Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel has insisted that there are no problems between him and Christian Pulisic after his father Mikel Pulisic took to Twitter to vent his anger at Chelsea over the treatment of his son.
Christian Pulisic has made 19 Premier League appearances this season and has started only 10 out of the 19 minutes. He has scored 5 goals and assisted one this season in the Premier League.
The American winger came on in the final 20 minutes of Chelsea’s defeat to Everton much to the displeasure of his father who took to Twitter to express his frustrations.
In the tweet, he said: ‘The sad thing is he [Pulisic] loves this club, teammates, and London.… puts his heart and soul into being a pro. Onwards and upwards my boy… big 6 months ahead…’
Thomas Tuchel was full of praise for Christain Pulisic when the 23 years old was in goal-scoring form.
He told the Chelsea official website that: “Christian (Pulisic) was in the same situation as Kai (Havertz). Both of them took the responsibility for the turnaround, so it is their responsibility, and they deserve the credit. They did amazing and you can see it on the pitch.”
What did Tuchel say?
Responding to that tweet, Tuchel said: “I am not concerned if a father says that a player does not love me! I am not concerned about that.
“It is a normal thing [if players are frustrated”. Like every manager, we have our reasons to choose lineups and have our reasons to go for players in the first XI. At this level of competition, you will never see happy faces from players who are not selected.
‘’Between me and Christian there are zero problems. He had a fantastic training week so far and has had a huge impact from the bench in some matches.
“This has nothing to do with any tweet or any reaction from a father because I do not want my judgment to get affected by it because it has nothing to do with it.
“The players, in the end, are responsible to be in the team and stay in the team. I will do my very best to make the right decision.
“Am I always right? For sure not. Is it always fair? For sure not. But this is what you sign up for in a club like Chelsea.
“I have not experienced the same reaction recently. It was the opposite. He was very strong and very positive in the last weeks.”
Pulisic has not started a Premier League game for almost two months.
Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel admits it is difficult to play Wolves and he does not know what to expect from them.
This was how Tuchel responded when asked what was his expectation for the match, he said: “Little bit.
‘’Woves had problems in the very beginning with results, and then they were very strong over a large part of the season.
‘’They struggled with results in the last weeks. Everybody sees that. It is a given. If you go a bit deeper into the statistics and analyze the game and the matches of them, you see that it is still very difficult to create chances.
‘’It is very difficult to bypass their defenders. They defend very disciplined, and we will not, for me, it is not possible to hurt them by pure ball possession.
‘’We experienced that kind of game in the first match, where we struggled in the first half with their structure on the ball. We didn’t allow anything.
”Chelsea defended very well but also struggled to create. We need to be very aware of the moments it’s possible to accelerate the game.
‘’So far in the season and last matches, it is almost impossible to catch them on a counter-attack because they protect them, very well protected when they attack.
‘’We need a good mix between patience, and still, while we are patient, we need to try to play a high rhythm so that we don’t get the feeling that everything gets stuck. We will try to implement a high rhythm. I expect their core performance of discipline and a very well-structured team.
