Christian Pulisic Player Analysis
(A Thread)

#CP10

Christian Pulisic is Chelsea’s brand new number 10 and it’s great to see because it really makes sense from a financial and performance point of view. At the time of writing he has just been injured during a warm-up against Burnley and hasn’t had the luckiest start to the 20/21..

campaign but has already been impactful when he’s played. This will be a player analysis thread on Christian Pulisic using last season’s performances and stats and how I think he has done so far at Chelsea.Chelsea signed the American from BVB on January 2nd 2019 for £57.6m.

So far he has massively impressed us with consistently good performances when played. In today’s thread I will talk about the following:

-Attributes (Strengths & Weaknesses)
-Statistics/ Comparisons/Positions
-Player Style and Habits
-How has it gone so far
-My opinion on him

Strengths

- (Changes of) Pace, Agility
-Finishing
-Movement/ Directness (Cutting Inside)
-Low centre of gravity
-Dribbling Ability

Weaknesses

-Play-making ability (Underrated but needs improving)
-Tracking Back
-Fitness/ Injuries
-Upper Body Strengths
-Shot Power

Introduction:

To start off I don’t think Pulisic is world class YET but he has so much potential to be if he stays injury free. In my opinion he will be in a couple of seasons, for now he’s got to be in top 6 left wingers in the league. Once he starts performing consistently...

One of my favourite things about Pulisic is his dribbling and composure when he dribbles. He achieved a 54.50% dribble success rate in the league last season. That’s 8.27 dribbles per 90. Here is a chart comparing the PL's best dribblers showing the success rate etc (All Wingers)

When he dribbles, it’s always very effective and purposeful. I like this from a winger like Pulisic, taking on defenders and driving in the box is one of his main traits/habits in his game. He’s actually very effective when it comes to this too. He attempted 2.2 shots in the box.

He doesn’t always go for goal in the box too, he enjoys setting people up too, he made 1.52 passes into the box p90 last season. When passing he usually goes for short passes. He averaged 80% pass success rate p90. These stats are good and all but what about his actual output ?

This is a graph showing the Expected vs Actual output of U-24 attacking midfielders and wingers in the top 5 leagues. It shows us he still has a quite a bit left but he'll get there in terms of goal contributions vs expected goal contributions.

As we can see here, this graph compares the goals and assists averaged per 90 and Pulisic’s xG, according to the graph, last season was 0.46 p90 and xA was 0.21. In all competitions last season he scored a well balanced 11 goals and 10 assists in 2,348 minutes.

His play-making is also very underrated but it definitely needs some work. He achieved a poor crossing accuracy of 11% (35 crosses). This map may be the reason he lacks 'play making' he focuses on drving into the box to take on players and cut inside as he's more effective in box

Another thing I love about him is the balance of his output. Last season (PL) he scored 4 goals with his right foot, 3 goals with his left and 2 headed goals. He doesn’t have a weak foot. Even though he isn't on pens he produces a lot. Here is a small stats poster on him.

He was a REAL goal-threat espeacially as the back end of last season so here is an ' Expected goal-threat graph' . It compares his xA p90 and NpG per 90 which sort of relates to expected goal threat.

As I said his dribbling was also a threat so on the 1st (L) graph this shows it. In the 2nd graph it shows us the relationship between touches in the box and xA.

Here is a p90 slice chart comparing Mane to Pulisic and you can make of it what you will.

He gets A LOT of Eden Hazard comparison which he doesn't like getting because he wants to be his own player but obiviously I had to so here's a statistical comparison comparing each others first seasons at Chelsea. As you can see they're fairly even...

Style of Play:

I've mainly explained the style of play with graphs, stats and charts etc but now I'll describe it in my own words.

Pulisic is a very dirrect and explosive winger. He uses his pace and low centre of gravity to his advantage which cause defenders to have...

problems dealing with him. He clearly doesn't have a weak foot which makes him even more unpredictable. In the Liverpool game (A) we witnessed him dismantly Liverpool's defence single handedly and that's something Pulisic is very capable of doing. He runs at the full back...

but he doesn't exact;y 'hug' the touchline because his drift starts in and around the half spaces and that's where he is the most dangerous. This sums up his style of play.

Opinions currently:

Pulusic is definetly one of my favourite players and I didn't realise exactly how important he was and the difference he brought to the attack until he got injured, which bring me on to my next point. Pulisic as we know is very injury prone so it's very ...

important we take good care of him and manage his minutes correctly. I feel he adds a great dynamic to our attack, I'm happy with his output and performances, he's consistent;y put great shifts too. He wins us pens, scores and sometimes assists. So far he has done well.

he dropped a great performance against Krasandor in the UCL by scoring . Once he gets back to full fitness I think we'll be in for something very special.

I'd like to thank @ExpectedChelsea for the graphs and most of the stats, go follow him as he's a top account. I made this thread for all the Pulisic fans as I know there are a whole lot of them. Theses are some top accounts @ChelseaNath, @GnarlyGoalDude, @ConnCFC, @CarefreeRush.

End of Thread, RT's appreciated

Let me know your thoughts and opinions and tell me if you prefer statistical analysis or in game tactical analysis on player. Also suggest some players I should do.