Does CP have a say?..If he has, the club should politely let him know he'd be for his club's future best interest to stay in London so to avoid getting hurt and missing out on any more club matches....Afterall, they're the one paying him big wages. Than Pulisic will have to decide which is more important right now..A concacaf match opponent in which USMNT shouldn't need him to win or staying at his club to get his career going.
I mean yes he doesn’t have to show up if he doesn’t want to, but the guy clearly cares about the national team a ton and specially about making sure we make the World Cup again. I think he feels directly responsible for making sure that we do. Also the club is not going to push him to stay behind as long as he’s healthy. Think of how many players on Chelsea play internationally. They are not going to single out Pulisic and insist he stay behind. Also more generally that have a commercial interest in having a high profile US player. They aren’t going to try and kill that on purpose. It’s also not as if his injuries have come while on national team duty other than this last time.
yes it was. the injury was non contact. AFTER his ankle folded under then the defender came through and he jumped over the leg and tumbled. now if you are saying there were other rough tackles in the game - certainly. The ankle sprain was non contact.
I said “a move”, not that particular trade. But congratulations, I think you accomplished your objectives with that response.
The unwritten (but largely followed) rule in British football is “club before country.” Yes, it’s WC qualifying and CP loves playing for the US, but 1) he is not 100 % healthy 2) the club pays his wages and he has not been able to give them more than one match this season (not that he deserves blame for that, injuries happen) 3) the US has the talent to win in this window without him (and they better get at least 6 points - but I expect 7). So I don’t know if a conversation was had with player, club, and country - but I bet there was, and all parties know it is best if CP stays in London and recovers and gets his club season off the ground. All this other speculation is moot
I mean is that a rule that only applies to Pulisic? I don’t think other players on Chelsea are sitting out WCQ games because of the chance that they could get hurt while playing. Pulisic isn’t coming because he isn’t healthy. And we know that because he’s yet to return to playing with his club. Who clearly miss his presence. And given what happened last time with qualifying, there’s definitely a bit of arrogance to the notion that we don’t need our best player this window because of our talent compared to the other teams.
1. please name the other players at Chelsea who have missed almost the entire (albeit brief) season thus far, are recovering from injury, and are now going out for international duty. I do not know of any other like for like comparison to CP’s situation. 2. I agree he is not fully healthy, and that is mainly why he won’t travel. And yea, lucky for us, CFC fans may now be realizing what he actually brings to the table. You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. No issue with your take there. 3. you misconstrued my words, there is no arrogance there. I am more than aware that the USA can (and has) crapped the bed in matches they should win. where did I say we don’t need our best players in qualifying? I would love to have CP play. But based on our growing roster of internationally-sought talent, and the players we do have at our disposal, we should, in theory, be able to get the results we need vs the teams we are playing in this upcoming window. But I did not say it will be a cake walk. I just said, as a fan, I expect them to get 6-7 points because that is what they should be capable of and I can demand that be an expectation as a fan. If you are inferring that this team cannot compete with Jamaica or Panama or a struggling Costa Rica without Pulisic, then We probably should quit/forfeit now and look forward to 2026. Gregg has to be able to get results, even without CP, or he can look for a new job
I mean it’s a fairly short season as you said but Mason Mount for instance has also missed the last couple of games and is on England’s roster for the upcoming window. Pulisic is hardly the first player to get hurt on international duty and he won’t be the last. And while he’s got a history of injuries, very few that I can remember have come when he’s been with the national team. I just think there’s way too much consternation about Pulisic and his situation. He’s clearly not coming because he’s hurt. And so he’s a good player so he’s never had an issue in terms of winning a spot when he’s healthy. I mean we have to be able to get results and I think I we will be able to. The arrogance is the idea that some seem to be advancing that we should leave behind a healthy Pulisic, our best player, because we don’t need him to win these games anyways. I think we should be fine this window without him, but after not qualifying last window I take nothing for granted. And a team like Costa Rica may be down, but they did beat us home and away last time. Jamaica seems to be a mess but they certainly have talent. And Panama looked pretty solid last window. Now we should be fine but we also shouldn’t take these teams lightly.
Yep. A common refrain that I'm seeing is that the movement is a little too static now without the missing players like Pulisic/Mount and with Lukaku as a more traditional striker.
Yeah the thing is CP can also advance the ball out of the midfield like Mount and link to the other attackers. Most games when people complain about him not being an effective attacker is because he is mostly carrying the ball out of the midfield and trying to passing to others in advanced positions. But also there just isn't a lot of attacking talent out there most of the time. Just a lot of people who are good at keeping possession and not making dumb turnovers.
I mean... you said a move would benefit both, in direct response to a post about Sane & CP swapping in a deal? At least one other poster made the same reasonable assumption about your post and the post you quoted.
It's not so much that we're so awesome we can manage without Pulisic and Reyna, but that both Pulisic and Reyna have failed to prove themselves essential for the NT. In fact, I think we've got better results without either of them on the field.
I am glad CP is not going on USMLSNT duty. I don't care if we are better or worse without him, it is a shit coach and a shit federation, great talent and mostly a pretty decent group of lads, but pretty much everything else about our program is shit. On topic I do hope he is healthy when the break is over and he can hit a stretch of availability. More than anything else his ceiling is being limited by that, not TT, not the shit NT, but his inability to stay fit is what is holding him back now.
I'd say his ceiling is mainly being hit by his lack of vision on the field. Technically, he's top notch, though.
I disagree. He is not consistent with his technique. Quite often, he is playing too fast for his technical abilities and dribbles into personal danger (including getting hacked/injury). When he is totally 'on' (like June-July 2020), yes he is top notch. Unfortunately, he has been unable to maintain that level of form consistently. Also, he seems incapable of putting a solid shot on goal from outside the box. This is a failure of technique. He lacks power because of his technique. He doesn't get a solid plant on his foot. The same skill that allows him to skate by defenders (running somewhat balancing on the sides of his feet) puts him often in a poor position to drill a shot. Occasionally he can, but his degree of accuracy is low and extremely low outside the box when you have to generate placement and accuracy. That's why you see him shoot over the bar from distance often. The comparison is often made to Hazard. In his Chelsea prime, Hazard could beat multiple players in short spaces with better control (his feet were flatter on the ground) which allowed him to hit shots from distance with power as well without having to lean back to get torc. His hips were doing the deception, whereas Pulisic is not as good as using his hips, but rather pushed the ball into spaces and/or 'baits' players to bite and then beats the defender to the ball with his foot speed, which can get him by defenders, but sometimes leaves Pulisic off balance (unlike Hazard). We have seen Pulisic improve his foot coordination (again June-July 2020-2021) but it has not been consistent. This will be a big challenge for him. Also, he needs to figure something out about hacked so much. This is not sustainable, and part of it arises from the technique of 'baiting' the defender at speed whereby the defender is going to either getting the ball or take out Pulisic or both. One thing I find about Pulisic's technique which is top notch (and I wish we would see it more) he is exceptionally good at turning in a 180 motion into empty space and getting an approaching defender to follow him onto his trailing shoulder. In my mind, this is a safer way to bait a defender and also open up the space and throw chaos into the opponents defense. Benny Feilhaber used to have this same skill (and would execute it even better with outside of right) and it is world-class skill. I agree with you that Pulisic sometimes has tunnel vision due to focus on dribbling guys. Chelsea need Pulisic at the top of his game. They don't have hardly anyone with his skill set, and already teams have figured out they can sit deep in a low block and Chelsea struggles because they can't move the ball fast enough to disrupt the defense. Players with Pulisic skillset in that can beat + take a defender out of the equation is valuable in creating disruption and space for high quality goal chances. Chelsea need to 'mix it up' to disrupt a defense and Pulisic on his game can do that. Not to mention his ability to play a ball into Lukaku and run at speed to the layoff spot in the box and get a shot off before the defense can adjust. In this respect, Werner should also be in the mix, but we all know about his god-awful mental block at finishing.
Not only is he injury prone, he's an incredibly slow healer. Some people's bodies just are not capable of durability in a professional career -- even pro athletes'.
Tuchel on Pulisic in today's press conference ahead of match against Southhampton: "Do we miss Christian Pulisic? Of course we miss sprints and intensity. "It needs to be on the best level and a good fit. We have the squad and the duty, on me as a coach to find solutions, it is possible to win games without Mason Mount. Hopefully he knows with how much respect, and how much I love him. I want him to be in the team. If he is injured, we need to win games without him. It is the same with N’Golo, Christian Pulisic and Reece James."
I share this frustration as others: why can no one give a accurate/specific health update? Maybe we are spoiled in America, because in a league like the NFL, for example, the whole world Knows if a guy bruised his toe getting out of bed one morning. So far with Chelsea, we don’t know if Pulsic is returning to training in a day or two, or if he is in an air cast for the next month. the only encouraging sign I’ve found is that FIFA 22 video on the Chelsea site, where Pulisic is in training gear, probably for individual workout in the past week, looking at his new FIFA rating….so apparently he is still alive
the full context of the quote was an English reporter leading Tuchel that Mount being hurt is why they lost against City and Juve, and TT was like “we took him out at half vs Spurs because he was garbage and we ran roughshod in the 2nd half…yeah, he’s good and we miss him, like we do the other guys, but seriously English media?” It’s easy to see why coaches like Mount, and Tuchel is no exception, but the attempts by the Brits to make him something he’s not are quite odd.