn to Zouma and make a square pass. The few moments of danger from Chelsea came when one of the defenders immediately made a pass to Jorgi or Mount who then immediately turned and made another pass. Those movements worked best because it didn't give Brighton time to set up their extremely organized defense with 18 guys behind the ball.
This is what I'm seeing at Roma too which does not fit what Reynolds is good at. Maybe most Americans look poor on teams that are deliberate? Good thing Brooks and Richards can pass.
At the risk of angering the non-nerds on this forum, I think this is THE reason why Captain Marvel's role in Avengers: Endgame was limited. Look at how quickly the tide turned when Capt. Marvel cut threw Thanos's ship (like a hot knife through soft butter). If Carol Danvers had a more prominent role, the movie would have been over in 30 minutes.
This was my take along with the thought they were a bit thuggish towards Pulisic giving him an extra little shove or a niggling kick after the ball or on the runs.
He better get used to this. Needs to get a bit nastier to avoid being an easy target. Many teams will look to take him out of the game by roughing him up.
He seemed to be pretty well bracketed by defenders on his side, resulting in a lot of back passes. And if you re-watch the match you'll notice Pulisic got a shove in the back from the defender, even if that defender was a yard away, after the pass. It was routine - receive, pass, shove. On second thought, don't rewatch - the match was so awful to watch I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
Had the game been called slightly differently, CP may have seen more obvious success. It wasn’t called incorrectly, but the ref just allowed a little bit more physical play than is sometimes allowed. Borderline fouls were not called, and a bunch of them were committed against him. But he did receive a lot of attention as well. There were a couple of times when he was out on the wing and started to make a move and was contained by three defenders. In those situations it seems wiser to attack up the opposite side and have him make runs at the goal, at which he has proven to be fairly adept.
I think the problem is the opposite. Americans are picking up bad habits from Berhalter who insists on slowing the game down with "turns", ball massages, tangential dribbles, etc. Berhalter doesnt understand that Pep can buy any player in the world he wants so why not buy one who can dribble, especially since so many casual fans see it as entertaining. You don't see "one touch" used so much anymore in commentary on the game but it is the way to avoid the sag in the game created by players who can't get the ball out from under their feet described by Celine
watching this leicester city match and looking nervously at the table. they are absolutely flying against west brom right now. going to make for a very difficult prem fixture and a great fa cup final matchup
Chelsea's success against Citeh was balls over the top of a high-line. TT's setup seems a bit too plodding sometimes to break down the collapsed D. This weekend looks to be a bit consequential in the old table... What are the chances we get a Chelski/WH tie and a Pool win so they can all have 56 pts.
Someone is going to lose a stupid game (or two) but even GD is pretty tight. Kind of too bad Lester is winning today. Be fun for the four of them to take it to the wire.
Although this is only tangentially related to Pulisic, I find this interesting. Jorginho doesn't believe Frank Lampard was ready for the Chelsea job 👀 pic.twitter.com/DxScO9KHI3— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) April 23, 2021
I too really dislike players who constantly complain. However, I wouldn't really put CP in the big complainer category. Relative to other players, especially in his position, he is par for the course. I really don't think it's an issue for him, but sure I'd like it if he did it less.
I took it as a sign of our maturation as a soccer country that we have at last produced a whiny, mercurial thoroughbred.