As
Chelsea’s summer signing Christian Pulisic turns 21, the winger will be
hoping that the opportunities for youth under Frank Lampard are extended to
him too. Adam Bate assesses Pulisic’s situation in conversation with former
US international Kyle Martino.
After sitting out Chelsea's 5-2 win over Wolves on Saturday, Christian
Pulisic might have expected to be called upon for Tuesday's Champions League
clash with Valencia. Instead, the £58m summer signing from Borussia Dortmund
spent his final night before turning 21 sat warming the Stamford Bridge
bench in a 1-0 defeat. Happy birthday, Christian.
Given Chelsea's much-discussed transfer ban, it would have been natural for
the only expensive new addition to the squad to be at the forefront of the
conversation during the early part of the season. However, Pulisic has made
a low-key start to life at the club since being omitted from the starting
line-up for the 4-0 opening-day win at Manchester United.
He did start each of the next four games - coming up with a couple of
assists - but it has been a slow-burn start. Pulisic is still adjusting.
Frank Lampard is still searching for the right combinations all over the
pitch. Tammy Abraham's seven goals and Mason Mount's three have ensured that
they have been the 'new' players stealing the spotlight.
Kyle Martino, the former United States international turned NBC pundit, has
followed Pulisic's career closely for years and does not anticipate that
being too much of a concern for his young compatriot given his reserved
nature. Indeed, given the hullabaloo that has greeted his transfer to the
Premier League in his homeland, a bit of calm might be needed.
"Every nation has an incredible interest in how their compatriots are
doing," Martino tells Sky Sports. "This move has more implications and more
at stake than most. There is a genuine interest here that measures higher on
the excitement scale than any American playing abroad ever before. For
Christian, I would imagine that has got to wear on him."
Martino had the opportunity to catch up with Pulisic just before the start
of the season and saw a young man determined to take this chance. "There was
a new-kid-at-school quiet about him, getting used to his surroundings. But I
also sensed a real anxious athlete ready to get out and perform. He looked
calm, confident and ready to let his play do the talking.
"Remember that this is a player who has played in massive games against Real
Madrid and Bayern Munich where he has delivered. This is a very experienced
player who was tossed into World Cup qualifying by Bruce Arena and ended up
being one of the best performers despite having had no experience with the
national team."
Even so, the occasion of Pulisic's 21st birthday is a reminder that despite
the big fee, and indeed his Champions League experience with Borussia
Dortmund, Chelsea have brought in a young player still at the start of his
career. He is not a youth-team graduate but he is almost a year younger than
Abraham and has only a few short months on Mount.
As a result, he too will need a bit of trust placed in him. Martino is
hopeful that Chelsea finally have a manager willing to do that but is urging
people not to expect the impossible. "If success is him replacing Eden
Hazard then he is not going to succeed because maybe only a handful of
players in the world can actually replace Eden Hazard," he says.
"But he will bring similar qualities. If you watched him for Dortmund, he is
more often than not coming from the left with a bit of freedom and that
brings a tremendous amount of threat in behind as we saw in pre-season. He
is an excellent finisher and he is good with his dribbling at creating space
for himself and others. He is cerebral so he reads the game well.
"The physicality of the Premier League will be a learning curve - having to
be a bit quicker in getting the ball out from under his feet. He will need
to be intelligent in terms of when he takes players on. But I have played
with Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey and all the best before. He has got
the qualities to be an incredible asset to Chelsea in between the lines."
Pulisic has already matched the total of Premier League starts for Chelsea
that Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku managed between them. He is halfway
towards Mohamed Salah's tally of six and despite having to sit out the last
two games, there is little reason to think he will not be given the
opportunity to overhaul that number before too long.
Things have changed at Chelsea. "There is a tremendous amount of talent in
that squad but talent has not always been able to blossom there because of
remarkable short-term expectations," adds Martino. "If they are good enough
they are old enough but we tend not to find out whether they are good enough
at Chelsea so it is nice to see youth trusted again.
"Players need time but not everyone is given it. De Bruyne and Salah did not
get time and then they went on to show their brilliance. But I think he will
get more time than in the past because of the ban and because of Lampard's
trust in youth. He will get his chance soon. He won't need any more time
than that… and if he does it's because it's not working out."
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