Finally Captain America is set to be here. Confirmation from soon to be team-mate Ruben Loftus Cheek that he is set to arrive tomorrow for his medicals. One of the most talented players to have come out of the country how does he scale up.
Playing Style
It is to be noted that Pulisic has played under 3 different managers at Chelsea and therefore his playing style varied under the different coaches. His best season came under Frank Lampard when Lampard preferred a 3-4-2-1 which sometimes worked as a 3-5-2.
Lampard as I mentioned above preferred a 3-4-2-1 formation where he preferred his team to keep their off the ball structure and break on counter using their speed. Usually Pulisic alongside Giroud played as the furthest 2 men upfront trying to break and exploit the space left by the full backs. Blessed with incredible close control and acceleration, Pulisic is extremely hard to knock off the ball and this meant he would often get fouled a lot.
Even though he wasn’t a great visionary passer, Pulisic would often create 1-2 passing combinations with Giroud for quick ball progression
His skillset is a potent weapon for teams that play during transition. During Lampard’s tenure, Pulisic played more inside than the wide areas sometime facing the areas between the half space and the touchline always looking to dribble inside rather than a cross
Under Potter, he played as a LW in a 4-3-3 formation. Often staying wide, he dragged the full back towards the wide areas to make space for Mason Mount who played as the Mezalla in the midfield 3. In a more traditional winger role, Pulisic would hug the touchline and try to cross. the ball but his initial instinctstict is to always scan the environment and dribble the ball with progression. In this game Nottingham Forest have settled into a mid-block, therefore Pulisic comes out of his position to recieve the ball and spread the play.
Although he wasn’t a great passer/crosser with time he has inculcated this into his skillset making very accurate crosses.
Pulisic always was very aware of his surroundings. Not always did he try to dribble past players. If the option was not there he would look to make a safe pass and keep possession instead of risking a turnover. When playing for Lampard’s Chelsea Pulisic was mostly expected to keep shape and as the first line of defense, do not give space between the line and covering passing lanes. However under Potter who played a more expansive style of play Pulisic had to cover for Cucurella/Chillwel
whenever they would join the attack and then get countered. Pulisic would track back and help out in defense as well.
STRENGTHS
Technical ability: First touch and close control. For any player that players in the forward areas, it is imperative that they have these 2 qualities because they have to move quickly before defenders close down the space.
Acceleration: In terms of top speed, Pulisic may not be the quickest, but to reach his top speed it dosent take long and his ability to turn defenders and accelerate leaving space between him and the defender is extremely hard to defend especially in terms of transitions.
Ability to recieve in tight areas (press resistant): With his excellent first touch, Pulisic is resistant to being pressed as he cannot be disposssesed easily.
1v1: Pioli in his press conference spoke of how he needed wingers to be good at 1v1 ability. With acceleration and good touch, Pulisic can beat his man and take defenders out of the game.
WEAKNESS
Injury prone: Not a secret, Christian Pulisic’s injuries are extremely demoralising. He has missed upto 14 games last season and with an extremely competitive squad at Chelsea he has seen gametime come and go.
Aerial Ability: Standing at 5ft 10, Pulisic isn’t the most aerially dominant player and not a very big asset for set pieces. Although he has a good leap he rarely participates in serial duels.
STATS AND COMPARISON
To get a better evaluation of Pulisic’s number we take a dive into his 19/20 season with Frank Lampard. A season where he had 9 Goals and 4 assists in the season.
Against an expected goal of 9 Pulisic scored 9 goals which means he was clinical that particular season. Whenever he got a chance he took it. His expected assists were 2.7 from which he got 4 assists.
When looking at Shot Creating Actions, Pulisic has almost 4.55 shots per 90 while he had 0.84 Goal Creating Action per game. This is a very healthy number. Worth nothing that he average almost 1 Goal Creating Action per game.
The best way to measure 1v1 dribble is to measure Successful dribble per 90. And Pulisic average 2.88 successful takeon’s per 90
Lastly Pulisic draws 1.57 fouls per game and has an aerial duel success of 30.8%
In this graph I have taken
Y axis= Shot Creating Actions + Goal creating actions
X Axis = Take ons completed per 90
Pulisic in his best season has stats that match that of Rafa Leao, our best attacker. He has a high amount of Shot and Goal creating actions and he has extremely superior 1v1 ability. A certainly good upgrade on Diaz if he stays fit
WHERE CAN PIOLI USE HIM
Something still in its molten form, Pioli’s ideas are yet to take shape for the new seasons. Rumours about changing to a 4-3-3 or keeping a 4-2-3-1 are still flying around with Milan still making their moves on the market. As somebody who likes to progress the ball with carries (dribble) more than passing it will massively help Pioli in his transitional style of play. Averaging almost 5.6 carries per 90 , Pulisic has shown that he can provide the impetus needed to go forward.
With his ability to receive the ball in tight areas in opposition half he can use his dribbling ability to either draw defenders towards himself or dribble past defenders to create chaos in the opposition half. He receives the ball nearly 9 times per 90 minutes from the defensive half.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, Milan have once again placed their bet on another under appreciated talent in World Football. One aspect of this deal that does not get spoken about is the Commercial one. Red Bird would like to make the Milan brand grow and they feel that Pulisic would make the brand grow. If Milan can keep Pulisic injury free and Pioli can manage his workload then Milan have a very potent weapon on their hands
Transfer Rating 8/10
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