Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic said he can be a “very dangerous” player if he improves in two aspects to complement his dribbling ability that he is confident of.
After a brilliant form towards the end of last season, the 22-year-old unfortunately picked up an injury that halted his momentum.
He has not been able to replicate it this season as his output significantly drop from nine goals and four assists to just four goals and an assist in the Premier League this term.
While some would argue that Pulisic has not started regularly this season, he has actually played just 80 minutes less in the Premier League than in 2019/20.
Pulisic himself seems to be aware that he will have to improve in that department.
“I’d say really how clinical and my decision-making,” Pulisic told former Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard about where he needs to step up, in an interview for NBC Sports.
“Constantly making the right decisions and helping my team score goals in the small opportunities that I get and really make the most of them.
“I’m confident with my dribbling and my skills. If I just continue to work on those things and become very clinical, I think I can be very dangerous.”
Chronicle view
Being clinical is certainly one thing that Pulisic lags behind several of his teammates this season.
According to Statsbomb data (via FBref), Pulisic is one of the only two Chelsea attackers that have underperformed their expected goals metric (xG). The other one is Timo Werner — who is unsurprisingly the worst in this category.
The American has scored just six goals from 7.2 xG in all competition.
In comparison, Chelsea’s most clinical finishers this season; Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud have scored 12 goals and 11 goals from 7.3 and 6.9 xG, respectively.
Mason Mount (nine goals from 8.0 xG) and Kai Havertz (eight goals from 7.6 xG) have also outperformed their xG, albeit slightly.
Werner by far has had the highest xG at Chelsea at 17.7 but only scored 12 goals in all competitions so far.
Last season was actually the first time that Pulisic outperformed his xG, but it also suggests that he can be clinical and, hopefully, be very dangerous again.
Read also: Thomas Tuchel hints at potential first-team promotions for two Chelsea academy stars
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