Christian Pulisic: Reviewing the Chelsea winger’s 2020/21 season
2020/21 was a funny year for a lot of players in Chelsea blue, and winger Christian Pulisic was no exception to that.
In what was supposed to be a breakout year in England, Pulisic found it hard to get into any form of rhythm under either Frank Lampard or Thomas Tuchel, but he still managed the occasional flash of brilliance which has us all drooling over what the future may hold for him.
Let’s take a deeper look at Pulisic’s 2020/21 season.
Appearances: 27
Goals: 4
Assists: 2
It’s been a down year for a lot of Chelsea’s forwards, but from a stats point of view, few have disappointed more than Pulisic.
His return of four goals and two assists in 27 appearances is a significant drop-off from the nine and six he managed in two fewer games last year, although his general level of performance hasn’t been as underwhelming as those numbers might suggest.
He struggled under Lampard for the first half of the season, but looked considerably better under Tuchel, forming part of what many fans would argue was the Blues‘ best front three for the second half of the season.
Pulisic dazzled with his quick movement and intelligent vision, but like everyone else in Chelsea’s front line, struggled to turn that into goals.
As is always the case with Pulisic, we need to take a closer look at his injuries and the role they played in his campaign.
Generally speaking, 2020/21 wasn’t too bad for the winger. It got off to a rough start, with three muscle injuries limiting him to just five appearances in the first 12 games, but he didn’t look back after that and remained in perfect condition.
It was his best run of health since the 2017/18 season with Dortmund, so fingers crossed it gives him something to build on.
Pulisic shone in a late Champions League cameo against Krasnodar and bagged a deserved goal in a 3-1 win over Leeds that sent Lampard’s side to the top of the Premier League table in December, but he was clearly impacted by the team’s loss of form and kept us waiting until a few months into Tuchel’s reign before bringing out his best form.
His finest performance came in April’s 4-1 win over Crystal Palace, and it’s no coincidence that that match was arguably the only time we saw Chelsea look like a fluid, attacking monster under Tuchel.
Teaming up with Kai Havertz and Mason Mount, Pulisic netted two deserved goals and could have easily had one or two more, switching on the class and putting his body on the line in an outstanding performance.
Clearly feeling himself, Pulisic brought that talent to the Champions League where he helped dispatch of Real Madrid in the semi-final, scoring in the first leg and managing an assist in the return to steer the Blues through to the biggest match in football.
The main problem for Pulisic was maintaining his form. He looked on top of the world in April, but that was the only month in which fans really felt they could rely on the American in attack.
He struggled to fit into Lampard’s system and took too long to gel under Tuchel, leaving him with just one goal and one assist in Chelsea’s first 30 Premier League games, and not only was he not scoring, but he wasn’t contributing anything else either.
Even when his form started to pick up under Tuchel, there would be plenty of games in which Pulisic was anonymous. Poor performances against Leeds and Sheffield United stick out, as do a handful of games towards the end of the season which contributed to Chelsea’s nervy battle for a spot in the top four.
This season felt like a step back for Pulisic. Having ended the 2019/20 season as one of the top players in the Premier League, he looked nowhere near that level for most of this campaign and didn’t produce nearly enough.
Consistency is something that has evaded Pulisic over the past few years, but there’s reason to be positive. Tuchel managed to bring the best out of the American at one point and clearly has faith in his ability to start turning it on a regular basis.
It’s tough to call this season a success for Pulisic (that goes for any of Chelsea’s forwards as well), but there are encouraging signs, and a period of stability under Tuchel could be exactly what he needs to really take his game to the next level.