Christian Pulisic central would work, but be bad news for his Chelsea prospects

Frank Lampard threw Christian Pulisic on centrally against Newcastle. It worked, but it could potentially be bad news for his Chelsea prospects.

Almost as soon as Christian Pulisic arrived at Dortmund, the US media started the conversation on whether he is really a winger or a “10”. Part of that conversation was due to the USMNT desperately lacking any sort of player for that role and part of it was the blurred lines between wingers and attacking mids nowadays anyways.

For the US, Pulisic has played centrally often. Again, this is a sort of blurred line position as he often rotated out with a wide player as the attack progressed. Over the weekend, Frank Lampard brought Pulisic on to play a similar (but more advanced) role. His rotations with Willian in particular helped to get Chelsea over the line by the end of the match.

Much like Reece James or Mason Mount, it is more important that Pulisic plays rather than where he plays. But if Lampard starts to view Pulisic as more of a central option, it will spell bad news for his Chelsea prospects and even render a silly argument a reality.

If Pulisic remains a winger as is expected (and he probably should), then his most direct competition will be Willian and Pedro. Callum Hudson-Odoi is surely locking down the left wing spot sooner rather than later. Mount was a temporary fix but his time on the wing is surely done. That leaves just the two older wingers which is very fair competition for Pulisic. Willian has done very well thus far this season, but that should not guarantee him a spot if Pulisic’s form and training catches up. Pedro’s already starting to fall behind in the pecking order, enough to spark rumors about his future.

Willian and Pedro are beatable opponents. Pulisic either works his way in over them or waits them out this season for when their legs start to go and their form drops. Pulisic taking their spot is inevitable.

But if Lampard starts to view Pulisic as a central player, the calculus changes. US media has already been making the false equivalence between Mount and Pulisic as if they were in direct competition with one another. But if Pulisic is central, they will be and simply put the American will not win that battle.

US fans and those that are simply blind have hounded Lampard for his English bias which is funny given how many foreign players start for Chelsea every match day over English players. Unfortunately for Pulisic, Mount is a better player than him for Lampard’s tactics. That may be controversial to some who refuse to acknowledge how good Mount has been or who try to shoehorn him into a buzzword role, but it is the simple truth; Mount is a better player in Lampard’s set up than Pulisic.

That is not to mention Ross Barkley who can be bad one day and amazing the next with no rhyme or reason. Or Ruben Loftus-Cheek who many feel will bench Mount despite the two not being mutually exclusive.

Here is the good news though; in Chelsea’s 4-2-3-1 the band of three is all very interchangeable due in part to the free flowing nature of Chelsea’s attack. Hudson-Odoi and Pedro may be better suited to the wider areas and Mount to the central areas, but whoever the three most in form players are can easily fit in together. That means Pulisic could just as easily line up centrally as on the wing now that he has shown Lampard that is an option. Much like Mount, it could reach a point where it is more important to play Pulisic than where he plays and that could be to the player’s benefit.

Pulisic showed his quality after a tough week. Hopefully Lampard’s desire to sub him on was one part backing the player, one part trusting him to make the difference from the center. But if Pulisic does get trapped into being a “central” player, then his competition for minutes will have increased greatly over the likes of Willian and Pedro.