Photocredit: Goal.com
Many were screaming that Lampard was being biased against Pulisic as he was the star signing and Lampard was playing favorites by going with Mason Mount over the more experienced Pulisic. Mason Mount after all had played for Lampard last year at Derby. Mount had played in the Championship. Pulisic had experience in the Bundesliga and Champions League. It should have been obvious which one was going to be on the team. Even the Premier League's fantasy site put Pulisic's value at 7.5m and Mount's at just 6.0. Clearly bias all around. But hold on.
Fast forward 8 games into the season and 2 international breaks. Look at Chelsea's record. Can you really fault Lampard for realizing quickly that one of them was better than the other and it was not the one with as much fanfare? I for one, don't think so. It's pretty obvious that Pulisic isn't in the same class as Mount, Pedro, Willian, or Ross Barkley. Barkley was scoring goals for England. Mount made England. England is a far better team than the USA. Pulisic wouldn't make England. That's a fact. He lost his place at Dortmund without much a fight back to Jadon Sancho, who got dropped for the game in Bulgaria from what team? England. Pulisic has miles to go before he is actually good enough to feature regularly for Chelsea. Jury is out on whether he can improve enough to force himself into Lampard's plans. Remember, he wasn't Lampard's signing so Lampard really doesn't owe anything to the player here.
The fact of the matter is, Pulisic would have been better off at a bottom half premier league side when he made the transition from the Bundesliga to the Premier League. Or at least a mid table team. Yarmolenko was a solid player for Dortmund as well but he didn't have the same fanfare that Pulisic did. Thus Yarmolenko is at West Ham and wasn't bought by one of the bigger sides. West Ham was a good place for him to go. Pulisic bit off more than he could chew going to Chelsea. Can't fault him for not wanting to play for Mourinho but he wasn't actually at the level to be at a club in England that was challenging for Europe. Not yet. Like Yarmolenko, he should have chosen a mid table team. One where he was going to play and go through the pains of development to the new league without being dropped altogether. Chelsea was a bad choice for him. Any top side would have been.
I expect him to be seeing the exit door after just one season if not January. His crying on the bench against Canada (Pedro, Willian, or Mount would have had a hat trick against Canada) said it all. Anyone who thinks it was "Flu like Symptoms" is very gullible. We all know why he was crying.