Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher were pundits on CBS’ Champions League coverage in America this week, and inevitably Christian Pulisic came up as a topic of conversation.
You’d expect them to take it easy on the US’ star boy in that context, but neither of them could really defend him after more than a season of tepid at best performances.
In quotes picked up by The Metro, each of them seriously questioned the winger.
“I don’t think he’s good enough to play for Chelsea. I think he’s been there for a few years now. I think he’s had enough opportunities,” Carragher said, putting it about as bluntly as possible.
Henry’s complaints were more tactical, asking Pulisic to step up and make things happen in games:
“‘Now I don’t think he’s a bad player, I’m just saying at what point can it come from you? At what point can he free himself?”
We agree with both those sentiments really. We’ve really only seen the briefest of flashes from Pulisic over the years, and most people have given up on him ever showing that consistently.
The pundits will even now say it openly on American TV.
Fuck them both.Great players but enemies to us.They must be very happy right now and trying to fuel the fire.As i said fuck them!!!!!!!!!Hard if possible
Couldn’t agree with you more Vladimir! And why, oh why is this worthy of “Chelsea News,” SuperFrank? What’s with this axe you keep grinding with Pulisic? Shouldn’t we be talking about how the entire squad has underperformed for most of 2022? Despite regularly being played out of position, most of Pulisic’s stats per 90 minutes (goals & assists, shot success rate, shot creating actions, progressive carries, successful defensive pressures) are actually superior to Havertz! As we say in America—don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Any U.S. player will have to be twice as good to not be criticized and to overcome the innate English bias against U.S. football players.. Same with any American coach. That being said, Henry’s critique has some truth to it. The fact is, Pulisic has been treatly unfairly, played out of position, and suffered unfortunate injuries. Yet in spite of all that, he does shoulder some responsibility for not rising to the occasion more. He often creates more opportunities than his competitors on Chelsea, but then doesn’t close. The others don’t even create the opportunities. And to be clear, I’m referring to the team before Sterling’s arrival. He’s clearly not at Sterling’s level.