Christian Pulisic

[Puliiszola 519]

13 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Has Kovacic even been consistent? He has dropped out of the XI a couple of times and there are games where he has been good and then games where he has been meh. Plus, he doesn't even make any impact when it comes to the attacking third. 

That initial period aside, once Pulisic settled in, he has consistently made an impact and become our best attacking players in such a short period of time. 

I think Kova has been consistent throughout the season. His worst games are 6/10, his best are 8/10 (mainly as you said due to no output in final 3rd).

But we know what we get from him. Good passing under pressure, good ball rotation, brilliant ball carrying through the mid. And then a short-circuit moment in the final 3rd. 

I remember a moment towards the end and I think before pool scored the 5th, he made a great run got the ball about 5-10 yards from the pool box. And then passed it sideways to alonso who was waiting to whip it in. But the pass was so poor. Had no pace, and was behind an already slow alonso. Who could do nothing with it and then the ball went back to our CBs. All momentum lost. Puli and tammy stranded in the box. 

Not sure how well this comment will go down with people on here, but I have always felt he is the willian version of CMs. Does everything right except for the final ball.

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

8 hours ago, Jason said:

Even then, it felt rather daft that Lampard waited as long as he did to bring on Pulisic. 

Was it not like the 62nd minute? Pretty early compared to his usual subs. 

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, Puliiszola said:

I think Kova has been consistent throughout the season. His worst games are 6/10, his best are 8/10 (mainly as you said due to no output in final 3rd).

But we know what we get from him. Good passing under pressure, good ball rotation, brilliant ball carrying through the mid. And then a short-circuit moment in the final 3rd. 

I remember a moment towards the end and I think before pool scored the 5th, he made a great run got the ball about 5-10 yards from the pool box. And then passed it sideways to alonso who was waiting to whip it in. But the pass was so poor. Had no pace, and was behind an already slow alonso. Who could do nothing with it and then the ball went back to our CBs. All momentum lost. Puli and tammy stranded in the box. 

Not sure how well this comment will go down with people on here, but I have always felt he is the willian version of CMs. Does everything right except for the final ball.

What he does is definitely easy on the eye but as you alluded to there, he is like the Willian version of CM or IMO, Hazard of CM but without the final product (yours is a better comparison lol). When you watch him, it is hard not to feel that he should be doing more, that he should be trying to do more such as play defence splitting passes, play through balls, drive at the opposition into the box, get a shot off etc. Kovacic has talked about wanting to score more goals and has rarely looked like scoring. The two goals he scored for us this season were his firsts since the 2016/17 season!

[Jase 43,479]

9 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Was it not like the 62nd minute? Pretty early compared to his usual subs. 

An additional 10 or 15 minutes might have made a greater difference.

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

An additional 10 or 15 minutes might have made a greater difference.

Maybe but when you consider that the boys in the first half had showed a bit of a threat but poor final pass you can see maybe why he didnt want to make the swap at HT. If he was 75% fit he probably would of started I think. Has to v Wolves was best player on the park when he came on, done Gomez an absolute belter and showed remarkable composure and awareness for his goal and assist. Least Frank made earlish subs for once but I think at 3-1 it was still a tough ask and would say that the game was basically set up for Liverpool from there.

[Puliiszola 519]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

What he does is definitely easy on the eye but as you alluded to there, he is like the Willian version of CM or IMO, Hazard of CM but without the final product (yours is a better comparison lol). When you watch him, it is hard not to feel that he should be doing more, that he should be trying to do more such as play defence splitting passes, play through balls, drive at the opposition into the box, get a shot off etc. Kovacic has talked about wanting to score more goals and has rarely looked like scoring. The two goals he scored for us this season were his firsts since the 2016/17 season!

True. There is a world class all round CM hidden somewhere in him. Hope next season we get to see that player, specially with all the talents coming in.

 

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, OneMoSalah said:

Maybe but when you consider that the boys in the first half had showed a bit of a threat but poor final pass you can see maybe why he didnt want to make the swap at HT.

What threat? The trio of Mount, Giroud and Willian are never going to get us goals. All slow and not very creative either. When Abraham, Pulisic and CHO came on, Liverpool suddenly looked more in trouble because they suddenly had so much pace and running in behind to deal with. 

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Puliiszola said:

True. There is a world class all round CM hidden somewhere in him. Hope next season we get to see that player, specially with all the talents coming in.

Would love to be proven wrong but I would not get my hopes up on that. 

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

7 minutes ago, Jason said:

What threat? The trio of Mount, Giroud and Willian are never going to get us goals. All slow and not very creative either. When Abraham, Pulisic and CHO came on, Liverpool suddenly looked more in trouble because they suddenly had so much pace and running in behind to deal with. 

I think the final ball was better with those 3 undoubtedly and thats what made the difference but Mount had a very good chance early on as well as being in a few half decent positions and Willian as well but poor touches/decision making/end product let them down.

Maybe he persisted with them thinking the next one will be better. Who knows? I do think Frank got his selection wrong with the team shape and some personnel but if Pulisic wasnt fully fit to play the 90 or close to fair enough but if he didnt want to risk him incase he missed out for the Wolves game and FA cup, you can also see his reasoning. There would of been a meltdown if he statted only to come off with a knock/injury. Plus the game was a bit mote stretched when he came on and it helped him and Callum in a way as well although they put in very good individual performances undoubtedly. Felt despite Oli getting his goal and winning some battles with their backline his link up play was a bit off at times, although he did do a lot well also, picking the wrong option but he was obviously confident enough to take the risk with how hes played recently. Ran himself into the ground though and deservedly got a goal.

I would of liked to have seen 4231 with our midfield matching them up, Mount in and around Fabinho and Kovacic/Jorginho up against Keita and Wjinaldum. Too many times Fabinho was a free man when they had the ball.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, OneMoSalah said:

I think the final ball was better with those 3 undoubtedly and thats what made the difference but Mount had a very good chance early on as well as being in a few half decent positions and Willian as well but poor touches/decision making/end product let them down.

But that is a common theme with them, no? Mount, for all the hard work he does off the ball, becomes absolute brain dead in the final third. And Willian is...well, Willian.

2 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Maybe he persisted with them thinking the next one will be better. Who knows? I do think Frank got his selection wrong with the team shape and some personnel but if Pulisic wasnt fully fit to play the 90 or close to fair enough but if he didnt want to risk him incase he missed out for the Wolves game and FA cup, you can also see his reasoning. There would of been a meltdown if he statted only to come off with a knock/injury. Plus the game was a bit mote stretched when he came on and it helped him and Callum in a way as well although they put in very good individual performances undoubtedly.

I would of liked to have seen 4231 with our midfield matching them up, Mount in and around Fabinho and Kovacic/Jorginho up against Keita and Wjinaldum. Too many times Fabinho was a free man when they had the ball.

I understand that Lampard did not want to risk Pulisic from the start but I just think he could have made the changes earlier. Furthermore, I have no idea why Lampard stuck with the back 3 till the end. At 4-3, I thought he should or would have brought, say, Loftus-Cheek on and threw the kitchen sink at them because conceding more goals at that point wasn't going to make any difference to our qualification hopes anyway but nope, he kept 3 at the back and Liverpool just exploited it till no end. 

[OneMoSalah 8,778]

10 minutes ago, Jason said:

But that is a common theme with them, no? Mount, for all the hard work he does off the ball, becomes absolute brain dead in the final third. And Willian is...well, Willian.

I understand that Lampard did not want to risk Pulisic from the start but I just think he could have made the changes earlier. Furthermore, I have no idea why Lampard stuck with the back 3 till the end. At 4-3, I thought he should or would have brought, say, Loftus-Cheek on and threw the kitchen sink at them because conceding more goals at that point wasn't going to make any difference to our qualification hopes anyway but nope, he kept 3 at the back and Liverpool just exploited it till no end. 

I agree but again Willian and Mount just come off the back of a very good performance and maybe he thought not to alter a winning team? Plus Willian has alongside Puli and Giroud been one of our best players since the restart. 

Although we all thought it was a mistake but he is stubborn as weve seen this season with the back 3. When it works one game he tends to keep it next, which ok to keep continuity and consistently picking the team maybe but then he changes again and it contradicts that potential reason. 

I dont think this game would have suited Loftus-Cheek he would of probably came on in the MF 2 and I dont think you can account for him definitely putting the hard hards in the other way. Well thats my opinion. Although if it were 4231 he could have come on in the 10 position aye or even in a 433 being the more advanced player in MF but I think the 343 definitely let Alonso and James get into better positions, as they had more security (well not really the best way to put it haha) with the 3 behind them. Plus for all the Jorginho bashing last night and today he kept finding Alonso out on the left with ease and also James received the ball a lot in their half. I think the plan was again try get it wide and get it in to the box as weve seen a lot recently. 

[Special Juan 27,429]

Absolute golden this boy, he will be flying next season.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, OneMoSalah said:

I agree but again Willian and Mount just come off the back of a very good performance and maybe he thought not to alter a winning team? Plus Willian has alongside Puli and Giroud been one of our best players since the restart.

But it doesn't change the fact that Mount is not going give us consistent goal contribution and the same goes for Willian. Goals are goals but his goals since the restart have come from penalties and a free kick. And for all the good performances Mount has put in, it's worth noting that he has been subbed off a couple of times recently - HT at Leicester and Sheffield United, in the 59th minute at Liverpool. 

3 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

Although we all thought it was a mistake but he is stubborn as weve seen this season with the back 3. When it works one game he tends to keep it next, which ok to keep continuity and consistently picking the team maybe but then he changes again and it contradicts that potential reason. 

So much for that 150 IQ...

3 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

I dont think this game would have suited Loftus-Cheek he would of probably came on in the MF 2 and I dont think you can account for him definitely putting the hard hards in the other way. Well thats my opinion. Although if it were 4231 he could have come on in the 10 position aye or even in a 433 being the more advanced player in MF but I think the 343 definitely let Alonso and James get into better positions, as they had more security (well not really the best way to put it haha) with the 3 behind them. Plus for all the Jorginho bashing last night and today he kept finding Alonso out on the left with ease and also James received the ball a lot in their half. I think the plan was again try get it wide and get it in to the box as weve seen a lot recently.

The point is, we might as well have thrown the kitchen sink at Liverpool and taken whatever risks. We were already losing at that point anyway and Liverpool were having so much joy against back 3. Change the system and give them something different to think about. Instead, Lampard was seen smiling/laughing with someone at one point and looked like he could care less about what was going on. 

You mentioned Alonso...then what the hell was late sub for Emerson for?

[King Kante 1,483]

4 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

There will be agents, high powered execs and club officials in that discussion before it's decided, but why not stick with 22 and establish a legacy number of his own? Some people have managed to get out from Pele's shadow; Best made no. 7 a big thing, Michael Jordan made his number almost as famous as Pele's despite playing what is a minority sport when compared to football. There's no danger Pulli can make 22 as big as 10 or 23 but he can create a strong association of his own. I'd advise him to stick with the number he's worn his entire professional career.

Problem is he plays as No.10 for the US national team. 

[BXL70 396]

Pulisic is pure magic. His assist and goal of yesterday against Liverpool reminds me of Messi, Hazard, or Ronaldo. And the guy is only 21. 

@American fellows, is Pulisic making his name in the USA? I understand that football/soccer is not as much popular in the US as in Europe, but here we are talking about one of the most talented, if not the most talented American player you ever had, playing in a top European club in the most competitive league. A Golden boy.  I just hope his career won't be plagued with injuries. That's also likely the reason Lampard does not want to play him for 90 minutes unless he is totally fit.

[Jase 43,479]

27 minutes ago, BXL70 said:

That's also likely the reason Lampard does not want to play him for 90 minutes unless he is totally fit.

TBF, I doubt any manager would play anyone who has had a knock and isn't 100% fit for 90 minutes.

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

Has he won a major trophy yet?

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[Jype 6,398]

2 minutes ago, Supermonkey92 said:

Has he won a major trophy yet?

Won the DFB Pokal in his second season as a first team player at Dortmund.