Chelsea boss praises Pulisic but says he still needs more focus

It took some time for Christian Pulisic to earn the trust of Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel after he took over the London job last season. The United States international was used mainly as a substitute last campaign and was a key player when Chelsea won the UEFA Champions League.

It seemed that the story wouldn’t change this season and it didn’t help that Pulisic suffered a string of injuries that kept him sidelined for months. But things have turned around and the USMNT ace has been an influential player in the past couple of weeks and has become a regular starter for the German manager.

Tuchel praises the level of Pulisic

So far this campaign, the 23-year-old has scored five goals and provided four assists in 25 appearances across all competitions. Pulisic has been an important part of the current Chelsea side one that is hoping to reach a second consecutive UCL final but Tuchel still believes that he has not reached his ceiling.

“Christian is in a good moment, in good form,” said the German boss. “There is a good link-up between him, Mason and Kai. They have assists together, are decisive and have goals. For me, what Christian needs and what he can bring to the team is his physicality and ability to hit high intensity repetitively, on a high frequency.

"This is the focus and from there the other thing is that he has the ambition and natural hunger, ambition to arrive in the six-yard box. This is good, this is what we need. He needs to focus on these things and start from there. If he does and feels the physical fitness, the physical ability to do so, he can have a huge influence in our game,” added Tuchel.