Things have been stop and go for Christian Pulisic at Chelsea. Now in his third season the American winger has had to deal with all sorts of setbacks as he has shown glimpses of his talent in the Premier League. The 23-year-old star of American soccer has had issues with injury, form, and now being at times the experimental goat for Thomas Tuchel in his lineup.
Pulisic whose season has been as high as a great game against Liverpool has also had lows such as three straight games at forward with virtually no support in creating or getting chances. In total it is still harsh to judge Pulisic as a flop signing, the potential has been there, but the consistency has been wanting.
Now Pulisic has opened up in the lead up to the USMNT’s next round of World Cup qualifiers, talking about playing out of position and the mental stress it has caused. Always optimistic the American winger is up for the challenge.
Christian Pulisic on playing out of position
Christian Pulisic of Chelsea stands next to a dejected Mohamed Salah of Liverpool (Photo by James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)
“Obviously it has been up and down this year, for sure. Not exactly where I want to be and how I want things to be right now. I’m just going to keep going and it doesn’t affect me when I come here. So, I am excited to be here. When I come to the national team it is ‘How are things with Chelsea?’ and ‘What’s this’ and ‘What’s that.’ It’s tough.”
Pulisic continued talking about the mental factor ofbeing played out of position and being in and out of the lineup, “Mentally it has played on me at times, but I am always very excited to be on the national team and get to enjoy playing with these guys and just enjoy football in general. It is tough. I haven’t always been playing in the positions I want to play in. But I think it is a good quality to be versatile and able to play in all kinds of positions and have different strengths on the pitch.”
