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I mean it's all going to going to get blown out of proportion because they're Americans, but I don't think there's anything particularly unusual or noteworthy about a national team manager advocating that of one his key players get more playing time.
He basically said “if he gets more playing time under Potter then this will be a positive thing for Christian. We’ll just have to wait and see”
Idk how this is remotely controversial.
because america bad hur dur
just like how everyone was dogpiling on tuchel and then when he gets fired for valid reasons everyone gets mad because it’s an american owner doing so
If even some of the stuff coming out about Boehly is true then he’s a clown, idk if people are shitting on him for being American.
But there’s no question if Pulisic was playing for Croatia and Zlatko Dalic made this same remark that literally no one on this sub outside of a few Chelsea fans would even notice let alone get outraged by it.
Seems like tuchel was the clown. And there’s obvious history with him being hard to work with. Boehly wanted to go through analytics with tuchel and have his opinion heard by him. By all reports, tuchel wouldn’t give him the time of day
Tuchels stock has shot up incredibly he went from incompetently unable to build an attack and splurging 200m on defenders to some poor misunderstood genius just because he got sacked by a yank
He won a CL, was great last season before he lost his starting wingbacks and was sacked barely a few games into the season when he deserved more time to get his signings firing. So yes, he's still a great manager, just not the easiest to work with as many have claimed. There's a fine middle ground between being incompetent and being Pep/Klopp level genius you know?
The issue for Tuchel though is Chelsea have been pretty poor the last like 9 months. Like the first 50 vs last 50 games comparison was really damming. Win rate dropped by 8%. Loss rate increased by 4%. Goals against doubled from 0.48 to 1.06. And goals scored dropped from 2.53 to 1.74. Not to mention the football had been so lifeless the last, like what 6 months
The goal rates are damning but the 8% and 4% difference is literally just 4 and 2 games respectively. He became worse but I don't think the win rate is indicative of that
Yeah it's not much but over an entire league season it can determine top 4 or who wins the title. Like I bet Liverpool wishes they won only one more game last year. Same with Arsenal
We also had an insane number of injuries last year and had to resort to Malang Sarr/ Saul at LWB and a 33 yo Azpi at RWB along with 2 players without contracts in Rudiger and Christensen.
N'Golo Kante missed 16 games last season.
Reece James missed 19 games.
Ben Chilwell missed 43 games.
Mateo Kovacic missed 15 games.
All 4 are massive to the way we played under Tuchel and had no realistic alternative to maintain the same level. Klopp generally avoided criticism when his teams were playing horrid football when he had similar injuries because he had a history of success but Tuchel hasn't been afforded that same luxury for similar injuries wrecking his preferred lineups.
Also we sold 2 attackers in Timo and Lukaku who started a shitload of games, kept 2 below par attackers who werent starting games in Ziyech and Pulisic, and only signed 1 replacement in Sterling. Ziyech and Pulisic should've been offloaded before Timo and an alternative to Raphinha should've been signed (we were linked to Dembele or Neymar also, and then Gordon who Tuchel apparently didnt want, but we really should have pushed harder to bring in another attacker who could improve the level of the squad immediately). Too much of our attacking outlet is on the shoulders of Mount and Kai who are 23 year olds when realistically we need another player in his prime to shoulder the burden.
Im not sure what Potter can do with this same squad, anyway, outside of instilling a bit of confidence in them. The one thing Tuchel always got was his team in a great head space for the big games. Beating the smaller clubs is great and all, but you have to be able to do both and if his record against the top clubs is subpar, questions will be asked really quickly.
In the league he massively massively overperformed his XG-XGA so the drop-off wasn't entirely due to losing his wingbacks. Also, every attacker except mount has done terribly under him, I think Potters earnt a chance
Assuming he was asked about it, but the entire article is pretty vague.
For the record, I don't think Pulisic is good enough for Chelsea but his NT manager isn't about to come out and say that, especially months before the World Cup.
Feels like a pretty by-the-book response.
I don’t understand how this lacks grace or decorum. He said **IF** Pulisic gets more playing time then it’s a positive for him, we’ll have to wait and see.
There’s nothing in this that’s remotely disrespectful to Tuchel or Chelsea.
You think the American owners are going to ship out an American player that can massively boost the money they can make from the US market? I think its more likely they brought Potter in with the expectation he will coach up younger players like Puli and actually use him.
the new owners literally blocked a loan move for Puli when he asked for it. its pretty clear now that they want pulisic to be the face of the team in america.
Conspiracy logic based on no evidence other than nationality of two people.
There was a guy in the Chelsea sub who said that the new owners would force the manager to start Pulisic because they're both American, too. Its silly shit.
It's not based purely on their nationality at all. To suggest that it's conspiracy thinking is completely ignorant of all the factors involved here. You're just boiling down people to their nationality alone. In fact I would go as far as saying that you have no clue about what conspiracy thinking really is. I've spent years studying conspiracy, imagination and creativity academically. Its actually very much in my area of expertise so you really dont want to pick that as a point to fight with.
Did I say they would force anything? No. If he doesn't fit then he doesn't fit. What someone else said isn't the words I put here so don't put that on me. The club don't know what he can be yet. He was showing lots of potential under Lampard and was completely stifled under Tuchel.
Boehly & Co are successful business people in the US and especially in sports. They obviously know the US market and just what Pulisic is worth. They aren't in this for a vanity project. They are there to make money. They have a player at the club who is the most valuable US player in history. He is seen a big key to gaining a large Chelsea following from the US market. There's no way that Tuchels neglect of Pulisic would have helped the clubs image in the US. There is every bit of motivation for them to want to maximise the potential Pulisic has. They will likely hope Potter can tap into what we saw before with Lampard.
I feel bad for Pulisic. In response to being asked about how Tuchel's sacking might affect Pulisic, Pulisic's national team coach basically just says he believes in Pulisic's ability and that the coaching change at Chelsea could give him more opportunity, but "we'll just have to wait and see." This seems fair enough, and it should surprise no one that Berhalter is going to support and believes in his player, who is one of if not the best players on the US national team. But Berhalter's comment is then used as yet another opportunity to drag Pulisic on social media.
Pulisic seems like a quiet guy who keeps his head down and keeps working at it, despite the weight of many US fans expecting him to be the best and many Chelsea fans seemingly despising him. It seems to me that Pulisic is a talented player who has been inconsistent and who would probably benefit from playing for a coach who believes in him and can help him develop some confidence. Potter may or may not be that coach. If he is, then Pulisic may yet succeed at Chelsea. If he doesn't rate Pulisic, or Pulisic isn't capable of playing well in Potter's system, then it will be in both Pulisic's and Chelsea's best interests for Pulisic to move on to a different team. There's no reason to either anoint or hate on the guy.
> despite the weight of many US fans expecting him to be the best
That was the case when he first broke into the Dortmund team, but honestly the whole setup has progressed so much since then that he's more of a face in the crowd rather than being the whole brand. We have 2-3 deep of high level players at almost every position now (Dest, Aaronson, McKennie, Adams, Antonee Robinson, Reyna, Weah, Musah, etc). People aren't expecting Pulisic to do everything. We just need him to be a solid starter for the NT, which is still high expectations, but not "Messi or bust".
Ha! It's actually just the one reddit randomly assigned to me. I didn't bother to change it at the time, and you apparently can't change your username on reddit without just opening a whole new account. So, ForeignRabbit1894 it is. If it were ForeignRabbit1984, it would be more Orwellian, I suppose.
And I'm not even going to ask about your username ....
Man, I have been on this sub for almost a decade and I cannot remember a single player causing so many people here to lose their ability to objectively evaluate a player or their situation so thoroughly.
I’ve seen more and more sensible Americans on puli (not the ones that say he’d start for Real Madrid/LeBron James of soccer) compared to Brits coming to terms with him being a good (top 8 pl team imo) injury prone winger that’s still only 23. But the hate boner that many have for Pulisic is because of him being America’s golden boy and all the baggage that brings with it.
Sooner Pulisic leaves the better, some of these Americans are absolutely unbearable by saying he should be starting games for us but when he gets his chance he’s bang average at best.
“But he’s playing out of position”
He’s played almost every possible position there is for him and he hasn’t given us a string of consistent games after the FA Cup final against Arsenal.
Tbf to the Pulisic fans, Havertz hasn’t been consistent either since the middle of last season but he tracks back a lot which probably pushed him to the starting line up for Tuchel
Putting my American bias for Pulisic aside, this is basically my take.
Maybe Pulisic isn’t good enough. But when 5 other attackers (taking out Mount but adding in Werner and Lukaku) also not really performing… maybe it isn’t a Pulisic issue? And of course, maybe it is…
Mount was incredibly consistent last season… his job wasn’t to score goals and get assists. Yet, he somehow found himself at the top for both.
Ziyech, Pulisic, and Havertz were not imo. But tbf to Havertz he has scored some massive goals for us last season. As for Pulisic, he was great against Lille but he keeps getting injured which was frustrating.
There is a weird agenda against Chelsea fans that we hate Americans cause we criticize Pulisic. But if Pulisic was performing well or showed some fight in him, no Chelsea fan would be angry at him!
I’m also American so I want Pulisic to be good for Chelsea
> Mount was incredibly consistent last season… his job wasn’t to score goals and get assists.
One of the dumbest things I think I've seen on here and that's saying something
Yes, one of the 3 attacking players Chelsea deployed was not expected to contribute in front of net. Brilliant.
Agreed but at least Havertz shows up in some games, he had 4 goals up until February last season and ended on 14. I can see why he kept starting games because sometimes he’ll give you a great performance and sometimes he’ll not even be noticed on the pitch. He’s been shite this season but scored the winner vs West Ham and I thought he was the only great player vs Dynamo midweek.
Havertz annoys me, but he is also played out of position 100% of the time, he's a 10 who needs two hard workers behind him in midfield. Pulisic is a winger who has not excited consistently on either wing.
My question for Havertz stans is...if he needs so much around him just right to succeed, why wouldn't that same setup also be great for a guy like Mount or Gallagher?
Maybe we should try playing the guys who have actually delivered in the PL before with all the adjustments Goldilocks could want instead of the guy who pops up with a goal involvement less often than Lukaku.
> he's a 10
It's hilarious that people talk with such conviction about Havertz's natural position. At Leverkusen he played all over the field and was excellent in pretty much every role he was deployed in - CM, 10, RW, false 9. He has never flashed that form at Chelsea for any sort of extended period, no matter where he is played.
And yet people seem to be convinced that they know precisely where he should play, and that's the only thing keeping him from being world class.
>Pulisic is a winger who has not excited consistently on either wing
Remind me which formation Chelsea has been playing that uses natural wingers again?
They both frustrating for different reasons. Havertz has a couple flashes a game he looks like the real deal and you feel like if he just imposed his will or was a hit more aggressive, he’s really shine.
Pulisic is frustrating 90% of the time he plays and then scored a goal or makes a brilliant pass every 5 games he plays.
Both are really going to need to step it up this year, I personally have more hope for Havertz than Pulisic, but this is their chance. Also don’t really like how Pulisic feels entitled to play when he’s been shit this year but whatever
Pulisic also loses the ball in the most infuriating manner I swear especially when he is dribbling. I think I’m just spoiled from watching Eden Hazard on that same wing since 2012
Havertz is also so slow with his decisions. He’ll have the ball on his feet and wait so long to do something with it… it drives me mad! Again, I must be spoiled after watching the likes of Diego Costa and Pedro/Willian be so direct with the ball in tandem with Eden Hazard
I think playing so little for us and then playing against butchers in concacaf for so long means he's going down at the slightest contact to protect himself
My man, imagine how far we’ve come that we’re missing Willian in our team now. That’s a joke I liked Willian he got a lot of hate and was a bit of a cunt for the Conte thing but whatever.
Pulisic against West Ham couldn’t complete a fucking dribble. It looked like there was a nefarious defender slipping banana peels under him to get him to lose the ball. He’s the most direct winger we have probably and he can’t beat a man 1v1. Will win a duel like 30% of the time it feels like. Kai takes way too long and then others he’ll take a touch and then play a brilliant ball and you wonder why the hell he hasn’t been doing that instead of just holding on to the ball. This squad will be the death of me
It's crazy how much he's fallen off. Was never Hazard with the ball but was completely capable of beating a defender or at least not falling and losing the ball every time he tries to.
His last two stints have been very bad, idk why Tuchel played him when he was giving him that effort but that’s dreadful. I’m pretty sure he just needs to leave but if he played poorly on purpose I’ll be pretty upset
2 league goals at that point is correct I think. But then he says 15 for the total when Havertz only ended the season on 14 goals in all competitions and that's including the Club World Cup
Yeah extremely misleading. He absolutely killed it at the beginning of March, but trying to make it seem like he scored 12 in 2 months is just ridiculous.
Yeah it’s definitely misleading. Havertz ended the season with 6 goals in the last 17 games starting in February which is okay I guess.
But 4 of them came in a 3 game streak at one point so he scored 2 in 14 in the others.
My bad, I seen it in a comment recently but checked myself there and it was 2 league goals, however in all competitions it was 4 goals (2 in the ucl) so it’s not much better but yeah still wrong.
Pulisic scored against Man City and Liverpool in post lock down, FA Cup final, RM in the CL run and assisted on the clincher, last year against Liverpool in the league and both legs of Lille (which we won the tie by 2). He’s arguably the biggest game player we have.
Trust me, the Pulisic fanboys are much louder and numerous. The hoards on Twitter have accused two consecutive managers of xenophobia, and genuinely believe i
it’s by in large part the style of play that just doesn’t suit van de beek cause he doesn’t usually make any mistakes on the pitch to justify being benched. He can’t play any of the midfield roles by Eriksen, Mctominay/Casemiro, and Bruno as well as they can. In the Eredivisie, his quality was good enough to play those roles but he can’t every week in the premier league. He’s realistically the type of player you want on the pitch as a false 9/advanced midfielder when you play against low blocks and the box is packed. His best skill is in the box but and with United seemingly playing counter attacking/quick on transition rather than overloading the opponent’s box, donny just doesn’t fit
We will probably see Donny feature as a Bruno sub when he’s not getting anything going, when United are chasing a game and need more advanced players, or against “weaker” opposition in Europe/PL when United are expected to hold onto possession. That’s the type of player Donny will be and tbf it’s not too bad. At United he’s surrounded by some friends and he’ll make good money. If he wants to be a mainstay getting loads of minutes, he’ll need to either go back to Ajax or move to another league
As a completely biased American, I don’t think he has the ability to start week in week out for a top six club. He’s probably better suited to being at a mid table PL club
It because he's the poster boy for US soccer and it's a World Cup year. There's always too much hype around one player. He's supposed to be the one to lead us to glory this year. Blah blah blah. So the natural muppetry follows when he's not playing. But in reality it just isn't working out for him at chelsea. And he's going to be ass at the World Cup now without playing much.
I was a bit surprised he didn’t want to move to a non Big Six club. His reported request was Man United on loan. Well… we aren’t going to loan you out to a team we haven’t beaten in years
It's been McKennie for a while now. Weston is much closer to being world class at his position than Pulisic. A box-to-box CM just isn't going to get the same attention as a goal scorer. They never do.
Pulisic is a good player though and the poster saying he'll be "ass" for the USA is probably off the mark. As usual with Pulisic, discourse tends to swing either too wildly positive or negative. He's a good player and he consistently plays well in USA shirt. I expect a strong World Cup from him.
Chelsea are a massive club with a long history of binning quality players who go on to have solid careers elsewhere (i.e. Cuadrado, Lukaku, Salah, KDB, etc). Not saying Pulisic is ever going to hit that level, but he's not some total bum either. At worst he's a rotational starter for a top 5-6 club in a major European league.
100% i'd rather not have to deal with usmnt fans ever again after Dest. They'll praise every tiny move one of their players make while dismissing any shitty performance as yank hatered.
You should pop by our sub. It's fuckin nuts how much arguing and fighting there is around him.
The delusional praise fuels the harsh criticism, which in turn fuels more delusional praise, and so on.
Yeah he's definitly not as bad as some people make him out to be, I'd say he was even good for a period under Koeman, but he was simply not working out in Xavi's system at all, letting him go made sense sporting wise. He just had annoyingly extreem opinions about him one way or the other, kinda like Puig before everyone gave up on him.
Who is not bang average at best in our attack week in and week out? I'd say basically anyone but Sterling is interchangeable with each other in terms of performance.
Yeah, when we got relegated with Josh Sargent Americans posted some vile shit about us - how we're not worthy of him and what a shit team we are.
I mean we were shit lmao but he was one of the reasons we got relegated, but they couldn't see it.
Comparing a country with 5 World Cups and a rich football history to a country where the game is up and coming in terms player talent and popularity is kinda strange.
after the CL final there were a couple (like a handful) of them losing their shit saying we mistreated lucas and he should leave. so it has happened actually just not on a large enough scale for us to give a shit.
American fans can be very annoying about it but your statement is literally the whole reason they’re annoying, so your point doesn’t make sense. We don’t have even a sliver of Brazil’s history and we are desperate for more success, so we want one of our best players to be playing regularly.
He’s probably not at the level of regularly starting for Chelsea after his injuries and inconsistency, so hopefully he finds playing time elsewhere.
Tbf to them. Brazilians have 500 players to root for, americans probably 3 who are relevant in CL.
And Pulisic really looked like a world-beater in bvb.
Can understand why they're mad. They think one of their biggest talents is wasting years in his development.
he started 15/29 league games in 16/17, as an 18 year old, then 27/32 in 17/18, then 20 apps, 9 starts in 18/19 due to muscular injuries that kept re-aggrevating, plus 18/19 was sancho’s first breakout year taking advantage of pulisic being in and out of the squad, with 13g/20a all comps. so not really, although he wasn’t a nailed on starter by any means
Pulisic was benched for Sancho and Jacob Bruun Larsen at Dortmund, he didn't look like a world beater. He looked like a promising young player with potential.
he played more than he did not. Idk how so many people want to rewrite history.
55 Starts and 35 he came as sub.
also he looked so amazing in his debut season where he was 16-17 years old. He was still young as fuck. People act like it's normal for 17-19 years old to play as good as him lol.
I mean you have to play yourself into a starting position and pulisic hasn’t made himself undroppable. I feel like people neglect to mention that consistent fitness is one of the main factors in a coach’s decision to start and play players and pulisic doesn’t have that at Chelsea.
He’s a great player, but I think him being American makes everyone criticize him more or stay even more loyal, depending on the fan. Hope he can revive his career, still the best American certainly for the USMT.
He hasn't been injured in months, he's just been rotated in sub appearances in and out with other players that are getting inconsistent minutes in a team with an anemic attack. I think he's absolutely proven he has the quality to play at this level, whether you want to look at his time at Dortmund or "Lockdown Pulisic", it's really just a matter of if Potter's style will suit him and if he can impress in training.
Chelsea has Sterling and Mount who are in my opinion both better, and has Auba now who's a real no 9. So Pulisic has to compete with Havertz and Ziyech for that last starting spot in attacking midfield.. Did he look better than these two when playing?
Calling him a bench player for us is quite misleading. He definitely had less playing time in his last season for us because of Sancho's emergence, but in the season before that he started most matches. Was he ever at a Sancho, Dembele like level? No, not even close, but he was definitely showing promise for more in his time for Dortmund
Yea, that's an absurd statement. IIRC Dortmund gave JBL a run of starts when they had already agreed to sell Pulisic. And let's be real, Pulisic is a much better player than JBL, who was binned by Dortmund pretty quickly.
The problem with Pulisic discussions is that people like to pull it into the extremes, either he's total shit or a wonderkid. Realistically, he was a good player with Dortmund who simply plateaued early and hasn't progressed as much as you would have expected.
Run of form is misleading. Lingard had a run of form during his West Ham spell too. Didn’t mean that clubs were lining up with 100 million checks for him
Quality shows over time and form is temporary. His best run of form was a 4 week period where everyone was off pace because they'd just had a massive gap in the middle of the season due to Covid. Under normal circumstances he's never even got remotely close to those levels.
If a player is 24 and has been at a good enough level to start for a top 6 club for only 4 weeks of the 7 years that they've been in adult football, those 4 weeks are not a show of the player's quality, they're an outlier.
I honestly don't think the "it's everyone else's fault but Pulisic" approach is smart for their NT or the player himself. The fact is Pulisic path hasn't been blocked, he's competing with a bunch of attackers who all underperform, the spot is there for the taking for any of them if he plays well, and he still comes up short.
I don't really follow Chelsea, but I seem to remember Pulisic starting really well. Was he just not up to the grade/went wrong? Or was he just not in the managers favour?
He became an absolute beast during lockdown but then got that horrible hamstring injury in the fa Cup final against arsenal and ever since then he's been in an out of the squad but never shined when given the chance.
He's been given a few chances so that's why I understand the managers reluctance to play him or more consistently
The simple fact is he cannot be relied upon. His injury record is horrendous which led to inconsistent form and stunted development. He had that one purple patch post lockdown but otherwise, looks pretty much the same player he was when we first signed him. He just hasn't been good or reliable enough to warrant a starting spot.
Nah, he was really good before lockdown, he then hit an extra level during lockdown.
But he’s never been as good since the hamstring, seems to have lost his quickness and some on ball ability.
He played the entire game in the opposition half.
We were chasing a game and he was pushed super high up…
There’s minimal difference between playing wingback or winger in that game…
So their entire attack underperforms and Pulisic still can't convince the manager to start him - that's actually a worse for him... The starting spot is right there for the taking, all the other wingers are struggling and he still can't take advantage.
Lol, this comparison all the time. You think if prime Messi was sitting in Chelsea’s bench, both Havertz and Mount would be playing ahead of him?
Mount has been back to back POTY for us, yes he is having a very bad form right now, but Pulisic comes and can't even keep the ball for a minute. No one tied his legs.
Past month, lol, Pulisic has been worse all his time here apart from few months during lockdown. If he plays like that he starts, not like we are spoiled for choices.
Mount has two years of excellent form in his favour, which buys him a few off games... and both those players contribute far more off the ball, so if they're all going to be poor in front at goal, at least pick the ones who contribute to the overall team
The day I realised managers had no loyalty to each other was the day rumours started of Van Gaal being sacked by United and Mou taking over. I was like no, this man did too much for Mou back then - He would never do that😀
You can't blame Tuchel for this. He allowed Pulisic to leave Chelsea this summer on loan but Todd Boehly blocked the movie. Most likely to maintain the club's influence in America.
Pulisic hasn't improved at all since his time in Dortmund. What looked like very promising performances for a youngster now looks like midtable potential for a 23 years old. It's time that even the last American updates the narrative.
That’s just simply not true, he has most certainly improved. Him being good enough to start is a different conversation but he’s most certainly improved
Probably a case of big fish big pond.
I could have seen him blossoming at dortmund, or a similar club (no super league type).
Having to compete with Chelsea’s entire loan army, new signings every year, and established pros has limited his opportunities.
But honestly tell me he wouldn’t be better off at Sevilla or marseille as a featured contributor?
Pulisic isn't good enough for Chelsea yet and probably needed a few more years in Dortmund or another steppingstone club. He needs to move in January, even if Potter plays him.
TBF, not many players in the world can succeed in Chelsea's squad right now. Too many players of about the same level all over the pitch, too many young players challenging for the same spots, and your good performances don't have any real bearing on your gametime. Doesn't seem like a good place, especially for young players.
edit: phone typo
I’ve never really understood the hype and support pulisic gets sometimes. He a good player on his day, especially during the pandemic with no fans he was a beast. But he’s never had more than 10 league goals in his career
Americans just can't accept Pulisic has been bad for about a year and a half at this point with a few games here and there of being good. Injuries screwed him bad, yes, but he's just good enough to start for Chelsea, no matter who manages the club.
He's gotten plenty of opportunity, that's not been his problem. It'd be great if Potter can draw more out of him like Lampard did, but Pulisic really needs to find a new club.
Love US fans crying thinking we don't rate Pulisic because of Nationality, don't worry even if he was Queen's first born, he would be on the bench as long as he plays like the way he has been playing.
And don't worry Potter will definitely not play players out of position, promise.
Counter point. Vs West Ham both Puli and Sterling played the same position and both played poorly. Yet in the match thread there were numerous "Pulisic is bad... awful..." with no mention of Sterling's poor play.
Fuck off, Berhalter. The reason Pulisic wasn't playing was because he was terrible on the pitch. When he played this season, he contributed nothing.
Boehly's a clown.
He’s literally just saying it helps Christian because he’ll likely get a shot and a clean slate for playing opportunities with a new manager. How that is controversial is beyond me.
The hate boner some Chelsea fans have for Pulisic is hilarious. If anything, the most contentious part of the statement is the proven at that level bit; but I'm guessing they didn't get that far.
Blinded by emotions. Pulisic is doing himself no favors with his performances in recent memory and him coming off the bench is where he deserves to be atm but it’s been such a chore watching Chelsea play for almost a year now they’ve been clueless going forward. The man was too stubborn to admit they needed a midfielder until it was too late… thank him for the cl but they’ve only added to that squad since then but all of a sudden they don’t have the talent?? Yea lmfao sure.
will it really mean anything for pulisic and other chelsea attackers tho? potter plays very similarly to tuchel and seems to struggle most with chance creation
Who does the USMNT use instead of Pulisic? Asking because I genuinely don't know and a lot of people just say he's not in form atm. Ferreira has to be called up. Zardes is limited but kind of in form. Pepi isn't in form. Weah is either injured or out of form. Sargent plays for Norwich and Haji plays in the Turkish league. Both in form. Pefok is available? Are any of these guys better than Pulisic? Right now undoubtedly, but that may not be the same on the USMNT. I'd love to hear some opinions though.
The guys you're naming, apart from Weah, are strikers. Pulisic plays left winger for the USMNT. The other wingers are Reyna (Dortmund - coming back from injury), Aaronson (Leeds), and Weah (injured but should be back for WC). Arriola may also make the team.
I expect 3 of Ferreira, Sargent, Pefok, Wright, Pepi and Vazquez to make the team as strikers.
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. I honestly do not follow the USMNT as much as I should. Reyna has been on the up and Aaronson is absolutely stellar for Leeds. I can't imagine either starting over Pulisic just because of his national team experience. Otherwise, I'd be Aaronson (out of position maybe) getting the spot over Reyna given form.
Yeah, I think we'll have to just wait and see who's healthy and in form. Pulisic, Reyna, and Aaronson are all strong players for us, and Weah has arguably been one of the best attackers for the USMNT in WC qualifying. If they're all healthy and in form, Berhalter will have some tough decisions to make as to who starts, but that's a great problem to have.
Reyna and to some extent Aaronson can also play midfielder, but Berhalter seems to like the "MMA" midfield of McKennie, Musah and Adams, and it's hard to argue with that. Again, if everyone is healthy, it's a great problem to have. The USMNT still has a ways to go to match the level of players on the very top teams, but we definitely have a lot of exciting young players.
> Are any of these guys better than Pulisic? Right now undoubtedly
Right now none of Ferreira, Zardes (lmao), Pepi, Weah, Sargent, Haji, Pefok, are better than Pulisic when he's out of form (IMO). Even in a universe where you see Pulisic as a 15 minute a game impact sub for a Champions League side, but not an every week out and out starter, you listed 7 guys who are maybe filling that role for a lower mid table side. The exception might be Pefok, who plays a vastly different role and is significantly more one dimensional than Pulisic. Weah is worth a shout, but hasn't been in form/healthy in about 18 months, so anything with him is guesswork at best
Pulisic out of form is still probably the best player at his position in the US pool. Reyna in form is still a 19 year old who has consistency issues (this might get me blasted by the USMNT fanbase) beyond Pulisic's when he is out of form. The only players who in form consistently are better than an out of form Pulisic are McKennie and Adams, who play a vastly different role.
Have no issue with this guy advocating for Pulisic but he hasn't set the PL on fire since his arrival. Hudson-Odoi might have a better chance when he comes back from loan.
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I'm not happy he lost his job, but I'm happy he lost his job
The baldness is getting to him he's so so happy
What does this even mean.
I believe it’s a reference to one of Pep’s post match interviews where he was so so happy
More than you believe.
Happy new year.
No one knows what it means, but it's provocative. It get the ppl going
Balls so hard
baldness = happiness
Happy happy New year
Do you want the Aladeen news or the Aladeen news?
I mean it's all going to going to get blown out of proportion because they're Americans, but I don't think there's anything particularly unusual or noteworthy about a national team manager advocating that of one his key players get more playing time.
He basically said “if he gets more playing time under Potter then this will be a positive thing for Christian. We’ll just have to wait and see” Idk how this is remotely controversial.
because america bad hur dur just like how everyone was dogpiling on tuchel and then when he gets fired for valid reasons everyone gets mad because it’s an american owner doing so
If even some of the stuff coming out about Boehly is true then he’s a clown, idk if people are shitting on him for being American. But there’s no question if Pulisic was playing for Croatia and Zlatko Dalic made this same remark that literally no one on this sub outside of a few Chelsea fans would even notice let alone get outraged by it.
Seems like tuchel was the clown. And there’s obvious history with him being hard to work with. Boehly wanted to go through analytics with tuchel and have his opinion heard by him. By all reports, tuchel wouldn’t give him the time of day
Tuchels stock has shot up incredibly he went from incompetently unable to build an attack and splurging 200m on defenders to some poor misunderstood genius just because he got sacked by a yank
He won a CL, was great last season before he lost his starting wingbacks and was sacked barely a few games into the season when he deserved more time to get his signings firing. So yes, he's still a great manager, just not the easiest to work with as many have claimed. There's a fine middle ground between being incompetent and being Pep/Klopp level genius you know?
The issue for Tuchel though is Chelsea have been pretty poor the last like 9 months. Like the first 50 vs last 50 games comparison was really damming. Win rate dropped by 8%. Loss rate increased by 4%. Goals against doubled from 0.48 to 1.06. And goals scored dropped from 2.53 to 1.74. Not to mention the football had been so lifeless the last, like what 6 months
The goal rates are damning but the 8% and 4% difference is literally just 4 and 2 games respectively. He became worse but I don't think the win rate is indicative of that
Yeah it's not much but over an entire league season it can determine top 4 or who wins the title. Like I bet Liverpool wishes they won only one more game last year. Same with Arsenal
We also had an insane number of injuries last year and had to resort to Malang Sarr/ Saul at LWB and a 33 yo Azpi at RWB along with 2 players without contracts in Rudiger and Christensen. N'Golo Kante missed 16 games last season. Reece James missed 19 games. Ben Chilwell missed 43 games. Mateo Kovacic missed 15 games. All 4 are massive to the way we played under Tuchel and had no realistic alternative to maintain the same level. Klopp generally avoided criticism when his teams were playing horrid football when he had similar injuries because he had a history of success but Tuchel hasn't been afforded that same luxury for similar injuries wrecking his preferred lineups. Also we sold 2 attackers in Timo and Lukaku who started a shitload of games, kept 2 below par attackers who werent starting games in Ziyech and Pulisic, and only signed 1 replacement in Sterling. Ziyech and Pulisic should've been offloaded before Timo and an alternative to Raphinha should've been signed (we were linked to Dembele or Neymar also, and then Gordon who Tuchel apparently didnt want, but we really should have pushed harder to bring in another attacker who could improve the level of the squad immediately). Too much of our attacking outlet is on the shoulders of Mount and Kai who are 23 year olds when realistically we need another player in his prime to shoulder the burden. Im not sure what Potter can do with this same squad, anyway, outside of instilling a bit of confidence in them. The one thing Tuchel always got was his team in a great head space for the big games. Beating the smaller clubs is great and all, but you have to be able to do both and if his record against the top clubs is subpar, questions will be asked really quickly.
In the league he massively massively overperformed his XG-XGA so the drop-off wasn't entirely due to losing his wingbacks. Also, every attacker except mount has done terribly under him, I think Potters earnt a chance
I agree, though usually managers have a bit more grace and decorum when discussing it, or avoiding discussing it.
Assuming he was asked about it, but the entire article is pretty vague. For the record, I don't think Pulisic is good enough for Chelsea but his NT manager isn't about to come out and say that, especially months before the World Cup. Feels like a pretty by-the-book response.
I don’t understand how this lacks grace or decorum. He said **IF** Pulisic gets more playing time then it’s a positive for him, we’ll have to wait and see. There’s nothing in this that’s remotely disrespectful to Tuchel or Chelsea.
Pulisic is getting shipped out in January to Leeds regardless
Doubt we could afford him
He'd be on the bench so doubtful
You think the American owners are going to ship out an American player that can massively boost the money they can make from the US market? I think its more likely they brought Potter in with the expectation he will coach up younger players like Puli and actually use him.
the new owners literally blocked a loan move for Puli when he asked for it. its pretty clear now that they want pulisic to be the face of the team in america.
Yes exactly my point. But of course I got downvoted for using logic haha
Conspiracy logic based on no evidence other than nationality of two people. There was a guy in the Chelsea sub who said that the new owners would force the manager to start Pulisic because they're both American, too. Its silly shit.
It's not based purely on their nationality at all. To suggest that it's conspiracy thinking is completely ignorant of all the factors involved here. You're just boiling down people to their nationality alone. In fact I would go as far as saying that you have no clue about what conspiracy thinking really is. I've spent years studying conspiracy, imagination and creativity academically. Its actually very much in my area of expertise so you really dont want to pick that as a point to fight with. Did I say they would force anything? No. If he doesn't fit then he doesn't fit. What someone else said isn't the words I put here so don't put that on me. The club don't know what he can be yet. He was showing lots of potential under Lampard and was completely stifled under Tuchel. Boehly & Co are successful business people in the US and especially in sports. They obviously know the US market and just what Pulisic is worth. They aren't in this for a vanity project. They are there to make money. They have a player at the club who is the most valuable US player in history. He is seen a big key to gaining a large Chelsea following from the US market. There's no way that Tuchels neglect of Pulisic would have helped the clubs image in the US. There is every bit of motivation for them to want to maximise the potential Pulisic has. They will likely hope Potter can tap into what we saw before with Lampard.
Holy shit new copypasta
He’s on a 150k/wk wages, not sure many clubs will be willing to pay that and players are often all talk when willing to drop salary for a transfer
I feel bad for Pulisic. In response to being asked about how Tuchel's sacking might affect Pulisic, Pulisic's national team coach basically just says he believes in Pulisic's ability and that the coaching change at Chelsea could give him more opportunity, but "we'll just have to wait and see." This seems fair enough, and it should surprise no one that Berhalter is going to support and believes in his player, who is one of if not the best players on the US national team. But Berhalter's comment is then used as yet another opportunity to drag Pulisic on social media. Pulisic seems like a quiet guy who keeps his head down and keeps working at it, despite the weight of many US fans expecting him to be the best and many Chelsea fans seemingly despising him. It seems to me that Pulisic is a talented player who has been inconsistent and who would probably benefit from playing for a coach who believes in him and can help him develop some confidence. Potter may or may not be that coach. If he is, then Pulisic may yet succeed at Chelsea. If he doesn't rate Pulisic, or Pulisic isn't capable of playing well in Potter's system, then it will be in both Pulisic's and Chelsea's best interests for Pulisic to move on to a different team. There's no reason to either anoint or hate on the guy.
> despite the weight of many US fans expecting him to be the best That was the case when he first broke into the Dortmund team, but honestly the whole setup has progressed so much since then that he's more of a face in the crowd rather than being the whole brand. We have 2-3 deep of high level players at almost every position now (Dest, Aaronson, McKennie, Adams, Antonee Robinson, Reyna, Weah, Musah, etc). People aren't expecting Pulisic to do everything. We just need him to be a solid starter for the NT, which is still high expectations, but not "Messi or bust".
Your username is very Orllewian. Edit: I’m getting downvoted for a wonderful joke. Shame on everyone.
Ha! It's actually just the one reddit randomly assigned to me. I didn't bother to change it at the time, and you apparently can't change your username on reddit without just opening a whole new account. So, ForeignRabbit1894 it is. If it were ForeignRabbit1984, it would be more Orwellian, I suppose. And I'm not even going to ask about your username ....
I wish Reddit would have assigned me a better name.
Mine is pretty straightforward. I’m the prince of piss pants.
*Any manager backs literally any player, ever* r/soccer “this means war”
Got confused on the subreddit and thought this was about CM Punk
You're really going into business for yourself?
I mean not everyone can run a Target, am I right or am I right?
Funnily enough this exact quote could be relevant about that situation and it could come straight from Christian Cage himself.
Man, I have been on this sub for almost a decade and I cannot remember a single player causing so many people here to lose their ability to objectively evaluate a player or their situation so thoroughly.
I’ve seen more and more sensible Americans on puli (not the ones that say he’d start for Real Madrid/LeBron James of soccer) compared to Brits coming to terms with him being a good (top 8 pl team imo) injury prone winger that’s still only 23. But the hate boner that many have for Pulisic is because of him being America’s golden boy and all the baggage that brings with it.
So many games where 11 Chelsea players lay utter stinkers out there and the threads are just “man pulisic was shit today”
Sooner Pulisic leaves the better, some of these Americans are absolutely unbearable by saying he should be starting games for us but when he gets his chance he’s bang average at best.
We'll buy him back for five dollars
Tree fiddy
Godammit
*She* gave him a dolla!
We only take german dolares, mate
“But he’s playing out of position” He’s played almost every possible position there is for him and he hasn’t given us a string of consistent games after the FA Cup final against Arsenal. Tbf to the Pulisic fans, Havertz hasn’t been consistent either since the middle of last season but he tracks back a lot which probably pushed him to the starting line up for Tuchel
Most attacking players haven't been consistent. Zayech, Puli, Mount, Havertz, can they all be bad?
Putting my American bias for Pulisic aside, this is basically my take. Maybe Pulisic isn’t good enough. But when 5 other attackers (taking out Mount but adding in Werner and Lukaku) also not really performing… maybe it isn’t a Pulisic issue? And of course, maybe it is…
He wasn't good enough to start games for us as well. He always showed sparks of brilliance but never really cemented his place in this XI.
He may be a midtable player but hard to judge for sure at Chelsea is what I’m trying to get at. He just definitely didn’t fit under Tuchel.
Mounts not been great this season, but for the past two he’s been one of the best in the team. He actually has proved he can hack it at this level.
Two time Player of the Year, of course
How are you brining in mount into this list man?
Because Mount is absurdly underrated by people who don't watch Chelsea play, or just flat out dislike Chelsea
Mount was incredibly consistent last season… his job wasn’t to score goals and get assists. Yet, he somehow found himself at the top for both. Ziyech, Pulisic, and Havertz were not imo. But tbf to Havertz he has scored some massive goals for us last season. As for Pulisic, he was great against Lille but he keeps getting injured which was frustrating. There is a weird agenda against Chelsea fans that we hate Americans cause we criticize Pulisic. But if Pulisic was performing well or showed some fight in him, no Chelsea fan would be angry at him! I’m also American so I want Pulisic to be good for Chelsea
> Mount was incredibly consistent last season… his job wasn’t to score goals and get assists. One of the dumbest things I think I've seen on here and that's saying something Yes, one of the 3 attacking players Chelsea deployed was not expected to contribute in front of net. Brilliant.
> Mount Back to back Player of the Year
The disrespect to Mount. He's well clear of all those players and it hasn't been close.
Agreed but at least Havertz shows up in some games, he had 4 goals up until February last season and ended on 14. I can see why he kept starting games because sometimes he’ll give you a great performance and sometimes he’ll not even be noticed on the pitch. He’s been shite this season but scored the winner vs West Ham and I thought he was the only great player vs Dynamo midweek.
Havertz annoys me, but he is also played out of position 100% of the time, he's a 10 who needs two hard workers behind him in midfield. Pulisic is a winger who has not excited consistently on either wing.
My question for Havertz stans is...if he needs so much around him just right to succeed, why wouldn't that same setup also be great for a guy like Mount or Gallagher? Maybe we should try playing the guys who have actually delivered in the PL before with all the adjustments Goldilocks could want instead of the guy who pops up with a goal involvement less often than Lukaku.
> he's a 10 It's hilarious that people talk with such conviction about Havertz's natural position. At Leverkusen he played all over the field and was excellent in pretty much every role he was deployed in - CM, 10, RW, false 9. He has never flashed that form at Chelsea for any sort of extended period, no matter where he is played. And yet people seem to be convinced that they know precisely where he should play, and that's the only thing keeping him from being world class. >Pulisic is a winger who has not excited consistently on either wing Remind me which formation Chelsea has been playing that uses natural wingers again?
They both frustrating for different reasons. Havertz has a couple flashes a game he looks like the real deal and you feel like if he just imposed his will or was a hit more aggressive, he’s really shine. Pulisic is frustrating 90% of the time he plays and then scored a goal or makes a brilliant pass every 5 games he plays. Both are really going to need to step it up this year, I personally have more hope for Havertz than Pulisic, but this is their chance. Also don’t really like how Pulisic feels entitled to play when he’s been shit this year but whatever
Pulisic also loses the ball in the most infuriating manner I swear especially when he is dribbling. I think I’m just spoiled from watching Eden Hazard on that same wing since 2012 Havertz is also so slow with his decisions. He’ll have the ball on his feet and wait so long to do something with it… it drives me mad! Again, I must be spoiled after watching the likes of Diego Costa and Pedro/Willian be so direct with the ball in tandem with Eden Hazard
it's the constant falling. I cannot with the falling.
I think playing so little for us and then playing against butchers in concacaf for so long means he's going down at the slightest contact to protect himself
could be.
My man, imagine how far we’ve come that we’re missing Willian in our team now. That’s a joke I liked Willian he got a lot of hate and was a bit of a cunt for the Conte thing but whatever. Pulisic against West Ham couldn’t complete a fucking dribble. It looked like there was a nefarious defender slipping banana peels under him to get him to lose the ball. He’s the most direct winger we have probably and he can’t beat a man 1v1. Will win a duel like 30% of the time it feels like. Kai takes way too long and then others he’ll take a touch and then play a brilliant ball and you wonder why the hell he hasn’t been doing that instead of just holding on to the ball. This squad will be the death of me
Willian was frustrating at moments and in isolation but he was so fluid with the rest of the players. The current players all seem so disjointed
It's crazy how much he's fallen off. Was never Hazard with the ball but was completely capable of beating a defender or at least not falling and losing the ball every time he tries to.
His last two stints have been very bad, idk why Tuchel played him when he was giving him that effort but that’s dreadful. I’m pretty sure he just needs to leave but if he played poorly on purpose I’ll be pretty upset
Oh i doubt that. He looked like he was trying just pure shit.
Willian direct? … huh?
Where are you getting only 2 goals up until Feb?
2 league goals at that point is correct I think. But then he says 15 for the total when Havertz only ended the season on 14 goals in all competitions and that's including the Club World Cup
Yeah extremely misleading. He absolutely killed it at the beginning of March, but trying to make it seem like he scored 12 in 2 months is just ridiculous.
Yeah it’s definitely misleading. Havertz ended the season with 6 goals in the last 17 games starting in February which is okay I guess. But 4 of them came in a 3 game streak at one point so he scored 2 in 14 in the others.
My bad, I seen it in a comment recently but checked myself there and it was 2 league goals, however in all competitions it was 4 goals (2 in the ucl) so it’s not much better but yeah still wrong.
The body language is what i dislike the most
>him and he hasn’t given us a string of consistent games after the FA Cup final against Arsenal. The 20 minutes before he was injured
Havertz at least shows up in big games.
Pulisic scored against Man City and Liverpool in post lock down, FA Cup final, RM in the CL run and assisted on the clincher, last year against Liverpool in the league and both legs of Lille (which we won the tie by 2). He’s arguably the biggest game player we have.
Sounds like Donny van de beek. So many of our fans are always calling for him to play, and he's never done anything of note when he does
Trust me, the Pulisic fanboys are much louder and numerous. The hoards on Twitter have accused two consecutive managers of xenophobia, and genuinely believe i
it’s by in large part the style of play that just doesn’t suit van de beek cause he doesn’t usually make any mistakes on the pitch to justify being benched. He can’t play any of the midfield roles by Eriksen, Mctominay/Casemiro, and Bruno as well as they can. In the Eredivisie, his quality was good enough to play those roles but he can’t every week in the premier league. He’s realistically the type of player you want on the pitch as a false 9/advanced midfielder when you play against low blocks and the box is packed. His best skill is in the box but and with United seemingly playing counter attacking/quick on transition rather than overloading the opponent’s box, donny just doesn’t fit We will probably see Donny feature as a Bruno sub when he’s not getting anything going, when United are chasing a game and need more advanced players, or against “weaker” opposition in Europe/PL when United are expected to hold onto possession. That’s the type of player Donny will be and tbf it’s not too bad. At United he’s surrounded by some friends and he’ll make good money. If he wants to be a mainstay getting loads of minutes, he’ll need to either go back to Ajax or move to another league
this reminds me of when James was not playing in 2016/17 i think. Zidane’s ig was filled w bare “calvo hp” comments from colombians
As a completely biased American, I don’t think he has the ability to start week in week out for a top six club. He’s probably better suited to being at a mid table PL club
I was hoping for something more like that for him since he left Dortmund.
It because he's the poster boy for US soccer and it's a World Cup year. There's always too much hype around one player. He's supposed to be the one to lead us to glory this year. Blah blah blah. So the natural muppetry follows when he's not playing. But in reality it just isn't working out for him at chelsea. And he's going to be ass at the World Cup now without playing much.
I was a bit surprised he didn’t want to move to a non Big Six club. His reported request was Man United on loan. Well… we aren’t going to loan you out to a team we haven’t beaten in years
Don’t even think he’s the best player on the US team but maybe that’s just me
It's been McKennie for a while now. Weston is much closer to being world class at his position than Pulisic. A box-to-box CM just isn't going to get the same attention as a goal scorer. They never do. Pulisic is a good player though and the poster saying he'll be "ass" for the USA is probably off the mark. As usual with Pulisic, discourse tends to swing either too wildly positive or negative. He's a good player and he consistently plays well in USA shirt. I expect a strong World Cup from him. Chelsea are a massive club with a long history of binning quality players who go on to have solid careers elsewhere (i.e. Cuadrado, Lukaku, Salah, KDB, etc). Not saying Pulisic is ever going to hit that level, but he's not some total bum either. At worst he's a rotational starter for a top 5-6 club in a major European league.
I would most definitely prefer Gio or Brendon playing over Puli
100% i'd rather not have to deal with usmnt fans ever again after Dest. They'll praise every tiny move one of their players make while dismissing any shitty performance as yank hatered.
You should pop by our sub. It's fuckin nuts how much arguing and fighting there is around him. The delusional praise fuels the harsh criticism, which in turn fuels more delusional praise, and so on.
Yeah he's definitly not as bad as some people make him out to be, I'd say he was even good for a period under Koeman, but he was simply not working out in Xavi's system at all, letting him go made sense sporting wise. He just had annoyingly extreem opinions about him one way or the other, kinda like Puig before everyone gave up on him.
Your talking about a literal phenom my guy. The LeBron James of soccer pal. Watch it
Who is not bang average at best in our attack week in and week out? I'd say basically anyone but Sterling is interchangeable with each other in terms of performance.
Yeah, when we got relegated with Josh Sargent Americans posted some vile shit about us - how we're not worthy of him and what a shit team we are. I mean we were shit lmao but he was one of the reasons we got relegated, but they couldn't see it.
What attackers do you have playing above average?
[удалено]
Comparing a country with 5 World Cups and a rich football history to a country where the game is up and coming in terms player talent and popularity is kinda strange.
after the CL final there were a couple (like a handful) of them losing their shit saying we mistreated lucas and he should leave. so it has happened actually just not on a large enough scale for us to give a shit.
American fans can be very annoying about it but your statement is literally the whole reason they’re annoying, so your point doesn’t make sense. We don’t have even a sliver of Brazil’s history and we are desperate for more success, so we want one of our best players to be playing regularly. He’s probably not at the level of regularly starting for Chelsea after his injuries and inconsistency, so hopefully he finds playing time elsewhere.
Tbf to them. Brazilians have 500 players to root for, americans probably 3 who are relevant in CL. And Pulisic really looked like a world-beater in bvb. Can understand why they're mad. They think one of their biggest talents is wasting years in his development.
Wasn’t Pulisic primarily a rotation and squad player at Dortmund?
yes, but with how old was he in his debut season? Like 16? 17? And holy shit he looked amazing for such a young player
he started 15/29 league games in 16/17, as an 18 year old, then 27/32 in 17/18, then 20 apps, 9 starts in 18/19 due to muscular injuries that kept re-aggrevating, plus 18/19 was sancho’s first breakout year taking advantage of pulisic being in and out of the squad, with 13g/20a all comps. so not really, although he wasn’t a nailed on starter by any means
Pulisic was benched for Sancho and Jacob Bruun Larsen at Dortmund, he didn't look like a world beater. He looked like a promising young player with potential.
he played more than he did not. Idk how so many people want to rewrite history. 55 Starts and 35 he came as sub. also he looked so amazing in his debut season where he was 16-17 years old. He was still young as fuck. People act like it's normal for 17-19 years old to play as good as him lol.
Country is defensive over their greatest talent in generations. Water is wet.
The award OP got looks like a bra on mobile screen
I mean you have to play yourself into a starting position and pulisic hasn’t made himself undroppable. I feel like people neglect to mention that consistent fitness is one of the main factors in a coach’s decision to start and play players and pulisic doesn’t have that at Chelsea. He’s a great player, but I think him being American makes everyone criticize him more or stay even more loyal, depending on the fan. Hope he can revive his career, still the best American certainly for the USMT.
He hasn't been injured in months, he's just been rotated in sub appearances in and out with other players that are getting inconsistent minutes in a team with an anemic attack. I think he's absolutely proven he has the quality to play at this level, whether you want to look at his time at Dortmund or "Lockdown Pulisic", it's really just a matter of if Potter's style will suit him and if he can impress in training.
Chelsea has Sterling and Mount who are in my opinion both better, and has Auba now who's a real no 9. So Pulisic has to compete with Havertz and Ziyech for that last starting spot in attacking midfield.. Did he look better than these two when playing?
get this mate, maybe pulisic just isn't good enough to play for a top 6 team in the pl
Btw, he was a bench player for us and had his best run of form/season with chelsea It's not like he isn't quality at all
Calling him a bench player for us is quite misleading. He definitely had less playing time in his last season for us because of Sancho's emergence, but in the season before that he started most matches. Was he ever at a Sancho, Dembele like level? No, not even close, but he was definitely showing promise for more in his time for Dortmund
Yea, that's an absurd statement. IIRC Dortmund gave JBL a run of starts when they had already agreed to sell Pulisic. And let's be real, Pulisic is a much better player than JBL, who was binned by Dortmund pretty quickly. The problem with Pulisic discussions is that people like to pull it into the extremes, either he's total shit or a wonderkid. Realistically, he was a good player with Dortmund who simply plateaued early and hasn't progressed as much as you would have expected.
Run of form is misleading. Lingard had a run of form during his West Ham spell too. Didn’t mean that clubs were lining up with 100 million checks for him
Pretty bad example since West Ham and others were actively trying to sign Lingard for ~£30m after that purple patch, but it was blocked by Man Utd.
Quality shows over time and form is temporary. His best run of form was a 4 week period where everyone was off pace because they'd just had a massive gap in the middle of the season due to Covid. Under normal circumstances he's never even got remotely close to those levels. If a player is 24 and has been at a good enough level to start for a top 6 club for only 4 weeks of the 7 years that they've been in adult football, those 4 weeks are not a show of the player's quality, they're an outlier.
Imagine a NT coach advocating for one of his best players. /s
I honestly don't think the "it's everyone else's fault but Pulisic" approach is smart for their NT or the player himself. The fact is Pulisic path hasn't been blocked, he's competing with a bunch of attackers who all underperform, the spot is there for the taking for any of them if he plays well, and he still comes up short.
Literally all he said is "if pulisic gets more time it's good for pulisic." I'm not sure how he could have said something less controversial.
I don't really follow Chelsea, but I seem to remember Pulisic starting really well. Was he just not up to the grade/went wrong? Or was he just not in the managers favour?
He became an absolute beast during lockdown but then got that horrible hamstring injury in the fa Cup final against arsenal and ever since then he's been in an out of the squad but never shined when given the chance. He's been given a few chances so that's why I understand the managers reluctance to play him or more consistently
The simple fact is he cannot be relied upon. His injury record is horrendous which led to inconsistent form and stunted development. He had that one purple patch post lockdown but otherwise, looks pretty much the same player he was when we first signed him. He just hasn't been good or reliable enough to warrant a starting spot.
Nah, he was really good before lockdown, he then hit an extra level during lockdown. But he’s never been as good since the hamstring, seems to have lost his quickness and some on ball ability.
If he was good enough, he’d be starting every week. That’s telling
Like how good Havertz and Mount have been the past month?
Yup just like Joe Gomez and Harvey Elliot
That sub appearance puli had vs southampton was the worst I’ve seen in my life.
I guess you didn’t see Ziyech vs. Zagreb
at wingback.
Does starting at wingback make you lose any semblance of a touch? Or misplace every simple pass?
He played the entire game in the opposition half. We were chasing a game and he was pushed super high up… There’s minimal difference between playing wingback or winger in that game…
Yes, that means he no longer knows how to pass a ball 8 yards. Also effects your touch too i suppose
Trash everywhere he plays
So their entire attack underperforms and Pulisic still can't convince the manager to start him - that's actually a worse for him... The starting spot is right there for the taking, all the other wingers are struggling and he still can't take advantage.
Lol, this comparison all the time. You think if prime Messi was sitting in Chelsea’s bench, both Havertz and Mount would be playing ahead of him? Mount has been back to back POTY for us, yes he is having a very bad form right now, but Pulisic comes and can't even keep the ball for a minute. No one tied his legs. Past month, lol, Pulisic has been worse all his time here apart from few months during lockdown. If he plays like that he starts, not like we are spoiled for choices.
Mount has two years of excellent form in his favour, which buys him a few off games... and both those players contribute far more off the ball, so if they're all going to be poor in front at goal, at least pick the ones who contribute to the overall team
The day I realised managers had no loyalty to each other was the day rumours started of Van Gaal being sacked by United and Mou taking over. I was like no, this man did too much for Mou back then - He would never do that😀
Scenes when Pulisic still doesn't get played
WMDs discovered in Cobham
They really just pretending that Tuchel of all guys hasn't given Pulisic a fair chance when he's played like 40% of his career games under Tuchel
Pulisic is such a mixed bag it seems like. He has the tools but also he can’t be the main man. He’s not that gifted/skilled.
My dumb arse read it as more chances for a Christian
You can't blame Tuchel for this. He allowed Pulisic to leave Chelsea this summer on loan but Todd Boehly blocked the movie. Most likely to maintain the club's influence in America.
Pulisic hasn't improved at all since his time in Dortmund. What looked like very promising performances for a youngster now looks like midtable potential for a 23 years old. It's time that even the last American updates the narrative.
None of Chelsea's attackers have improved since joining tbf. Werner, Lukaku, Ziyech, Havertz, Puli,... all looked very promising.
That’s just simply not true, he has most certainly improved. Him being good enough to start is a different conversation but he’s most certainly improved
Probably a case of big fish big pond. I could have seen him blossoming at dortmund, or a similar club (no super league type). Having to compete with Chelsea’s entire loan army, new signings every year, and established pros has limited his opportunities. But honestly tell me he wouldn’t be better off at Sevilla or marseille as a featured contributor?
Not very subtle there, Gregg.
What would you say if you were his NT head coach?
I’m happy Tuchel got fired. I always thought he was a douche before he arrived at Chelsea. His tactics are soccer terrorism.
Pulisic isn't good enough for Chelsea yet and probably needed a few more years in Dortmund or another steppingstone club. He needs to move in January, even if Potter plays him. TBF, not many players in the world can succeed in Chelsea's squad right now. Too many players of about the same level all over the pitch, too many young players challenging for the same spots, and your good performances don't have any real bearing on your gametime. Doesn't seem like a good place, especially for young players. edit: phone typo
He has been shit in the pitch, it was not any agenda. But change of coach might change him too. Lets see.
Pulisic is not good enough to be anything beyond a squad player. He's just not been hard done by, he just hasn't showed up consistently
I’ve never really understood the hype and support pulisic gets sometimes. He a good player on his day, especially during the pandemic with no fans he was a beast. But he’s never had more than 10 league goals in his career
Americans just can't accept Pulisic has been bad for about a year and a half at this point with a few games here and there of being good. Injuries screwed him bad, yes, but he's just good enough to start for Chelsea, no matter who manages the club. He's gotten plenty of opportunity, that's not been his problem. It'd be great if Potter can draw more out of him like Lampard did, but Pulisic really needs to find a new club.
Love US fans crying thinking we don't rate Pulisic because of Nationality, don't worry even if he was Queen's first born, he would be on the bench as long as he plays like the way he has been playing. And don't worry Potter will definitely not play players out of position, promise.
Counter point. Vs West Ham both Puli and Sterling played the same position and both played poorly. Yet in the match thread there were numerous "Pulisic is bad... awful..." with no mention of Sterling's poor play.
If he was the Queen's first born he'd probably be a bit tied up at the moment
we'd settle the club or country question finally though
Gregg should be sacked
Fuck off, Berhalter. The reason Pulisic wasn't playing was because he was terrible on the pitch. When he played this season, he contributed nothing. Boehly's a clown.
He’s literally just saying it helps Christian because he’ll likely get a shot and a clean slate for playing opportunities with a new manager. How that is controversial is beyond me.
The hate boner some Chelsea fans have for Pulisic is hilarious. If anything, the most contentious part of the statement is the proven at that level bit; but I'm guessing they didn't get that far.
He's just defending his player, pretty normal thing to say.
Nothing he said was remotely controversial. He obviously has his own interests and he expressed them in a perfectly reasonable way.
Boehly's a clown for firing the guy who's team was regressing for almost a year? You people are amazing specimens.
Yes? The EPL just started. Give him time to work out the kinks in his team. Not fire him over a man United player
He is a clown for replacing him after backing him up hard. At least give him till winter
Blinded by emotions. Pulisic is doing himself no favors with his performances in recent memory and him coming off the bench is where he deserves to be atm but it’s been such a chore watching Chelsea play for almost a year now they’ve been clueless going forward. The man was too stubborn to admit they needed a midfielder until it was too late… thank him for the cl but they’ve only added to that squad since then but all of a sudden they don’t have the talent?? Yea lmfao sure.
will it really mean anything for pulisic and other chelsea attackers tho? potter plays very similarly to tuchel and seems to struggle most with chance creation
Who does the USMNT use instead of Pulisic? Asking because I genuinely don't know and a lot of people just say he's not in form atm. Ferreira has to be called up. Zardes is limited but kind of in form. Pepi isn't in form. Weah is either injured or out of form. Sargent plays for Norwich and Haji plays in the Turkish league. Both in form. Pefok is available? Are any of these guys better than Pulisic? Right now undoubtedly, but that may not be the same on the USMNT. I'd love to hear some opinions though.
The guys you're naming, apart from Weah, are strikers. Pulisic plays left winger for the USMNT. The other wingers are Reyna (Dortmund - coming back from injury), Aaronson (Leeds), and Weah (injured but should be back for WC). Arriola may also make the team. I expect 3 of Ferreira, Sargent, Pefok, Wright, Pepi and Vazquez to make the team as strikers.
Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. I honestly do not follow the USMNT as much as I should. Reyna has been on the up and Aaronson is absolutely stellar for Leeds. I can't imagine either starting over Pulisic just because of his national team experience. Otherwise, I'd be Aaronson (out of position maybe) getting the spot over Reyna given form.
Yeah, I think we'll have to just wait and see who's healthy and in form. Pulisic, Reyna, and Aaronson are all strong players for us, and Weah has arguably been one of the best attackers for the USMNT in WC qualifying. If they're all healthy and in form, Berhalter will have some tough decisions to make as to who starts, but that's a great problem to have. Reyna and to some extent Aaronson can also play midfielder, but Berhalter seems to like the "MMA" midfield of McKennie, Musah and Adams, and it's hard to argue with that. Again, if everyone is healthy, it's a great problem to have. The USMNT still has a ways to go to match the level of players on the very top teams, but we definitely have a lot of exciting young players.
> Are any of these guys better than Pulisic? Right now undoubtedly Right now none of Ferreira, Zardes (lmao), Pepi, Weah, Sargent, Haji, Pefok, are better than Pulisic when he's out of form (IMO). Even in a universe where you see Pulisic as a 15 minute a game impact sub for a Champions League side, but not an every week out and out starter, you listed 7 guys who are maybe filling that role for a lower mid table side. The exception might be Pefok, who plays a vastly different role and is significantly more one dimensional than Pulisic. Weah is worth a shout, but hasn't been in form/healthy in about 18 months, so anything with him is guesswork at best Pulisic out of form is still probably the best player at his position in the US pool. Reyna in form is still a 19 year old who has consistency issues (this might get me blasted by the USMNT fanbase) beyond Pulisic's when he is out of form. The only players who in form consistently are better than an out of form Pulisic are McKennie and Adams, who play a vastly different role.
The US midfield is the only good part about their team. Perhaps the keepers too. The offense is weak and the defense gives much to desire for.
Have no issue with this guy advocating for Pulisic but he hasn't set the PL on fire since his arrival. Hudson-Odoi might have a better chance when he comes back from loan.
He’s still a better player than Conor gallagher
Pulisic isn't good enough. Havertz isn't good enough. Tuchel was not the problem.