🤷 What’s Next For Christian Pulisic?

Christian Pulisic is struggling for playing time, which has led to great frustration from United States fans eager to see him succeed. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: The English Premier League is the fastest-moving league of all, and Chelsea standout Christian Pulisic has hit a speed bump ... we take a look at female NBA agents and the challenges of the job ... and we get a first-look at Zion Williamson’s signature sneaker. The style of soccer in the English Premier League is played at a rapid, frenetic pace. The moves and machinations in the way the league does business often happen just as quickly. The only constant is change, a reality Christian Pulisic, America’s best and highest profile young player, is hastily discovering. A few months back, as the EPL emerged from lockdown with a hectic stretch of games, Pulisic was the flavor of the month. Now he is struggling for playing time, to the frustration of United States fans eager to see him succeed and, presumably, to the player himself. “It is the challenge now to improve and hold his level and to maintain the level,” Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel said recently. “The main thing for Christian is to stay positive, keep his head up and be ready. He can have a big impact when he starts, or off the bench, with his intensity.” [STORY IMAGE 1] On the surface, Tuchel’s comments didn’t seem to convey anything particularly negative. However, context is everything in the delicate balance between EPL players and the coaches making the key personnel decisions around them. Tuchel’s remarks were the kind of thing you might expect to be directed towards a young fringe squad player trying to break his way into the reckoning. Pulisic, 22, believed with some justification that he’d gotten far, far beyond that point since some early battles after joining the club in 2019 in a $73 million deal. When the EPL got going once more after its lengthy pause, Pulisic was one of the leading performers across the league, notching 11 goals and 10 assists in 34 games last season. His reputation had grown into that of one of the most exciting young players in the world. The current campaign, however, has seen a different story. Chelsea’s poor start led to former head coach Frank Lampard being ousted and replaced by Tuchel and a series of injuries, led by a hamstring strain sustained in the FA Cup final, have disrupted Pulisic’s efforts. [STORY IMAGE 2] Tuchel previously worked with Pulisic during their shared time at Dortmund, but since he came in, he has used the player for just 192 minutes. Tuchel’s preference for deploying wing-backs as a form of sparking the attack leaves Pulisic in a more difficult position, as it is perceived he is less effective in such a system. Chelsea has no shortage of quality attackers, including Olivier Giroud, Mason Mount, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Tammy Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi. Ahead of Thursday’s clash with Liverpool, most British newspapers predict the three attackers will be either Mount-Giroud-Werner or Mount-Havertz-Werner, with Pulisic on the bench. “It is tough luck and bad timing for Pulisic,” Sky Sports News correspondent Aidan Magee told me. “He really didn’t do anything wrong, but as he has tried to overcome his injuries Chelsea now has a new situation and, often, a new tactical set up. He showed everyone his ability to be one of the top players in the league, but it is a difficult fit at the moment.” The situation has been enough to get the rumor mill grinding, with reports that Bayern Munich could be interested in bringing him back to Germany if things do not work out in West London. It sums up the strangeness of Pulisic’s situation quite well – currently surplus to requirements at the team in fifth position in the EPL, but potentially coveted by the reigning European champion. [STORY IMAGE 3] Regardless, the best option for Pulisic as things stand is to stay where he is and do what he can to turn the situation around. Tactical blueprints aren’t immune to the lingering EPL rule that everything changes sooner or later, and it wouldn’t take much – a loss of form or injury to any of the players ahead of him – to bring about a more preferable scenario. Pulisic hasn’t lost any of his talent and although he is scoring and assisting at a lower rate than last season during his current limited opportunities, his form hasn’t cratered either. “The Premier League is a cutthroat circuit,” [wrote the Washington Post’s Steven Goff](. “Coaches come and go like subway trains. The responsibility and expectation on players, regardless of jersey number, is heavy. A slight slip in form opens the door to a high-end substitute famished for minutes.” U.S. fans with an eye on upcoming World Cup qualifiers later this year and will want Pulisic to be playing more regularly, and playing well, by then. [STORY IMAGE 4] The tough part is … what to do about it? Without meaningful minutes Pulisic’s only chances to impress the coach will be in practice. Angling for a move could prove to be woefully premature. As showed last season, Chelsea has the ability to be an excellent fit for him, if the circumstances are right. Perhaps this was inevitable. Pulisic has enjoyed a remarkable rise since bursting through as a 17-year-old and making his international debut in 2016. By transferring to Chelsea, he took on the challenge of playing in arguably the most competitive league in the world. The EPL doesn’t pause for breath, but he matched its energy and learned how to shine. Now comes the tough bit, the part he needs to get through to continue that upward trajectory. In the fastest-moving league of all, he has hit a speed bump. [STORY IMAGE 5] Here’s what others have said ... James Olley, ESPN: “A change of manager inevitably leads to a re-examination of the whole squad, and although (Thomas) Tuchel gave Pulisic his debut at Borussia Dortmund, his sparing use of the 22-year-old in his opening nine matches suggests the winger has work to do if he's to become a key player in the months ahead.” Jeff Carlisle, ESPN: “Granted, the injuries he has suffered tend to be muscle-related (hamstring or calf) but they've come with enough frequency over the course of this season to make it difficult for him to enjoy another extended run in the side. There is a knock-on effect to the ailments as well in that his absences have allowed one of his teammates to stake their claim to more consistent playing time. All that said, Tuchel's recent choice of formation, whether a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2, doesn't help Pulisic's cause either.” Matt Debono, Sports Illustrated: “Despite showing some signs of hunger and liveliness, Pulisic's form is clear - he's out of form and struggling for confidence.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - Only three women represented players on NBA rosters at the start of the season. [Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated]( interviews female NBA agents, who explain the challenges of the job. - Wake Forest freshman Carter Whitt is leading the pack of first-year players who got an early start thanks to a strange pandemic-created NCAA loophole. [Sports Illustrated’s Emma Baccellieri]( has the story. - Who is Marshall Goldberg, and why did the Arizona Cardinals unretire his jersey number for J.J. Watt? [USA Today’s Nate Davis]( introduces us to the man whose jersey was unretired for the Cardinals’ new superstar. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( It was just yesterday when we featured New Orleans Pelicans superstar Zion Williamson in this newsletter. Now, it’s time to celebrate the release of his upcoming signature shoe, the Jordan Z Code. We have known that Zion was expected to have a signature sneaker released in the month of April, but we didn’t know what the shoe would look like … until now! Check it out in this post, which was released on the [@sneakernews]( Instagram page on Tuesday. Keep in mind, this isn’t the official shoe release, which will likely come from Jordan Brand itself sometime soon. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] UConn at Seton Hall (FS1, 6:30 p.m. ET) James Bouknight and the UConn Huskies take on Sandro Mamukelashvili and the Seton Hall Pirates. Brooklyn Nets at Houston Rockets (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET) James Harden and the Brooklyn Nets go up against John Wall and the Houston Rockets. WWE NXT (USA, 8 p.m. ET) Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez battle Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the women’s tag team championship. Creighton at Villanova (FS1, 8:30 p.m. ET) Marcus Zegarowski and the No. 14-ranked Creighton Bluejays battle Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and the No. 10-ranked Villanova Wildcats in a Big East clash. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Maryland at Northwestern: UNDER 131.5 Donta Scott and the Maryland Terrapins travel to Evanston to take on Chase Audige and the Northwestern Wildcats in a Big Ten clash. The Terrapins need to win this game to boost their NCAA Tournament hopes, which look pretty promising at the moment. With that said, we shouldn’t expect a letdown from Mark Turgeon’s team, who rank second in the Big Ten in total defense, holding opponents to under 65 points per game. On the other side, this is a Northwestern team that has struggled mightily this season. The Wildcats currently sport a 4-13 mark in conference play and had lost nine in a row before notching a 67-59 win over Minnesota on Thursday. While the Terrapins excel on the defensive side of the ball, Northwestern has had issues on offense, averaging just 66 points per game in Big Ten play this season. In other words, taking the under of 131.5 looks like a great play here. [WHAT THEY SAID] “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” — Pelé [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download FOX Sports App: [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [Google Play]( [App Store]( [Fire TV]( [Roku]( [App Store]( [Google Play]( Also available on these devices: [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] [fireTV | AppleTV | ROKU | Google Chromecast | XBOX ONE | SAMSUNG Smart TV] Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2021 Fox Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. 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