Christian Pulisic has insisted that he is no replacement for Eden Hazard at Chelsea. The American initially joined the Blues during the January transfer window from Borussia Dortmund and was immediately loaned back to the German side before joining the West London outfit on a full-time basis this summer.
Many people believe that Pulisic is the replacement for Hazard
Chelsea, who face a two-window transfer ban, were allowed to integrate Pulisic into their first-team as they signed him during the January transfer window, before the ban was enforced. Pulisic is not a like-for-like replacement for Hazard. The two are completely different players with different playing styles.
Pulisic will help to fill the void which will be caused by the departure of Hazard but it is unfair and not realistic to view him as a replacement for the Belgian. The US international can definitely be expected to add quality and deliver good performances for Frank Lampard’s charges during the upcoming season but he cannot be expected to emulate what Hazard did last season.
Hazard who is now playing for Real Madrid is at the peak of his career. By contrast, Pulisic is still only 20-years-old and is still in the infancy of his career. He is a world-class player in the making but is likely to make a lot of errors during the upcoming season as he fine-tunes his game and gets used to the style of play in England.
There were initially doubts over whether Pulisic would be able to succeed in England. Last season was not his best as he struggled for regular game time at Dortmund following the arrival of Jadon Sancho at the Signal Iduna Park. He has however looked solid during pre-season and scored a brace during the Blues victory against RB Salzburg this week.
“It’s what I’m out there to do,” Pulisic said as quoted by The Telegraph. “I’m in an attacking position. I want to score goals, I want to help them with assists and do a lot of good things. My work defensively is important too.
“I’m not trying to fill (Hazard’s) gap, he was an unbelievable player. I want to be my own player, to look at me like that, do the best I can and perform the best I can for the team.
“It’s pre-season now and I still have my opportunity to prove when the real season comes around.”
