His precise words in the press conference were: “For Pulisic we are *looking* at the Burnley match. If everything goes alright he will be ready to play.” Sounds like they really want to give him a full week of team training before he makes a sub appearance. Maybe he’ll make the bench in midweek? But it’s only Malmo, so no reason to risk it really.
Thomas Tuchel has revealed that N’Golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are all ‘available’ ahead of this weekend’s trip to St James’ Park. However, there is some bad news for the German to contend with despite being boosted by some significant returnees. The Blues have lost Croatian midfielder Mateo Kovacic for ‘some weeks’ after he suffered a hamstring injury training. He joins the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic on the sidelines. https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/news/tuchel-chelsea-squad-newcastle-revealed-22012893
Kovacic is a blow for them. He is their security blanket in midfield. Even Kante doesn’t really seem to do the job as the destroyer as well as Kova for Chelsea. I don’t think the pairing or Jorginho and Kante is anywhere near as solid. We might see some wobbling results from the Blues over the next few weeks.
You are right that Kovacic is unique and they will miss him. Kante is actually still better at destroying and snuffing out attacks, but Kovacic does some of that and excels at carrying the ball through traffic in midfield quickly after turnovers, and is one of only two players (Pulisic being the other) who can consistently beat his man off the dribble, and he plays incisive, progressive passes.
Really good day for Chelsea, both results from Liverpool and Man City went their ways. Clearly #1 on the table.
I'm old enough to remember Lampard being criticized for bringing Puli back too quickly. In this same thread believe it or not!
No way he is not on the US roster? Really? And 6 people repped this? The guy has played 1 game for his club and it is almost November. Because of this, I would guess there is no way he goes to the US this window.
Because he is constantly injured and no longer an asset to his team that pays him a superstar's salary. I don't think he will play for the US this time around. But it is all moot because he probably got injured in the time that I have been typing this reply.
And now you're going to say that "Chelsea has no say in the matter." On paper, maybe not. But both Tuchel and Berhalter have their own best interests, which are directly related to Pulisic's best interests. For both teams, an unrecovered, re-injured, unfit Pulisic is of no use to either of them. Do you recall how long it takes CP to gain match fitness when he comes back from injury? Many matches, because pace is a huge part of his game.
The NT plays as well, if not better, with Pulisic out. So I'm not in any hurry to have him back. Let him recover fully, gain match fitness, and re-gain his position with Chelski until he gets injured again in 3-4 weeks.
Plenty of teams will pay him the salary he gets now. Even a few MLS teams would. But what teams will not pay is a giant transfer fee. But that isn't Pulisic's problem. That is why Chelsea is the one that cannot afford to freeze him out forever over something so dumb as him deciding to play in WCQs.
I mean Pulisic is healthy and is probably going to play in the Burnley game next weekend pre-window. Given those facts, what evidence do you have that he won’t be called up? Like a healthy Pulisic isn’t sitting this window out. Now he may not start and go 90 in both games, but that’s a different discussion.
Plenty of teams will pay him the salary he gets now? His value has gone down. When you miss an entire season of matches due to injury in a 2.25 year career your value goes down. Does it not? I'm asking you. adi21 said that I am the wrong guy to ask for evidence to support my opinions. Well my evidence tells me that Pulisic has had 11 unique injuries at Chelsea and has missed 39 games. Since I'm the "no evidence guy" you tell me whether you think his value has gone up, down or remained the same. Do you really think Pulisic wants to go to MLS or some lower tier european team? That's ridiculous.