Christian Pulisic endured some of his toughest moments as a Chelsea player during the 2022-23 English Premier League season and with a new opportunity approaching to get back to his best, the U.S. men’s national team attacker is ready to wipe the slate clean.
Pulisic is currently with the USMNT in Carson, California ahead of its upcoming Concacaf Nations League semifinal clash with Mexico on June 15. The 24-year-old totaled the second-fewest minutes of his club career (1,013 total) during the Blues’ disappointing campaign, while only registering one goal and two assists in 30 combined appearances.
Chelsea endured a major drop off in the Premier League, finishing 12th and well outside of the European places while Pulisic took a step back in terms of individual form. Now with an opportunity to lift a second-consecutive Nations League title, Pulisic is hoping to get his confidence and game changing abilities.
“It’s been a really tough season for me personally and for our team of course at a club level,” Pulisic said in a conference call with media on Monday. “So for me it’s just about coming in here and having a fresh start and being able to be a part of a team that hopefully can come out and win some games. So I’m really excited to be here and just to get some minutes on the field and just get back to being that confident player that I know I can be in and just find my footing again and just enjoying the game because it feels like it’s been tough to do that lately.”
Pulisic has one year left on his current Chelsea contract, but remains one of several Chelsea players linked with an exit from Stamford Bridge this summer, especially with the club trying to recoup funds ahead of the start of Mauricio Pochettino’s spell as manager. Juventus is reportedly leading the race for Pulisic, who previously was linked with Manchester United, Newcastle United, Borussia Dortmund, and Atletico Madrid at different points of the season.
The USMNT captain remains focused on latest spell of international duty, but admitted his club status could change by summer’s end.
“Obviously, it’s been an interesting journey at club level for me. I thought it was a great couple years and the last couple years just haven’t gone at all how I’ve planned them to be,” Pulisic said. “And right now my focus is obviously here with the national team. I’m just excited to get back playing and just enjoy myself and do what I love to do out on the field. And from there, this summer, we’re obviously going to have to see what happens.
“It’s obviously very early,” Pulisic said about his club status. “As of right now I’m a Chelsea player and I plan to go back. But a lot of things can happen. A lot of things can change.”
Pulisic comes into USMNT camp with new interim head coach B.J. Callaghan in charge following Anthony Hudson’s departure in May. Callaghan served as an assistant coach under former head coach Gregg Berhalter and is currently the longest-serving member of the staff heading into a busy summer schedule.
Whether or not Callaghan remains a long-term option for the head coaching job remains to be seen, but Pulisic is preparing to do anything he can to help the 41-year-old ahead of crucial head-to-head meeting with El Tri for a potential berth into the Nations League finals.
“I’ve had quite a few managers in my time, so I’ve dealt with change,” Pulisic said. “I mean [Callaghan] especially he, he’s been a part of Gregg’s staff. We know him well. We know what he is all about. He’s not going to come in and try to change everything. He’s going to come in, give some new ideas, give input, and obviously make sure [to] run by everything with the team, with some of the leadership guys.
“We’re going to have to be well prepared once the game comes around,” Pulisic added. “It’s not something that any of us have never seen before, so we’re just going to give our best and help him along the way as he helps us and try to win some games.”
I know, let me make something up, act as if it’s truth and reality even tho it’s just my feelings, and then draw conclusions and judgments from it as if it’s insight.
oh, and forget what anyone actually, literally says, over and over again, about what they feel or think, or how they act, over and over again
my feelings say it’s ______, so gosh darn it, it’s _______
🙂
If you watch the full 20 minute presser, it’s basically 20 minutes of reporters going “Sorry Matt this one is for Christian, so you had an epically terrible year how do you feel about …”. It was brutal.
🤦♂️ It was exactly like that, I’m crying laughing 😂
so maybe quit signing for the most expensive team waving checks in front of you, and find a team more pointed towards making christian a success and building around that. i mean, you’re probably aptly describing the scene. and perhaps what he’s endured for the year. or more depending which coach we’re talking about. and yet structurally he seems to sign for dortmund or CFC where IMO over a period long enough, a few years, all but an elite get mulched. it’s either greed or he thinks he’s the messi that is above it all when the real pattern is favre or tuchel or whoever runs him off. so rumor is now juve. juve already got bored with weston.
more pointedly, i don’t think the NT player i have seen has been as good as he was for years. i think that iran goal was brave. but i didn’t witness his emergence on the world scene.
Of course, CP likes GB. GB is the only coach that allows CP to do crappy corners and lackluster free kicks without question and no results. ‘19 -CP played the 10 for GB and got hacked by El Tri in GC final and still wasn’t moved to LW for a few matches after that, when it was obvious he was being targeted. GB plays CP at LW and CP doesn’t play any other position after that. We get to see him kick corners, play hero ball during qualifying and injures himself forcing stuff. Running into players, who only play one position, putting minimal effort in pressing, jumping into other players lanes, and going the opposite direction when teammates are attacking, were some of the selfish things I saw. Instead of using his versatility like a Queens piece on a chessboard, making him and the team less predictable; GB’s lil wrinkle was to have CP cut inside, when Jedi is in the offensive 1/3. This reminds me of Michael Jordan and Coach Doug Collins (‘86-‘89). Doug Collins offensive plan was “give Jordan the ball and get out of the way!” Phil Jackson’s philosophy was team ball. MJ didn’t like Phil at first because Phil wanted him to share the ball and use his teammates while Collins wanted MJ to have the ball, all the time, no questions ask. Big difference is MJ is the greatest player ever (or at his time) and Phil didn’t hold him to a different standard. CP isn’t Messi or Ronaldo but GB held him at a different standard. So yeah, if I was CP, I wouldn’t want any coach for the national team but GGG.
It’s: Weren’t you calling for Weah to play LW? Where’s he going to go with it? Tim is more right footed than Christian. It’s, you are the left foot expect who is our best left footed attacker? I’m not being argumentative, Zendajas or Sonora (neither play on the LW for club)? Berhalter was never able to set up the team to break down a low block which is why the offense typically broke down into Reyna, Pulisic, Aaronson, or Dest going it alone. The next manager has to fix that whether that’s Berhalter or someone else. If you are going to out possess your opponent you have to be able to break them down.
to me what pulisic needs to do is crack down like dempsey did midcareer at fulham and get excellent at some phase of the game. dempsey by the end could snipe him some finishes. landon was super fit ad had his free kicks. pulisic might have more all-around game but i don’t see the one excellent phase. pretty good but not great dribbler or shooter. lately can’t hit a free kick. often looks tired. kick some phase(s) up a notch.
Highlighting the part about wanting Berhalter back would have gotten more clicks.
Did he say that? Very interesting if so.
“We’ve given our input, but its not our job as players to pick the manager…I think he should be considered. I think he did a really great job with the team. He brought us a long way I think a lot of the guys on the team would agree with that.”
Certainly not a 100% he’s my guy but as media savvy pro Christian could have said a lot less. I don’t think Gregg is the guy to carry the team forward, but the idea that the team didn’t like him or trust him doesn’t seem factual.
i have seen the bumper sticker lines but without hearing the full confab it’s hard to tell if he was advocating it as a choice gratuitously or merely answering if he would accept an outcome. i was concerned the sheer volume of lovebomb reflected either laying it on thick or perhaps being cult-napped, but part of me is like, what is he going to say? no decision has been made so that is his potential boss. or pulisic may have decided when he might be moving this is no time for publicly rocking boats (or getting a reputation for doing so). let’s be real, there are few US players with the chutzpah to say what pomykal, miazga, or scally (“over-complicated system”) have. and most of those few have been left off GB teams repeatedly and only come back in his absence. even scally was a qatar cut. they owe him nothing. maybe later in their career after several coaches the regulars figure out they own the team as much or more than any coach. “here is what we think this needs.” maybe it’s a function of most of this team is early 20s and perhaps not fully sure what that is. but i think it would be helpful if instead of handing it all to a GM and crocker that the players weigh in. their careers only last so long and there isn’t a team without them. what do they think would make this hum. i struggle to believe pulisic really believes GB is as good as we can do.
you are right that he left out the page-count lede. and on cue i respond.
Went and found the whole press conference. The two parts that have been clipped together (separated in my quotation of it by …) were actually several minutes apart. The first part was in response to a question about how much input they’ve had with the manager search. The second part was in a response to a question asking his thoughts on the Gregg vs Reynas and if he thought Gregg should be an option to return and then a follow up about should parents be allowed to have input.
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So it was in response to specific question about if Gregg should be considered. However, he could have just left it at “that’s not our place as players” kind of answer. Both Turner and Pulisic kind of laughed at the second part about parent input and responded basically with like do you really need to ask that question. It does sound like at least the leadership group has had input with Crocker on what they are looking for. I’d also guess the players probably have a better idea of the interested parties instead of we fans who are just tossing out names.
JR: a question about parent input kind of implies a specific (GB) discussion. there are no stories of any parents going after anyone else. i can’t see parents having an elite coach beef. at least now, give them time. i can’t see players having elite coach beefs except with perhaps specific people. so the whole question prompts a GB discussion. they then say i thought he was fine, would be content if he came back, and parents shouldn’t have a say. not a ringing endorsement.
i think it’s politic right now to not go after GB. doing what scally did is making an assumption or taking a calculated risk we have moved on. but i find it hard to believe that’s their dream coach.
along those lines, they supposedly asked for former player input last time and came up with berhalter. was that off a predetermined short list? like tell me what you think of these names? the real power is then with who did the short list, and it might be artificially lame. did they empower the players to say, woah, that’s trash, come back with better names? or did they feel like they had to talk up a list? we often have this discussion on houston dynamo’s coaching carousel. routinely my response to the short list is “nunya.” go back and pick someone better than that. but i can freely say that as a fan. does a player want to bluntly say nunya if maybe that coach ends up with the job anyway and perhaps finds out what your blunt assessment was? see what i am saying?
one of our our college coaching staff was a jerk. early on in freshman year he literally said hurt an opposing player — a conference player of the year — who i instead just held in check. i refused but didn’t report him. i wasn’t wired at the time to go after people’s jobs. he lasted most of our college tenure before moving on. i just wanted to play soccer. i didn’t think of that as my role. older me feels different. do the players know what their power is? would they get their way? do they see it as their role?
I wouldn’t read too much into it. Christian knew the question or a similar question would be asked. He supplied an answer that reinforced what he said in March. Pulisic has had 5 NT managers, he has had at least that many club managers. So perhaps he’s a little bit gun shy about managerial change. He truly thinks Berhalter did a good job he’s said it March and repeated it here. He’d be happy if he came back but he’s not going to be devastated if he doesn’t.
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He’s not afraid for his spot. Even Pomykal wasn’t punished for his words, he got hurt. After the Sept friendly he was invited to the next camp in Jan 2020 but left after pain in his surgically repaired groin. Pax played 5 matches in 2020 for FCD before having to have another surgery on his groin. Berhalter praised him in 2021 after provisional roster for GC, but said he just missed the cut. Dallas was managing his minutes at that time (didn’t go more than 45 mins until match . 13 in July). In the past two seasons 1g 3a in 66 matches, he’s not the player he was before injury. Blame his groin not his mouth or a Berhalter vendetta for him not getting back with NT. He’s hurt again by the way so probably won’t be at GC this time either.
dude, i know you’re saying literally speaking pomykal wasn’t “punished” — though be real he was not hurt for years and years, and only brought back under a successor long after he healed — but the pattern seems to be only marginal or excluded players feel free to talk. scally had a cup of coffee then got cut. to be fair, played his way off IMO. but he had so few GB caps i assume he feels he owes him nothing, and his talking suggests to me that whatever they say to the press, they don’t think GB is in with a real chance. pomykal and miazga both were dropped a long time and got chatty. they did not come back until GB was gone.
more pointedly, i have noticed an almost robotic defense of the coach and system even when reality should have prompted a more complicated response. like sane honest people should have been like yeah i see where this isn’t well oiled but we are working on it. you don’t have to say my coach sucks. you just say i admit it’s not perfectly slick. nada. none. ergo i do not believe they feel like they can speak freely. not when the only criticism comes from cut players. not when the cut players’ criticism align or expand upon common press or fan senses of how it’s going.
JR: for example, does “I’d like to say [a] few things but I’ll refrain from that. You guys will eventually find out.” (miazga) sound like free speaking? or “You can’t express yourself.” (scally). mind you strictly speaking one was meta-speaking about criticism and the other about field play, but then feeling constrained on and off field might be my point. i think some is a dictatorial one-note boss and i think some of the dynamic is people know this has big promise but you don’t want to get left off where this goes for being honest that maybe so far it’s not optimized. even if big picture suboptimized means it’s harder to actualize the promise. i kind of want scally yapping a little as his historical american NT players sometimes have done. i think they are good much more so than the coaches they are getting. i think they should take more ownership of it.
along those lines i thought hudson was horrible and am genuinely curious if some combination of the suits or the players finally were willing to say this is not worthy of the pool. i kind of want those kind of expectations and drive.
No what I’m saying is Pomykal showed promise. Missed an entire season to injury, then missed the 2021 GC because he was only minutes limit recovering from the injury. Then he showed far less promise. He was outperformed by Ferreira and Pepi on his own team. He was outperformed by Lleget and Arriola on his own team, who were deemed not good enough. Injury and lack of development cost him, not his words. Why’d he get a call from Hudson, because that’s what Jan camp is for guys who are not good enough for regular camps.