re: Christian Pulisic is Chelsea's best player

Ok I’ll bite, how is Mount better than Pulisic?

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Soccer novice but I have a question. Watched a good bit of Pulisic but not as far back as say a peak Landon Donovan? Pulisic is better than peak Donovan right?

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It's a valid question actually. Puli is no doubt more talented, and arguably has already been more successful in Europe than Landon ever was.

But when it came to the National team, Landon had an X factor that made him absolutely world class. He was one of the best players on the pitch, no matter if we were playing a CONCACAF scrub or Spain. All these years later it's still unexplainable, especially the decision by Jurgy to keep him home in 2014 despite everything I just mentioned.

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But Mount is playing with the intelligence you wouldn’t expect to see

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I watched Mount turn the ball over more today than Jameis Winston did all of last year

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I watched Mount turn the ball over more today than Jameis Winston did all of last year

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Well if we’re judging players based solely on the game played today then I change my answer to Pulisic.

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How bout just base it on this seasons stats lol

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Well, Chelsea are a team that struggles defensively. That's no secret. So I'm valuing possession, passing, tackling, chance creation over scoring. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that Pulisic is great offensively. He's incredible in the attacking third. But Mount has 4 assists, 14 key passes, and 18 chances created. Pulisic has 3, 5, and 8 respectively. Mason has 94 tackles to Christian's 34. Mount also has a better pass completion percentage, almost equal number of chances created, and is involved more in expected goal buildup metrics.

I was being facetious earlier with saying my opinions was "objectively" right. Of course I understand people who think Pulisic is better, and in any other team he probably would be considered better. The two are very different players though, and at this point, Chelsea need defensive help from the midfield because their backline is made of air. For that reason I value Mount's defensive contributions over Pulisic's offensive contributions.

Yeah, I didn’t go without noticing that. But I was asked to speak in reference to statistics, and unfortunately minutes play a large part in that. They’ll absolutely be skewed toward Mount in that regard, so I’ll admit they need to be taken with a grain of salt.

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Insofar as his time frame for reaching that level might be longer. Just being cautious regarding my expectations.

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Being cautious in expectations =/= Not seeing Gio as being able to compliment Pulisic in any way, which is what you originally said.

That’s a fair point. If I’m going to consider his tactical role in the team, I should also consider how that role fits into the defensive group as a whole. No doubt that Chelsea’s press as a defensive unit is poor and that will inherently limit Mount’s use within that unit. It’s certainly hard to argue Mount over Pulisic in that context. Especially when he’s slaloming through our defense and leaving Gomez on his arse. Sometimes it seems like Hazard never left.

In any case, this is a good problem to have. I hate that I can’t hate chelsea anymore. Likable coach with an extremely young and talented team. I can’t wait to watch them next year.

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What is the comparison per 90 minutes?

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Not sure, I tried to find per 90 comparisons but couldn’t. In any case, it doesn’t matter. Jackwoods has shown me the light. I wasn’t considering the two players in the proper context.