Chelsea star Christian Pulisic has been given some useful advice from his former manager Jurgen Klinsmann after a tough start to life at Stamford Bridge.
The 21-year-old joined Chelsea from Borussia Dortmund in the summer transfer window after impressing in the Bundesliga, but it’s not worked out for him yet at his new club.
It’s no doubt a bit challenge moving to a new team in a new league and new country, and Klinsmann believes Pulisic needs to put himself about a bit more and add that nastiness to his game to make it in the Premier League.
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The pair worked together before when Klinsmann was in charge of the USA Men’s National Team, giving Pulisic his senior debut for his country when he was just 17 years old.
The American starlet has long been considered a real wonderkid, but will now be feeling the pressure to develop into a key player for a big club.
It remains to be seen if he’s up to the challenge just yet, but Chelsea fans will no doubt be hoping to see more from him soon.
Klinsmann told ESPN: “Christian did well to say: ‘I’m going to throw myself in another cold water, go over to London and throw myself in the Premier League, and I have to fight through the system there.’ So that’s what he’s in.
“He’s a very special player, he’s tremendously talented, but this is a big step, because Borussia Dortmund was also basically the club where he got formed into a professional player.
“He came out of the youth system there, he moved himself up, he had all the support within the club and now going to London — also to one of the biggest clubs in the world — you got to bring your elbows out.
“He will go through a phase now where more and more he needs to bring his elbows out to fight himself through the system there,” Klinsmann said. “Can he do it? Yes, absolutely he can do it, but you need to be patient too, sometimes you forget he’s a very young player.
“You’re basically in a daily competition. Maybe in Dortmund he knew: ‘I established myself already within the club to be a very special player. I get my minutes in, I get my games in, I’m a starter most of the time.’
“You don’t have that automatic assurance at Chelsea. At Chelsea it goes from game to game, week to week. You’re basically in training and you have to tell the coach: ‘I’m in, I’m going to start this game.’ So it’s a little bit more cold, it’s a bit more nasty.
“What I mean with the elbows is that you have to become nasty in order to make yourself a starter.”