HazardousChoice

Perhaps it's a lazy stereotype. But the handful of times I've seen this lad play i just get massive Bakayoko vibes. He's big, powerful and drives forward but technically I'm not sure he's a premier league player.

A 4 Kill bag of coke isn't enough to get anyone but opposition defenders excited when Pulisic comes on. Once that man comes on we're effectively finished going forward for the rest of the game. Not that we're usually particularly effective to begin with.

Do we think Edson would bring Mexican fans flocking to the club like his North American cousin has? He's certainly a tall and physical dm but it seems strange to go for him so late in the window. And I'm concerned why Ten Haag hasn't gone for him given he's tried to sign half the Ajax team this summer and desperately needed a DM.

We did though. The biggest problem at the club is the lack of attacking talent. We regularly give minutes to attacking players that wouldn't start for a single club in any major European league. We immediately tried to address this when the window opened, the first 2 deals we agreed were Sterling and Raphina. The former is our best player so far this season and unfortunately the latter turned us down as did our backup in Dembele. But we've certainly tried to address the issue even if we've been incredibly slow to move for another attacking player after missing out on our main targets.

Tbf our forwards are all so bad they can't exactly come out and criticise the team. Imagine Pulisic, Havertz or Ziyech attempting to criticise the team based on their performances since they signed for the club after they drop their weekly disasterclasses.

Indicidentally that was also the last time Kante had a good season. Jorginho would have won at least 4 league titles if he'd gone to City when Pep offered £50m for him. There are far bigger problems than Jorginho in this team.

That's a good question. The obvious answer is no but is that not also down to the attackers themselves? Look at Haalands 3rd goal against Palace, he gets that shot away because of his pace and his strength do you think any of our forwards could have got that shot away? It's incredibly difficult to actually create chances of Havertz, Mount, Pulisic and Ziyech because none of them are very quick, none of them are very strong, none of them are particularly good dribblers and only Havertz can compete in the air. Look at Sterling, he's quick, he can dribble and has great movement so while he's missed a couple of chances as he always has he's getting and scoring a lot more chances than the rest of the team combined. Even when he didn't score in the first 3 weeks of the season I think everyone could see a marked difference in his ability to make things happen compared to the rest of our frontline. None of our forwards aside from Sterling can create their own chances and It's incredibly difficult to actually create chances for them because none of them have any kind of technical or physical attributes to get away from their defenders.

I'm saying Jorgi needs to be protected because he's a footballer and we're a football team Have you ever seen a player defend 1 vs 1 against Saint Maximin? Adama Traore? Zaha? And that's before you even get to the truly elite players in world football. It doesn't happen because trying to defend individually against pacey players running at you is fundamentally a really terrible way to defend it isn't because every defensive player on the planet can't defend. players don't rely on the support of their team mates because they can't defend they do so because if you're standing you're very vulnerable to a player running past you or playing a 1-2 around you whoever you are which is the whole reason teams defend deep instead of trying to form a solid impassable backline on the half way line. Jorginho has been a part of incredibly defensively solid teams both at club and international level and While @just probably thinks Kante was Italys best player in Euro 2020 Jorgi didn't require any kind of special defensive support. just team mates that have a sense of positional understanding and don't expect Jorginho to deal with all the space around him. Jorgi is beaten far too easily for the 2nd goal but getting beat there shouldn't lead to goal. Watch the goal back and tell me what is Ruben actually doing? Look at his positioning for the goal. He's a far bigger defensive liability than Jorginho and he doesn't have the physical excuse either but we know that which is why Ruben simply can't play in midfield. Jorginho performs well defensively when alongside team mates that know how to position themselves but if you're expecting him to charge over the pitch winning balls and putting in last ditch tackles he's just not that type of player.

Given how useless most of them are going forward that may be a better use for them. I'm not saying we need the whole team set up to protect Jorginho but it's a really basic thing to position yourself in a way that you provide some defensive utility to your midfield partner, whether that's by being compact so teams can't play through you or taking a few steps so you're in position to cut out a potential through ball that would but an opponent running at or in behind your midfield partner. Kovacic and Kante do it really well. RLC and Gallagher don't. Leaving Jorginho on his own with no team mate within 15 yards while the opposition run at him isn't doing him any favours but no player would look reasonable in the circumstances Jorginho is finding himself in with his midfield partners vanishing around him. In the last 3 games he's been asked to play next to Connor and Ruben. Both have the physicality but neither of them have a defensive bone in their body.

You're 100% right with this but I don't think it's some kind of definitive "Jorginho is poor defensively" gotcha The most important part of defending is positioning, Thiago Silva's pace has gone and he's never been the biggest centre back but he's still elite defensively because he anticipates things and he's positionally sound. Jorginho can be effective defensively by occupying passing lanes and being in position to stop counter attacks which he actually does well. What he struggles with is when players run at him or run beyond him like any defensive player would, now Granted Jorginho is less capable at dealing with this than other players because of his lack of pace and physicality but if we're in a position where teams are consistently running at an isolated Jorginho something is very wrong with our team structure and we're not providing him the support he needs.

Can he play on the right wing?

Definitely felt like we had 43 year old Paulo Ferreira at right back at times tonight. What a team that was though then swapping Gallas for Cole really completed the defence. While Gallas completed his hatrick of London clubs

Lampards a smart man and he's worked with a lot of top class players in his playing career. People like to peddle the myth Pulisic was good under Lampard based on him having a good 3 weeks in post lockdown conditions. But over the season and a bit Frank worked with him he was generally a rather poor performer. And certainly not one one you'd want in a relegation dog fight.

His top form came when the defenders weren't match fit, hadn't trained together in months and hadn't had any time to work on their shape and systems as the games started suddenly and came every 3 games. Perfect for Pulisic to Hero ball his way through defences that just weren't sharp enough to close the gaps before his direct style of play took him past them. Aside from that he's never really troubled any settled backline in his entire 8 year career. He's direct and agressive but most defenders just easily deal with him because he's so weak and not a very good dribbler, he's not a good passer or finisher either so he very rarely troubles defences.

I'm sure Boehly and Tuchel are desperate for Pulisic to go but this isn't the NBA we can't just ship to another club. A team actually has to want to buy him and no one does. The market for injury prone 4 goal a season Wingers on 150K a week that have never had a good season in their 8 year careers isn't one clubs tend to shop in. United and Newcastle were so horrified at being linked with Pulisic on loan they went out and spent £150m on attacking reinforcements. I think Americans in general have a crazy expectation of where Pulisic could end up if we sold him. We're not holding some promising prospect here while other clubs are desperate to sign him. There's been no offers. If Pulisic drops down to a level where he's actually good enough to start I'm not even sure you'll be able to find streams to watch him play.

Extremely harsh. On the fish. I actually feel bad for Pulisic, he's basically been abused by the media in America putting so much expectation on him and hyping him up to a level he's nowhere near talented enough to reach He's grew up playing hero ball against 14 year old American defenders and being praised as this special talent because he could beat them regularly But he's not talented enough to do it against professional defenders and it's all he knows. You saw it today, when the pressure was on he went head down and tried to dribble past the defender and every time they just easily took the ball off him and he dragged them back because they were physically stronger and couldn't compete shoulder to shoulder.

I've been against Ronaldo all summer. But given we're only a day away from a season of watching Pulisic come on off the bench in the 60th min and end any (albeit little) attacking threat we have going forward for the rest of the game like he's an Anemic Mikel I've had a change of heart. If we don't sign another attacking player then f**k it. Bring in Ronaldo.

Everton wouldn't take Pulisic. Lampard has suffered enough.

He's played 247 club career games and been the worst player or one of the worst players on the pitch in almost all of them. He's not a 16 year old kid. We've all seen enough of Christian Pulisic. And he is nowhere near good enough to play at premier league level.

In an ideal world we have 10 Ruud Gullits. 11 actually given how awful Mendy has been. But we don't and while I think we do need midfield upgrades and would love a better player than Jorginho he's the least of our problems in midfield right now. A quality midfielder to replace Kante and play alongside Jorginho was a must this summer. I suspect we'll replace Jorginho himself next year when his contract expires.

He had good players on the bench. It's very easy to change a game by bringing on a Giroud for a more direct approach or even a Werner for some pace. But how can Tuchel drop Mount, Havertz or Mendy when the alternatives are Pulisic, Ziyech and Kepa? Pulisic in particular has come on all 5 games this season, played over 110 minutes. And the only decision he's gave Boehly and Tuchel is whether they should release him and bring Barkley back. As Tuchel said the players on the bench aren't giving him any selection headaches or showing anything to suggest they should he starting.

Jorginho's 90 minutes of strolling sees him cover nearly 3x the ground Kante and Kovacic do over the season. Easy to run your ass off when you get a month rest between games. I'm not defending Jorginho today he was poor and obviously has physical flaws, I'm not going to act like he's the greatest player on the planet but it's ridiculous to blame him for every issue in our midfield and to ask why he keeps getting picked when he's the only midfielder at the club that doesn't attend the NHS Christmas party. Ideally you play Jorginho alongside a more physical high energy midfielder but given no one can stay fit what is he supposed to do when no one in the team covers for his weaknesses?

They've not though have they. Pulisic has literally just had 2 of the best 3 seasons of his career under Tuchel, he's been better under Tuchel than he was at Dortmund. He really is just that bad he's not good enough for premier league level. Neither Ziyech or Havertz have shown anything to suggest they're good enough for PL level either and were both poor under Lampard. It's not like Tuchel signed a bunch of premier league superstars that have regressed under him. The one attacking premier league superstar we've signed under Tuchel is comfortably outperforming the rest of our attaxk. Has 3 goals and 1 assist our last 3 games while none of our other attacks have any. That suggests quality attacking players can perform quite well under Tuchel and in the system. On the other hand we have dross like Pulisic that have failed under every manager and every system they've played under in 2 different leagues. Between the two of them It's pretty clear the one with the record of success isn't where we should be pointing the finger first.

The fact no one else in our midfield can stay fit or avaliable for the next match says everything. The biggest mistake Tuchel has made in our midfield is not selling Kante who should have been gone day 1 this summer and pretending it's 2017 when he talks about him being a key player and bringing in a top quality partner to Jorginho. Jorginho is the only player at the entire club who can be relied up to start in midfield 2 games in a row and we're placing a player without athleticism who relies on his connection and positional understanding with the players around him in a different midfield with whatever random player is fit that particular week next to him. Jorginho is being failed by asking to be a midfield 1 every week.

This man thinks Pulisic, Ziyech and Havertz will outscore Kane, Son and Kuluveski under a different manager. Conte is a fantastic manager but he'd walk out if he was left with as little talent in attack as Tuchel has to work with and you know it.