Agreed, and for those who think Tuchel isn’t giving him opportunities and won’t start him. I also disagree. Pulisic has been given ample opportunities and has started under Tuchel numerous times. The issue has always been match fitness. He gets injured in warmups, in callups, in games and when walking around in public. He takes a long time healing more than what we are accustomed to seeing. He can’t even keep COVID away. If he can stay healthy for 6 months, he could become one of the best at his position. He has that kind of potential and Tuchel can see that. Time will tell but at this point I’m wondering if he can stay healthy.
He hasn't proven that he can have a 6 month healthy stretch so far in his career. Until he proves that, tuchel will continue using him as a super sub and spot starter
Pulisic was not in what I would say "fine form" heading into that CL final... His match rating reviews across all media outlets were average to below average during the last 5 matches prior to the CL final(May 29th)...His form had clearly dropped by than...After his Madrid performances, he was pretty average the rest of the way. May 8th Manchester City May 12th Arsenal May 15th Leiceister(Cup Final) May 18th Leiceister May 23rd Aston Villa May 29th Manchester City (Champions League Final) He picked up just 1 assist against Aston Villa..a match many Chelsea fan felt he was bad...but he did pick up a key assist... Werner, Harvetz and Zeyech all scored/assisted in the last 5 matches and one could argued were in better form ....Pulisic played these last matches like he had run out of gaz and was noticeably no longer pressing hard. In all competition last year, Pulisic made 42 appearances, 2,452 Minutes played.. scored 6 goals and assisted 4.....4 Premiere League goals and 2 assist... 2 CL goals and 2 assist. Harvetz appeared in 45 matches..2,519 minute played...scored 9 goals and assisted 9..(3 of these goals came against leagueCup inferior opponent) My final point is..Even when he was healthy and fit, Pulisic really wasn't clearly better than guys like Harvertz, Werner Zeyech. His goal/assist per minutes played was was not better than Harvertz and Werner...his competitors. He had his moments, specially in the Madrid matches but not consistent enough throughout the season...I don't think it's enough to make Chelsea not want to spend massive amount of cash to bring in stiffer competition next summer.
Yeah, Ballack was always treated well and still has a good impression of the club. The fella I think the OP is thinking of is Winston Bogarde and that was more a matter of both sides being a bit pig-headed... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Bogarde#Chelsea Truth is the guy could have gone elsewhere and we'd have probably negotiated buying him out of a proportion of his contract and he may have lost some money but then, he would still have earned a great deal of money, (he was only about 29 when he came to us), and played a game most people would pay money to be allowed to play for a living. Nobody comes out of it well but it's hard to say that was solely down to us as a club.
sorry - I stopped reading after “his match rating reviews across all media outlets…” if we all made judgements based on those, then Mason Mount would win the Ballon d'Or
It wasn't just British outlet, unfortunately...ESPN and SI gave him 5's and 6's on 4 of the final 5 matches prior to the CL finals...Maybe if I have time, I would pull out all his ratings reviews but that would probably take too long. Any objective observers would agree he was far far from "in fine form"..No more than Zeyech,Werner, Harvertz...
So am I. Who gives a shit about "ratings"? Why is YA obsessed with ratings? This is literally the only place I ever see them brought up as meaningful in any way. The same post about CP's form during that time period goes on to talk about his production over his minutes for that season compared to the likes of Havertz who everyone was saying had a "bad" year... that's the kind of thing that actually matters. Not what some website gives him as a grade based on whatever the ******** they want.
Also, Kai and Timo are, so far like 11-12 or 12-13 for minutes. And two guys above them are knocked... Ultimately, the number of inputs that would go into a decision to leave Chelsea in summer 22 - which will include PT, healthy, price, TT's future, management's "vibe" on CP, interest, if he thinks his WC opportunity is in peril (not likely if healthy) etc. etc.- are pretty hard to game out in October 21, if you ask me. It will take a rather extended period of a healthy CP not getting meaningful minutes for him to push to leave, imho.
so much emphasis on the word “fine” to win an argument. As I am using “fine,” I am saying that I think he was playing well enough…average to slightly above average. And many others thought he had a shout to start the final, so I know I was not alone. And his performance in the previous 2 matches vs Real were above average, so yeah, I would say he had a decent argument to start - if coaches do indeed play the “hot hand.” But if you are wanting to tally up An average of the ratings from the previous 10 matches and create your own index, be my guest. I guess you argument is that he was playing poorly? Because I assure you , he was not. But I guess we see the game differently.
When I ask my wife how things are going and she says, “fine!”, that means I am on about a 4.5 Whoscored. I could bring out all sorts of stats to counter but it wouldn’t matter.
Sure, but if your friend's date is "fine" you got to avert your eyes at all costs to keep from drooling.
It’s astonishing to me that an American player scored and assisted and played decent in a CL semifinal over 2 legs vs REAL MADRID, but I can’t say he was “in fine form” and the argument seems to be that he was playing crap and had no business playing in a CL final. I give up.
Dest is playing for a team which continues to have high expectations even though they cannot afford players who have the talent to meet those high expectations.
Aggregated ratings from WhoScored, SofaScore and FotMob: May 8th Manchester City (WhoScored, SofaScore, FotMob) Pulisic 6.7 (6.5, 6.7, 6.8) Werner 6.6 (6.7, 6.1, 7.0) Havertz DNP Ziyech 8.2 (8.3, 8.0, 8.4) May 12th Arsenal (WhoScored, SofaScore, FotMob) Pulisic 6.7 (6.5, 6.9, 6.6) Werner DNP Havertz 6.4 (6.3, 6.4, 6.5) Ziyech 6.5 (6.2, 6.9, 6.3) May 15th Leicester (Cup Final) (WhoScored, SofaScore, FotMob) Pulisic 6.5 (6.3, 6.7, 6.6) Werner 5.9 (5.9, 6.1, 5.8) Havertz 5.8 (5.9, 6.0, 5.6) Ziyech 6.4 (6.3, 6.8, 6.2) May 18th Leicester (WhoScored, SofaScore, FotMob) Pulisic 6.4 (6.4, 6.1, 6.7) Werner 7.3 (7.1, 7.2, 7.5) Havertz Injured Ziyech DNP May 23rd Aston Villa (WhoScored, SofaScore, FotMob) Pulisic 7.1 (6.9, 6.9, 7.5) Werner 6.8 (6.5, 7.2, 6.6) Havertz 6.1 (6.1, 6.0, 6.1) Ziyech 6.6 (6.3, 6.9, 6.5) So Pulisic was the only one that played in all five games and was best rated among the group in three games and second best rated in the other two. I think it's safe to say Pulisic was the most in form among these four players.
TT does not select players based on footmob ratings. CP, when healthy, has gotten game, sometimes as "super-sub," sometimes as starter. Until CP gets and stays healthy none of us have any idea where he falls on the pecking order when Chelsea has all top players healthy. Chelsea is unlikely to have all top players healthy very often.
I think you are missing the point of the conversation from previous posts. No one is saying Pulisic is killing it at Chelsea right now and ready to start tomorrow. A previous poster argued that, based on average scores from player rating media outlets, Pulisic was not playing well at the end of last season. My contention was that he did, considering his performance in CL semifinals, and as the last poster showed, his player ratings were actually decent, relative to other CFC players. And we have also argued that player ratings from media outlets are not always accurate and should not matter. So you are helping prove our point….
In football terminology, whenever a player is described as being in fine form, it usually means he's playing well above average in respective to everyone else..or among the top performers on at least his squad. But hey, maybe you simply have a different definition of what it means being in fine form..Mine is much higher than the poster above..so let's leave it at that..No need for endless debate about it. Also, I wouldn't t take automated ratings system seriously..Not that they should be totally ignore but I feel people who actually watched the match will have a better input on how each players played. The problem with them is, a player could play like total crap for 89 minutes and than get a easy tap in at the end of the match and these automated raters would rate him higher than someone that played much better throughout the match but did not get the easy tap in goal or a easy pass assist for a goal.
Hey, I could also pick and choose which rating system to use to paint my own argument in a positive light..I just don't have time to do it. But I do give higher weight toward publication with human watchers than automated rating system...I have huge issues with WhoScored in particular...Don't know the others you posted. Saying that, my point was that CP was in no finer form than his competition and I don't think your automated system you picked glaringly disproved my point..specially when all of them except CP missed 1 match. The difference between them from each match were small..the exception being Aston Villa in which I thought he played below average and most Chelsea fan agreed. I explained above my issues with automated system and how they overweigh certain statistics.. For example, CP was playing below average in respective to his teammates throughout the Aston Villa match..but he happened to get an assist at the very end of the match..and that alone greatly boosted his average above most.
I've watched many a game where CP rarely received the ball. A lot of times the players are focused on someone else when a pass to him would have created a great scoring chance. The bottom line is: when you are fed the ball (focus of offense) you will have more chances to create something (think about first year with Chelsea).
I'm continuing the larger conversation that those points spurred off - which is the contention that CP will force a move out of Chelsea because otherwise his WC playing aspirations are in jeopardy. My point is that ratings - good or bad - are irrelevant, except to the extent they correlate to TT/Chelsea's internal metrics. The idea CP would force a summer move out of Chelsea in order to get US WC PT would have to hinge on: 1) CP being healthy enough to be fit and available for a long stretch of games for Chelsea. 2) CP being healthy, fit, and available and not getting enough minutes for US coach to leave them out of significant minutes for the US. My point is neither of these has happened very much - and I very much doubt both will happen together before the summer transfer window. I think 1) ratings are irrelevant. 2) CP's health will be main consideration. 3) Even if he's not playing much for Chelsea, he's going to the WC and playing as much as he can. Now, whether he wants out of Chelsea for other reasons is a different issue, but I just don't think it's very likely he's healthy, and completely iced out by Chelsea. And if he is - he's really in bad form and it's a whole new convo.