Frank Lampard didn’t rate Christian Pulisic as a good player, says RB Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch. Pulisic signed for Chelsea last summer and enjoyed a slow start with his new club. After the lockdown from the coronavirus pandemic was lifted he established himself as one of the best Chelsea forwards. Since then he has earned himself the No.10 shirt at Chelsea and he is considered as one of their star players. A huge difference to the same period a year ago.
Marsch feels that American players are underrated in Europe. “The perception in Europe, mostly, is that the American player is willing to run, willing to fight, has good mentality, but technically they’re not very gifted and tactically they’re not very aware and their experiences aren’t very big,” Marsch told Extratime Radio. “But we’re seeing that change. We’re seeing more and more of these players develop themselves.”
“Even Frank Lampard, when I spoke to him in preseason a year ago now, I was talking to him about having Christian Pulisic and he was kind of like, ‘Yeah, he’s got a lot to learn so we’ll see how he does’. I said to him, ‘Listen, he was at Dortmund, and they had a high level of tactical thinking, of playing, and he was very successful’.”
“He was considered one of the best young players in Germany and that’s in a group of players with Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Joshua Kimmich, these kinds of players. He was in a group with those players, and it’s not just because he was talented but it was because he understood the tactics and understood how to fit in the game and he was developing a real astute way of how to play.”
“I could see right away that Frank Lampard’s idea of Christian Pulisic was shaped a lot by the fact that he was American and not that his football education came a lot from what has happened in Germany. Since then, I think Lampard has learned that Pulisic is a lot better than he gave him credit for.
“Christian had to fight for that, which is the American quality, but he’s a damn good player. Same with Gio Reyna, same with Tyler Adams, same with Weston McKennie. All of these players are now starting to show, born and raised in America, that they’re not only big talents, but they’re also more refined players that many think. Brenden Aaronson will show that when he’s here and I think more examples will change the perception of what the American player is.”