still, not playing the leading man role for his club likely left Pulisic less than full strength at the WC.....there was certianly room for him to perform better than he did in Qatar...so players should think long and hard about going to the EPL without knowing where they will stand with those clubs. (and for me I prefer us players in a comfortable starting role....a la cherundolo than a bench role at a big club a la pulisic lately)
Any more word on the Sterlling "family situation?" Must be pretty serious to miss a WC game. Hope all is ok. CP did himself no harm at the WC. He's not going to outshine many of the stars, but he was the guy seen in the media as carrying/leading the US (fwiw) in most of the press I saw. He's still not up to carrying a team, but he's also pretty young. He'll get a decent move and keep being a very good player who could become a franchise player at the right club.
1 goal and 2 assists in 3.5 matches. Not bad but of course I had hoped he'd have a few more goals/assists.
Right - if a manager has three different very good players to choose from, in any given match they can go with which one better fits the tactical scheme, matches up better with the opponent, is more rested, etc. The biggest clubs pay a lot to have those options, so they're going use them. There is a pretty small, elite group of players who will make themselves indispensable starters at any club in the world. Pulisic hasn't attained that - I think he might have done so in the absence of injury struggles, but there's no way of knowing. Regardless, his current level and role is sufficient to make him clearly the best player of the current USMNT, and (I believe) the all-time best US as player well.
mid Shaq Moore had hit a cross first time v England, Pulisic was making an amazing run to get in scoring position.
I agree with everything you've said here, except for him being the US' best all-time player. I still think that Donovan still holds that title now, but the next 4 years of club & WC play, will tell the tale for Christian.
Puli did very well. Just an assist in a WC is a good show, if the guy was useful in other ways. At this level, 1G/2A is very good.
He led the team in assists and hospital stays. One of our best players of the tournament, as usual. Assuming bruise can heal in three weeks, returning to Chelsea mostly healthy. Can't ask for much more. But the January transfer window looms large. There are not a lot of clubs with as much stockpiled depth as Chelsea, and presumably no one wants to pay a big fee for him unless they think he's a potential starter in half or more of their games.
Football Reference does a "most similar players" based on comping people to peers statistically. For Pulisic, the most similar players at the World Cup are... 1) De Bruyne; 2) Ousmane Dembele; 3) Mbappe; 4) Ruben Vargas; 5) Serge Gnabry; 6) Son
That really sux. Hope he can rejoin the team and get some PT next game. What a way to mess up someone's WC.
CP sitting on 20th for G+A (-PK)/90 at WC (although there are a few teams yet to play their 4th game.) Funnily enough he's 2 spots above Gapko, also above Ziyech, Dembele and Messi! lol. 22nd (atm) for A/90 as well and tied with Kane for G(-PK)/90 @ 63rd. Perfectly respectable balls-out performance that might not earn new converts but will only increase any existing interest in him going forward.
I suspect people who know a lot about the game are often bad at coaching for the same reason the best researchers in a scientific field make for lousy professors: they assume everybody else is at their level, and they "lose" their pupils.
I think Tuchel is a very good coach, one of the best problem. His main issue is that he grates on people and has a shelf life at any club. This happened at Dortmund, it happened at PSG, and it happened at Chelsea. But in between he had some very good results at all 3 clubs.
If I'm Pulisic I just go hit free kicks from around the 20 yard arc every day, all day, till I figure out how to score at a reasonable rate from a deadball. If he could develop a reasonably consistent corner-finding shot - doesn't even have to be a missile, just accurate and bending enough to sneak in a bit - he'd improve his stats - and help his teams more. He gets the FKs. If he was a danger to covert it would up his game (not that he'd get a lot of chances to hit them at Chelsea atm, but if he started converting, maybe.)
TT is like scotch, kinda bitter, a little smoky, perfect in small doses, but once you get too much, there's no remedy save going home and enduring the pain you know is coming with the sunrise.
This might be a total waste of time because I have no idea how hard it is to become proficient, but I think he should spend some time working on scoring with his head. He seems to get a fair amount of reasonable looks due to his willingness to run into the box, but they typically go off his shoulder or pop straight up. I just can’t help but think he’d score a couple more each year with some improvement…..now to find some more of that scotch you were talking about.
Lot of buzz today about Pulisic to Newcastle in January. What’s different in this new round of rumors is that numbers are quoted: 26mil transfer price, which is about half what Chelsea paid. Some of the reports indicate that a few other clubs are interested (PL and Serie A). CP said a few weeks ago that he wanted to stay, and maybe he does. Hhe may be the breadwinner for his whole family, and he likes London. But I hope he makes a move because he seems to play best when he has a sense that his position is secure. Even if he rotates with Almiron and St Maximin that would be a better environment than Chelsea. And clearly the manager wants wingers who run at people. Or, even if it isn’t Newcastle, GTF out of Chelsea to Serie A.
Yeah, I'd love to see him move to Newcastle. He needs to be somewhere he can at least have a decent shot at playing 1/2 - 2/3 of the available minutes so he can continue to improve. He's not getting that at Chelsea, and there's no indication he's going to any time soon. It's kind of crazy though that he's only worth around what Leeds paid for Aaronson (maybe less). I think Pulisic is a significantly better player at this point, but I know opinions vary on that.
Not that it matters but I'm seeing a lot of Chelsea fans after Puli's WC saying he needs more time with Chelsea and Chelsea has been the problem, not Puli.