An Ode to Christian Pulisic
/We are now well and truly back with the return of English football and to everyone’s shock and horror, Christian Pulisic is still really good! Since the return of the EPL he bagged the equalizer against Aston Villa with a hard back post run and a more-difficult-than-it-looked half volley into the roof of the goal, then he scored one of the most hilariously pacey solo goals I’ve ever seen to open the scoring against Manchester City. Soon after, without scoring, he lifted Chelsea out of one of the worst halves of their season against Leicester with dynamic pressing and outrageously direct transition dribbling. He followed up those performances with assists against West Ham, Watford and Norwich, and a really impressive weak footed finish against Crystal Palace. Like I said, he’s really good.
A lot of the narrative around his return from a torn abductor, which kept him out for nearly three months before the pause in league play, is about Pulisic taking a “leap” in terms of skill. I’m here to tell you, he’s been this good all year, he’s just starting to see the output in goals and assists to match his performances.
Christian Pulisic, An Overview
All data is from FBRef/StatsBomb.
Let’s start with his top level numbers. 8.1 xG and 3.1 xA for eight goals and three assists in roughly 1600 minutes, for a beautiful 0.62 xG+xA per 90. Almost all of his minutes come in starts (so not a lot of pesky sub adjustment needed). He takes 3.24 shots per 90, with a little over 40% of those ending up on target. He makes about 1.5 passes into the penalty area (with very few crosses) and about 3.0 progressive passes, all solid numbers. Over half his touches come in the final third and nearly a third of those show up in the penalty area. He’s a little heavy on the turnovers, but he’s an aggressive risk-taking wide forward/creator type who does a lot of his team’s attacking. Who wouldn’t have a few turnovers?
We see the same things on the defensive side of the ball with his six attacking third pressures per 90 minutes, among the highest for attackers with his level of output. While he doesn’t often tackle in the press (0.22 p90), we see a pretty consistent picture of him closing down and being the outlet in transition, rather than the ball winner.
So, what does that actually mean? It’s all well and good to tell you how many times he shoots and dribbles, but what does it actually bring to the team? It turns out, quite a lot, both on and off the ball.
He likes to move it, move it (into the box)
Pulisic might be the most natural mover of the ball into the box I have watched at this young an age, comparable to Jadon Sancho and Raheem Sterling (a popular comparison in the soccer writing world). His 7.6 box touches per 90 puts him 6th in the Premier League, behind the reigning Golden Boot winner Mohamed Salah and the Death Star that is Manchester City’s attack (Aguero, Jesus, Silva and Sterling). Whatever way you hack it, he is in pretty elite company.
He regularly passes to a connecting forward in and around the penalty area for darting runs in behind or underneath, while offering just as much of a threat dribbling at a fullback and getting into the wide assist zones to lash balls across the face or pick out a teammate with a cutback (like in the clip below). His ability to do so from both wide and central areas makes him such a difficult match up for any opposition fullback. Pulisic isn’t the most voluminous of passers into the box, but he almost never crosses. He may dribble at you (more likely around you), pass through you, cut it back from the goal line, but shell it from the touchline he does not. Take this highlight video from @USMNTVideos, in nearly five years of being the United States’ best player, it’s just not something he does.
Pulisic has drawn a lot of comparisons to Eden Hazard, particularly since the restart. It’s an easy comparison to make, a diminutive very dribbly winger who wins a bunch of fouls, and carries a lot of Chelsea’s attacking load. I get it. But they’re so different. Hazard might be the best zone moving dribbler the world has seen since Yaya Toure, he just does it (did it? I don’t know, ask a Madrid fan) as a winger. Yes, Hazard was also extremely special around the penalty area, but the majority of his output came through ball progression from deep as a dribbler or as a receiver of long passes. Pulisic is decidedly not that. He is the 6th most progressive carrier in England, with ~230 progressive yards carried per game, but most of that comes as the link between the end of the middle third and moving into the final third and penalty area. Hazard, for comparison, racked up a whopping ~350 progressive yards carried per game.
Pulisic the wide forward
While Eden Hazard was much more of the central hub of creation during his time in London, Pulisic plays much more of a wide forward role. It’s easily evident in how much of his goal contribution comes through his shooting (73%), but it gives Chelsea a lot of versatility in terms of his use. Pulisic was primarily an on-ball threat in his time at Dortmund, with a not insignificant amount of time spent at wingback. He would occasionally arrive in dangerous areas, but was truly at his best receiving and devastating fullbacks in one fell swoop.
Off the ball, Pulisic has become very good. This is the area in which he has added most to his game and seen the most benefit for Chelsea. He had the pressing, he had the on ball threat, but if there’s any sort of leap he has taken, it’s in his off ball movement. This video from our own John Muller profiles it perfectly. His intensity and change of pace as soon as he drifts out of his markers view gives him so much separation, whether drifting underneath, peeling off to the back post, or getting across the face of a center back. In fact, nine of his 16 receptions in the penalty area since the restart feature a run with a hard change of direction to create space.
With his burgeoning relationship with Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham, Pulisic has often pulled into “striker” positions to lead the line when the nominative striker drifts into other areas, ensuring Chelsea always have a presence in front of goal. Similarly, his ability to crash the back post has added a dimension to Chelsea’s attack that has lacked in recent years through wide creator types like Willian and Hazard (though Pedro certainly offered). With Timo Werner, the archetypal wide-drifting striker, headed to London for next season it makes for a really fascinating connection between the two. Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah have caused havoc in opposition boxes with an atypical striker wedged between them. Pulisic could see similar benefits with Werner.
The whole package
By the end of his first season in England, Pulisic will have lodged a debut year akin to some of the best wingers to ever do it in the Premier League. ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote a whole piece comparing him to his contemporaries at similar points in their career. Hazard, Coutinho, Mane, Salah, Mahrez, Sterling. It’s a star studded list. But the USMNT starlet is growing every week and at this trajectory, those seem entirely fair comparisons. Take his most recent performance against Norwich (yes, it’s Norwich, but bear with me). Pulisic got into the box four times. For the first, he perceived space, stopped his run, received a cut back, and shot. In the second, he peeled off an occupying target man, brought a cross down, and shot. Third, he received the ball wide, dribbled at a fullback, slid his left back in for a cross into space. For the fourth, he slowed up, changed pace, ran in behind, and shot.
This is what Pulisic does for Chelsea and for the United States. Who is to say if he can keep developing at this pace, but if he does, watch out.