One of the Premier League’s best players after the COVID restart, what will Christian Pulisic offer as an encore in 2020-21?
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a six-part TYAC series about an exciting generation of young Americans abroad. Each piece will focus on what to expect from the player in the upcoming 2020-2021 season.
Neil W. Blackmon
Weird confession of an American soccer writer time: it’s difficult to write about Christian Pulisic.
No, I don’t mean in the American soccer angst sense, where every American men’s prospect is either overhyped or an underachiever, though there’s been no shortage of salt for those old war wounds as we’ve all watched Chelsea’s new number ten battle anything from CONCACAF heartbreak to injuries as he’s developed.
It’s difficult to write about Christian Pulisic because what is there to write that hasn’t already been written about the brilliant young American, the guy my friend and longtime US Men’s National Team beat colleague Doug McIntyre says, with some justice, is already the greatest American men’s soccer player ever?
Pulisic, who turned 22 this Friday, has brought American soccer a much-needed infusion of joy since a handful of us saw him doing rabonas around kids with PA Classics. He’s been a content-producing constant in American soccer-writing circles since he dominated the Nike Friendlies at 16. So many stories have been written about Pulisic since that it truly seems like he’s been around for years, even though it was just four years ago this past August when, at only 17, he became the youngest American to score in a World Cup qualifier when he knocked home two goals against tiny St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He made his first US start a month later, scoring twice on Labor Day weekend against (gulps) Trinidad and Tobago to help the US secure passage to the Hex in the second round’s final fixture.
What is there to say about Pulisic at this point that hasn’t been said? How good can he be? How good is he already? Having been given the honor of the number 10 at Chelsea, what role can he carve out for the London club this year, especially given all the marvelous pieces the Blues have brought in around him?
It’s all worth exploring. I think it’s best, though, to begin with an appreciation– a moment in time where, despite his youth, it was yet again clear just how special Christian Pulisic was and is. Given his torrid form after the COVID restart, when he averaged a goal or assist every 77 minutes (Eden Hazard’s Chelsea average was 1 every 85, for perspective), it’s tempting to begin there. I won’t. I’ll go further back, to a DFL Super Cup game against Bayern Munich, when Pulisic picked Javi Martinez’s pocket and did this:
In one sequence, what Pulisic is already brilliant at– the silky first touch, the acceleration burst, the calm finish– and what we’d like to see more of- his deployment in pressure, his ability to collect the ball or force giveaways–from the youngster this year in London.
Analytical analysis bears out Pulisic’s strengths.
Among Premier League wingers (including wing forwards) who played over 1000 minutes in 2019-2020, Pulisic ranked behind only Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, and Arsenal striker Pierre Aubamayeng among goal contribution per 90 minutes. Overall, Pulisic was at .45 goals per 90 with .2 assists. Riyad Mahrez, the Manchester City man who was a key piece in Leicester City’s stunning Premier League victory in 2015-2016, rated just below Pulisic, at 65% in overall goal contribution, to give you another idea of the type of company the young American was keeping.
Pulisic manages this due to a special combination of dribbling ability and world class speed, both off and on the ball. Pulisic ranked 6th in the Premier League in attempted dribbles per 90 minutes in 2019-2020, averaging over 8 per 90 minutes. Nearly 6 of every 10 he attempts are successful (57%), numbers eclipsed in the Premier League among attacking players with 5 or more attempted dribbles per game by only Adama Traoré (70 percent successful!!), Willian (65%), Jack Grealish (58%) and Allan Saint-Maximin (59%).
Pulisic’s world class speed compounds the problems he creates for opposing defenses. On the ball, he’s been clocked at over 30 kph, with a top speed of 34.4 kph in short bursts. That’s anywhere from 18-21 miles per hour in wide spaces, and it makes him one of the ten fastest players in the Premier League.
At 5’7, Pulisic is masterful at using his lean frame, ability to decelerate (James Harden-esque at slowing down with the ball), and acceleration bursts to win the ball, shield the ball away from opponents and then dribble past them. Pulisic also has a silky first touch, which means when he does use speed as a receiver (or even to win the ball in space), there’s a good chance he’s going to be off to the races.
That, coupled with an understanding of what is happening on the field Willian called “well beyond his years,” Pulisic has both the ability and imagination to be a consistent chance-creator. The net result is the ability to create end-products like this one against Manchester City, where French international Benjamin Mendy simply has no chance.
This rare skillset is one way Pulisic also compensates for being only a decent, not great passer– Pulisic consistently draws fouls in dangerous positions with the ball.
The passing isn’t bad, per se.
Pulisic completed over 80% of his passes last season, a good number, in truth. It’s just not a number that is up to par with the elite type comparisons he frequently receives, even accounting for age. Eden Hazard, for example, completed 85% of his passes at 21 and averaged .38 assists a game, nearly .2 over Pulisic at the same age.
But it could improve. At present, despite the Hazard-like tear after the restart, Pulisic is not Eden Hazard. Then again, he doesn’t really have to be, what with the addition of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech giving him the type of supporting chance creation cast Hazard dreamed of in London. A subtle improvement should do.
One question about Pulisic as a dribbler, however, is whether it makes him vulnerable to sways in form and leaves him more vulnerable to injury given the effort it demands physically to play that way.
Yes, modern football typically demands that players be able to bypass pressing defenses with great passing. But Pulisic seems to be an adequate enough passer to do that on occasion, and his ability to use his speed to make deep probing runs to receive the ball or attack defenders 1-on-1 offsets any genuine weakness. Further, Pulisic’s great first touch makes him a valuable press resistor as a pass receiver, and also means he’s quite useful between the lines and moving from very wide spaces into the channels, a place he played increasingly late in the season for Frank Lampard. In other words, his passing isn’t a big enough weakness to keep him off the field. It just can improve, which is normal at 22. In the end, you don’t get the iconic number ten shirt at Chelsea if there are genuine concerns about your ability to be consistently influential.
Frank Lampard on giving Christian Pulisic the number 10. ?
— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) September 13, 2020
"I wanted him to have the number 10 shirt because I felt like he deserved it and he wanted it. We all know what a fit Christian Pulisic can do. I was very pleased to actually make the call to tell him about it" pic.twitter.com/VhlAS0cU6Y
Another area we’d like to see Pulisic improve this year is helping defensively.
The Premier League’s best wingers- Mahrez, Sadio Mane, Raheem Sterling– are all excellent at winning or recovering the ball where neither team has possession or where the ball has been played directly to a player by an opponent. Mahrez is the gold standard at this, averaging over 6 a match for his career in the Premier League– absolute gold standard stuff. Granted, he had the freedom involved in playing with an in-his-peak N’Golo Kanté at Leicester, which frees players up to be more aggressive elsewhere. But 6 per game may be ambitious for Pulisic, who averaged just below 4 (3.88) a season ago. Getting to the Sadio Mane career high 4s range (4.9) would be an outstanding improvement, and with Kanté returning to his favored rolen this season for Chelsea (finally)– maybe that will help.
Questions about Pulisic’s health– he has missed time for injuries in each of his last three campaigns– will likely follow the player throughout his career. If you are a dribble-heavy attacking player reliant on agility and acceleration, you’re going to deal with physical challenges on a higher basis. If you are the talisman for a country in CONCACAF, you’re going to deal with them internationally as well. The Premier League is a grind, and with the winter break scrapped for 2021 due to fixture congestion, the next 18 months are going to be as physically demanding a period as Pulisic has faced since he was balancing becoming a regular at Dortmund with the Hex in 2017. It’s fair and probably realistic to expect he’ll miss time here and there. The key is that the injuries don’t become debilitating.
So what can Pulisic be? And is he the best American field player ever already?
Those are, in the end, the questions I get most, whether it’s from casual fans or from friends turned soccer die-hards who I am grateful still come to me with their Saturday morning soccer questions.
Best US field player ever?
Statistically speaking, there’s an argument.
With the national team, his influence is unquestioned, even if his position is undetermined.
Is Pulisic already the best player in CONCACAF? What about the best American player ever? All are fair debates.
As a potentially game-changing American generation of players matures, Pulisic remains front and center,the proverbial straw who will stir the drink. If he isn’t already the best player in CONCACAF (Raúl Alonso Jiménez and Alphonso Davies would like a word), he’s certainly the best American player currently playing by some distance.
He is building a historic position quickly, as you’d expect.
Pulisic is tied with Clint Dempsey at .41 goals per 90 minutes for the US Men’s National Team, the highest number of any US player ever (Landon Donovan, the program’s other iconic attacking player, finished his career with .36).
Of course, Pulisic has never played in a World Cup, and had fewer “remember when” moments than either of those US legends. But at the club level, he already ranks among the US players with the most first-team European club appearances, and, given the stature of the clubs he’s played for, it’s fair to make the argument he’s already best. (I would still lean Dempsey, as I wrote when he retired, but that’s okay to disagree).
As for who he can be, the player I’ve compared him to the longest and the comparison I continue to think is most fair is Coutinho.
The Brazilian was a better passer than Pulisic at 21, at least statistically, averaging almost .5 assists per game while trying all kinds of ambitious, line-bursting passes. But, despite mirroring Pulisic in dribbles attempted (8.2 ), he wasn’t as successful at it and wasn’t nearly as clinical around the net (just over .2 goals per 90). As his career progressed, he became a more successful dribbler, which made his passing all the more lethal, as he increasingly drew help defense in space, freeing up teammates. That’s a formula Chelsea is counting on from Pulisic this season, and one that follows Coutinho’s basic development path. Now pushing 30, Coutinho has gone from Liverpool to Barca to Bayern to Barca again, collecting trophies most everywhere he’s been. I don’t know if Coutinho has quite attained global superstar status, but he’s certainly a masterful and influential player.
If that’s the career arc for Pulisic, I wonder, in a world where the average American soccer fan carries some level of existential dread or an inferiority complex, if that would be enough. It ought to be. It would certainly be better than any American that came before him. But it’s a question worth asking and debating, though for me, not at the expense of enjoying the ride.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. You can follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.