Christian Pulisic has confessed that he has struggled with playing out of position under Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea.
A winger by trade, Pulisic has struggled for minutes this season and has had to make do with opportunities as a wing-back or as a central striker, and his return of three goals in 19 appearances has seen him tumble down the pecking order.
“It is tough. I haven’t always been playing in the positions I want to play in,” Pulisic confessed in a conference call. “But I think it is a good quality to be versatile and able to play in all kinds of positions and have different strengths on the pitch.
“I’ve learned a lot and I’m ready to hopefully be in a spot over the next few games that I’m more comfortable in.”
Pulisic was quick to dismiss suggestions that his disappointing form with Chelsea would impact his performances with the US national team.
“It doesn’t affect me too much coming in to U.S. camps,” he stressed. “I am ready when I come in here and to do whatever I can to come to help this team so I’m not thinking about that.
“Obviously it has been up and down this year, for sure. Not exactly where I want to be and how I want things to be right now. I’m just going to keep going and it doesn’t affect me when I come here. So I am excited to be here.”
He continued: “I would say there’s two sides to me, especially when people ask you how you are. There is the soccer side and the person side. The person side is even more important to me and I’m doing alright in that sense. It is a lot sometimes.
“When I come to the national team it is ‘How are things with Chelsea?’ and ‘What’s this’ and ‘What’s that.’ It’s tough. Mentally it has played on me at times but I am always very excited to be on the national team and get to enjoy playing with these guys and just enjoy football in general.”
