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Former United States international Alexi Lalas believes Christian Pulisic is ‘too good for Chelsea’.
The former Borussia Dortmund winger was the Blues’ standout player at the end of the 2019/20 campaign, but has been limited to just seven Premier League starts this season due to a string of injury setbacks.
The 22-year-old has yet to hit the ground running this season, but Lalas, who made 96 appearances for the USMNT, has praised Pulisic for trying to make things happen in the Blues’ 3-1 defeat to Manchester City last weekend.
“I thought Christian Pulisic was incredible,” Lalas told his State of the Union podcast.
“I know at times it looked like he was trying to do everything himself but taking on two and three players at a time, his quickness, his one-two touches, all of that kind of stuff.
“If you watch that game [against Man City], a game in which Chelsea got completely destroyed, I’m hard-pressed to find anybody who would watch that game and single out Christian Pulisic as a bright spot.
“That’s not always the case when Christian Pulisic plays, but in this game I actually appreciated and respected the fact he constantly went searching for the ball. He was constantly doing what he does so well which is take players on. At times it was two, three players, at times ultimately that last guy would nick the ball, but it wasn’t as if he had options up there so you’d say, ‘why’s he trying to do everything himself’ or, ‘he’s doing too much’.
“Here’s the problem. The way we’re talking about this performance from Christian Pulisic is of a player who shines despite the fact that he is not playing with the best players, or is playing against vastly superior opposition and still being able to show.”
Lalas continued to suggest that Pulisic was too good for Chelsea’s XI, despite the Blues spending more than £200million on players in the summer.
“This is Chelsea with all the talent they have and all the money they have spent,” he added.
“I’ll say it right now, Christian Pulisic is too good for this Chelsea team.
“His talents are being wasted right now at Chelsea, with this Chelsea team that they have.”
Lampard has admitted Chelsea’s poor run of form makes his Stamford Bridge job ‘more exciting’ ahead of his side’s FA Cup clash with Morecambe this Sunday, which is live on talkSPORT.
The 42-year-old believes he will learn more about himself and his players now that Chelsea must find a response to their recent slump.
“I came into this job expecting pressure,” said Lampard.
“And I have to say my personality means that I’m weirdly quite strange, probably, you probably have to be to do this job at times.
“But when things are going well I put more pressure on myself, because I don’t like things going well because I’ll worry about what’s around the corner.
“I worried about complacency with the unbeaten run, I was constantly under pressure myself about people telling me how great we were.
“Now I find this more challenging in a good way in terms of my job, because I can find out more about myself, I can find out more about every member of the team, every member of the staff.
“And it actually makes my job more exciting.”
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