United States of America Soccer star, Christian Pulisic has revealed that he has been struggling at Chelsea because he has not been playing in his desired position.
Christian Pulisic has been playing for Chelsea since June 30, 2019, after he signed for the club from Borussia Dortmund for €64 million. He is a natural right winger but he is sometimes used as a left-winger or central forward.
Due to his struggle with injuries, he has not been able to perform to the standard that is expected of him. He has not also been able to establish himself as a regular under coach Thomas Tuchel.
Recently, he has been seeing more game time under the German tactician due to the injury crisis at the club. Recall that when the club’s strikers Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner were out with different degrees of injuries, coach Tuchel used Christian Pulisic as a striker or supporting striker.
Though one of Pulisic’s major setbacks at Chelsea has been injury woes, his form has not been consistent. Yet, he is one of the most deadly forwards at Chelsea based on stats.
For instance, since the 2019-2020 season, Pulisic has been the fourth Chelsea player with the best goals per game ratio (0.3). Aside from goals, Pulisic is currently the best dribbler at Chelsea. He has a 5.6 dribbling ratio in the last two seasons.
More so, stats show that the American soccer star is a very important player at the club. The 23-year-old winger is the third most fouled player at Chelsea with a 1.73 ratio per 90 minutes.
So far in the 2021-2022 season, Christian Pulisic has played 19 games in all competitions in which he scored three goals and provided three assists.
Pulisic believes that he would have done better at the club if he is always played at his preferred position.
The American star said: “It’s tough. I haven’t always been playing in the positions I want to play in. But I think it’s a good quality to be versatile and be able to play in all kinds of positions and have different strengths on the pitch.
“So, yeah, I’ve learned a lot and I think I’m ready to hopefully be in a spot in the next couple of games that I’m more comfortable in.”
Christian Pulisic is currently with the United States Men’s Soccer team for FIFA World Cup qualifier matches against El Salvador and Canada.
The American captain will lead the USMNT against El Salvador on Friday at 01:00. After that, on January 30, at 21:05 he will lead the team against Canada.
Ahead of the games, reporters asked him about how the season has been for him at Chelsea, Pulisic admitted that it has been tough on him.
“Obviously it’s been up and down this year, for sure,” he said. “Not exactly where I want to be and how I want things to be right now. But, yeah, I’m just going to keep going and, as I said, it doesn’t affect me when I come here so I’m excited to be here.
“When I come to the national team it’s, ‘How are things at Chelsea? What’s this, what’s that?’. And, yeah, things are… it’s tough. It’s tough. It’s definitely played a lot on me, and mentally it’s been difficult at times.”
So far in his international football career, Pulisic has played 42 times for the US national team. He has scored a total of 17 goals for the country since he made his debut on March 30, 2016.
Christian Pulisic was on target for USA during the last internationals break 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/K2xx4iXgpq
— Wyngback Football (@wyngback) January 27, 2022
