Timo Werner to Chelsea: How Does this Impact Christian Pulisic?

It appears that Chelsea is willing to meet Timo Werner’s release clause of €55m. The real question is, of course, how does this effect Christian Pulisic? 😂

I’ve tried to be a good club team fan. I’ve had flings with Reading, Fulham, NYRB, FC Dallas, BVB, Everton, Schalke, Leipzig, etc, but nothing has ever stuck. So I want Chelsea to do well, but since the USMNT is my “team,” I really want to know what this transfer is going to do to Pulisic’s playing time next season.

As it stands right now, here are the (legitimate – not going to include Giroud, Batshuayi, etc.) attacking options for Chelsea next season:

• Christian Pulisic
• Tammy Abraham
• Timo Werner
• Hakim Ziyech
• Mason Mount
• Callum Hudson-Odoi (depending on legal situation)

Formations

I’ve watched quite a bit of Chelsea this year so I had a fair idea of how Chelsea lines up, but I thought I’d take a look at the statistics to make sure. According to Transfermarkt, Chelsea has lined up in some version of the 4-3-3 14 times, a 4-2-3-1 nine times, and the 3-4-2-1 six times.

Two of those formations have a left winger spot that is well suited to Pulisic. The 3-4-2-1 has two inside attacking midfield positions that would seem to fit Christian, BUT he was not chosen to start any of the games in which manager Frank Lampard used that formation. In fairness, Pulisic was only healthy for three of the six matches Chelsea played that formation, but I think it’s at least somewhat fair to infer that Lampard sees Pulisic mainly as a winger, not an attacking midfielder.

I have also read that Chelsea is looking to move to the 3-4-2-1 formation more often next season. If you’ve watched any Bundesliga lately you’ve probably noticed the preponderance of 3-4-2-1 formations. It looks like the next formational trend to me.

Where does Werner Fit?

Timo Werner is mostly a forward, but he almost never plays as a lone forward. He is nearly always paired with more of a target forward (Schick/Poulsen) type. When RB Leipzig plays with a single striker Werner plays underneath as an attacking mid/second forward.

Werner himself doesn’t precisely cut into Pulisic’s playing time (there’s some slight overlap since Werner does play on the left sometimes), but it does imply that Chelsea may be moving towards a system of play that doesn’t involve wingers as often.

The best case scenario is that Lampard sees Werner as competition for Tammy Abraham. Abraham has been really good for Chelsea this year (15g/6a in all comps so far), although to be fair, a lot of those goals came in the first half of the season (7 in one three game stretch). When Abraham has been out Giroud/Batshuayi have not been effective fill ins. Giroud isn’t mobile enough to play striker the way Lampard wants to play and Batshuayi simply doesn’t score enough.

Pulisic’s Season

Christian has been pretty good for Chelsea this year when he’s been available. It started a little slowly, but took off after his sub appearance against Ajax in the Champion’s League. He has 6g/6a across all competitions this year which is almost the same as Willian (7g/6a) and he’s accomplished it in about 1,000 less minutes.

That’s been the problem for Pulisic…he’s missed 11 games due to injury already this year and he missed 11 games for Dortmund through injury last season. At a club like Chelsea if you aren’t available to play…they’ll go buy someone who is.

The end of the season is going to be critical for him. If Pulisic plays well, starts most games, and stays healthy for the rest of the season then I would pencil him into Chelsea’s starting eleven to begin next season. If he struggles or get injured again…I would guess he’s looking at a substitute role going into next year.

What to Watch For?

Where he Plays

The Premier League is starting up again in two weeks. What should we be watching for at Chelsea? Aside from the obvious, is Pulisic starting and playing well…look for what positions Lampard is comfortable playing him in.

Even though Pulisic has played almost exclusively on the left wing he often drifts into the left halfspace where an attacking mid in a 3-4-2-1 would frequently operate.

In the 3-4-2-1 formation, Lampard has used Mount, Willian, Barkley, and Callum Hudson-Odoi as attacking midfielders. Given CHO’s legal issues I don’t know if he’ll be available or not. Does Pulisic get some run at one of those attacking midfield positions? If he does, then I feel a lot more comfortable about his positional options heading into next season. If he’s only a winger, he’s going to be on the bench a lot more often than if Lampard sees him as an option in midfield and on the wing.

Defending from the Front

I’m not a huge fan of Mason Mount. He doesn’t see or play passes well enough for me to play in that attacking midfield spot. However, what I think doesn’t really matter and Lampard loves him. One of the things that Mount does really well is press/counter press for Chelsea. Not that Pulisic is bad at that, but he’s not as good as Mount. (It shouldn’t be a physical thing either. They’re almost the same size. CP – 5’8″ 154, MM – 5’10” 154). Christian is already a better offensive player than Mount, but can he improve his defense enough that he’s not a drop off from Mount?

Let’s Resume

As awful as this whole lock down, pandemic thing has been – it has resulted in a ton of European soccer available throughout the summer. Ideally, that means a ton of watching Pulisic tear it up with Chelsea and maybe even a glimpse or two of Owen Otasowie and Indiana Vassilev.🤞 Let’s hope Chelsea hangs in there and takes 4th place guaranteeing Champion’s League soccer (and more minutes) for all those involved next season.

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