Christian Pulisic’s inconsistent playing time is worth watching and wondering about, but is not yet reason for anyone to fear for his long-term future at Chelsea.
Christian Pulisic has long been built up as the hope of American football (no, not soccer), the messiah to finally take his nation to the top tier of the most popular sport in the world. His marketability was perhaps one the reasons Chelsea chose to splurge £58 million to secure his signature, as every American football eye is fixated on how he performs in Blue.
The price tag and American nationality clearly bring more attention to his every move, so it’s no surprise that his lack of gameplay over the past month has been blown out of proportion in the most extravagant way possible. His continued exclusion, though, is somewhat of a surprise.
Prior to the international break at the beginning of September, Pulisic was starting and featuring in the majority of the games for Chelsea. He put in some average and good performances at that time, by no means setting the world alight, but did show definite signs of improvement. His performance against Liverpool in the UEFA Super Cup was proof of him gradually adjusting to life at his new club, in a new culture.
After the break, though, he only made two appearances: starting against lowly Grimsby Town and coming on as a sub in the last 10 minutes of the Southampton game. The radical shift in game time resulted in plenty of conspiracy theories, the most popular being Frank Lampard’s bias towards English players.
The theorists could marshal some evidence. Central midfielder Mason Mount was being used on the wing and Callum Hudson-Odoi instantly regained his spot in the team after just returning from a long term injury. Since both are English and Chelsea academy graduates and Pulisic is neither, the conspiracy watchers pushed their case.
Mason Mount has been putting in terrific performances, but his best performances come from being deployed in central midfield, not as an inverted winger. Pulisic’s wing play is far superior to Mount’s, so there is no reason for Mount to start ahead of him in that position. That brings us to Callum Hudson-Odoi.
Lampard has pointed to Willian’s incredible work rate has the primary requirement to earn a place in the starting XI, but taking that criteria into consideration, Pulisic’s defensive work eclipses Hudson-Odoi’s fairly easily. In terms of attacking end product, Pulisic has four goal contributions, the same as Hudson-Odoi, and better finishing considering how wasteful Hudson-Odoi has been in front of goal.
The other requirement Lampard mentioned is training performance, which obviously is not visible to the public. The possibility of Pulisic taking it easy in training is very real and would be an acceptable reason for his exclusion from the team.
The problem, though, is that Lampard is beating the tired drum of “adjusting to English football” instead.
Jurgen Klopp took a very unique route to integrate new signing Fabinho into his team last year. He let Fabinho adapt physically and tactically very gradually by not playing in the first few months of the season, then staring him in cup competitions and then the Premier League. The result has been splendid as Fabinho has barely put a foot wrong since making his way into the starting line-up.
Lampard did not follow that model as he played Pulisic frequently in the first month, thereby forfeiting the strength of the “adjusting to English football” explanation.
Young players like Callum Hudson-Odoi improve after learning from their mistakes. Playing them is essential for that process to happen. Pulisic comes in that group as well, and needs to play football to adjust and grow. He cannot be losing his minutes due to players being played out of position or veterans that add little unique.
Poor training performances and venting his frustrations publicly are mistakes on Pulisic’s part. Making Pulisic feel like an outsider amongst English academy graduates is Lampard’s shortcoming.
The decision to bench Pulisic after his comments could have been a one-off motivational tactic. If it was, it worked to good effect as Pulisic played the last 10 minutes of the Southampton game with a point to prove, and it turned out to be the best 10 minute spell of his Chelsea career so far.
The season is only two months old, so fans must take everything with a pinch of salt and keep their opinions in check. There is no need to overreact as Lampard has no real reason to keep out a young player who performs well, as he has shown with his merit-based policy.
The Pulisic situation would need a review in January at the earliest. The Chelsea community needs to remain patient till then.