Christian Pulisic is in a rich vein of form and is earning perhaps the most glowing praise we’ve heard from his manager since Thomas Tuchel became his boss for the second time.
The USMNT winger, 23, has goals in recent wins over Lille and Burnley and set up a brilliant goal for Kai Havertz in the Clarets match, keeping him in the Starting XI with big matches looking for the Blues.
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Chelsea faces Norwich City at Carrow Road on Thursday and while eyes are obviously on the Blues for off-field reasons, Tuchel’s words are front-and-center on Chelsea’s web site (Watch live 2:30pm ET Thursday online via Peacock Premium).
“For me, what Christian can bring to the team is his physicality and his ability to hit high intensity very repetitively. This is the focus and then the other thing is he has the ambition and the natural hunger to arrive in the six-yard box.
“This is what we need and he needs to focus on these things and start from there. If he does and if he feels the physical fitness and ability to do so, he can have a huge influence on our game.”
The only conditionals here are Pulisic’s well-documented and perhaps somewhat overblown (somewhat) struggles with injury. A casual reading of the quotes may make a reader glean that Pulisic isn’t always at full effort but most fans familiar with Tuchel’s way of speaking will know that any conditional nature attached to Pulisic’s effort are about workload and health.
And Tuchel is also hailing the connection between Pulisic and two of his young teammates.
More after the jump.
Tuchel hails Christian Pulisic chemistry with Havertz, Mount
The Chelsea boss is especially happy with how Pulisic is working together with a pair of peers, Kai Havertz and Mason Mount, and this could bode well for the American as he looks to finally settle into a regular starting role under Tuchel.
“He’s in a good moment and good form. It’s been good link-up between him, Mason, and Kai so they have assists together, goals together, and they are decisive.”
Of course, regular starting roles at Chelsea mean featuring in most games not all and the club is only a Timo Werner or Romelu Lukaku hot streak away from Tuchel overturning his apple cart, but these words are welcome for USMNT fans ready to get a whole lot of Pulisic on their screens ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
