Mauricio Pochettino Urged to ‘Empower’ Christian Pulisic After Penalty Drama With AC Milan

A typical soccer match features players with different personalities. Some are physical fighters, some are talkers, and then there’s the type like Christian Pulisic, who neither trash talks nor fights but lets his game do the talking. Even though this may be a safe and logical choice for Captain America, new USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino was urged to keep the ‘Clint Dempsey type of way’ alive within Pulisic.

But why specifically Clint Dempsey? Well, in the eyes of USA icon Herculez Gomez, Dempsey has “always been that guy that prefers to talk on the field with his feet.” Herc knows that the former US skipper under Jurgen Klinsmann was the man who never backed down to fight for the NT’s crest. Interestingly, the best part is that the USA is fortunate to have someone close to Dempsey, none other than Pulisic.

“The best possible Clint Dempsey type of way, I think we’re seeing that in Christian Pulisic right now,” said Herc Gomez in the latest episode of Rog Bennett-hosted Men in Blazers. “Maybe that started with Gregg Berhalter, but Mauricio Pochettino has to continue that, has to empower Pulisic.”

Empower? Why? It’s not like Pulisic fails to give his best on the pitch. In fact, to Herc, the AC Milan star is the only one who exhibits genuine leadership qualities. “I would push back on the sense that we don’t see the best out of Pulisic with the USMNT. I would beg to differ. Just in the last window against Canada, Pulisic was constantly getting chopped down, and not one single team member got into the CanMNT’s face.”

Gomez insisted that Jesse Marsh knew that Pulisic was the exact pressure point of the Stars and Stripes. But sadly, not a single one of his teammates came to their skipper’s defense. Meanwhile, the 26-year-old winner was the only one who constantly fought for the ball and kept going down. Furthermore, Gomez highlighted how it took just 15 minutes for Pulisic to get his name on the scoresheet.

Highlighting Pulisic’s 7 goals and two assists for both AC Milan and USMNT, Gomez couldn’t stop his praise for the former Chelsea winger. “He’s constantly the only player to be there doing something of worth… He’s playing out of his mind right now. I’ve been very critical of Christian in the past, [but] this is as close to world-class from Pulisic as I’ve seen,” concluded Herc.

Perhaps this is exactly the kind of area that Herc Gomez wants Pochettino to help Pulisic with. Who knows, that could help the American skipper with his recent penalty fiasco against a few AC Milan stars.

Mauricio Pochettino can also help Christian Pulisic address his biggest weakness!

During Sunday’s Serie A match, AC Milan could have avoided a 2-1 defeat against Fiorentina, if they had managed to net either of the penalties they won during 90 minutes. Interestingly, the post-match saw Milan boss Paulo Fonseca express his doubts about why the designated PK taker, a.k.a. Christian Pulisic, wasn’t allowed to take either of the kicks from the spot. This somehow ignited heated debate across the soccer world.

Theo Hernandez and Tammy Abraham were blamed for disrespecting their manager’s call and as well as for ignoring Pulisic. On the contrary, Pulisic was slammed for not standing up for the responsibility to fight back to take the penalty, with Chelsea icon Craig Burley asking him, “How weak are you?”

While this calls for a gray area of judgment, Mauricio Pochettino’s expertise and man-management can tackle this riddle. With the help of the Argentine tactician, Christian Pulisic can boost his character and learn the responsibilities of a leader. Just like USA icon Alexi Lalas said, “Christian Pulisic is not Zlatan.”

Perhaps Poch can bring Zlatan Ibrahimović kind of personality to his team’s captain.