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Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent
AUSTIN, Texas – United States men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino hailed Christian Pulisic as one of the world’s best offensive players but said he was concerned about the AC Milan star’s workload amid his stellar start to the season.
Pulisic has scored six goals and added two assists in all competitions for Milan, having started all nine games this season.
“I think he’s a fantastic player, one of the best offensive players in the world,” Pochettino said about Pulisic in a news conference Friday.
“I think that we are a little bit worried that sometimes we need to protect [Pulisic],” Pochettino said. “We see because he arrived a little bit tired, but that is a thing that I told him before is to build a very good relationship with the club and try to help.
“And when we really need him, he needs to be in form, happy, strong and the quality is there because he has an enormous talent.”
After a difficult spell with Chelsea in England’s Premier League where he struggled for game time, Pulisic has become arguably the key figure for Milan in his second season at the Serie A giants.
“It’s tough to explain,” Pulisic told reporters. “I think you have moments in your career where it feels like everything you touch goes in and you have other times when it feels like you’re trying everything and the ball just won’t go in.
“As an attacking player, we’ve all gone through it. So just trying to live in that moment right now when things seem to be going well and just continue like this. I mean, for me, it’s a result of all the work I’ve put in my whole life, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. I know I have this ability and just kind of ride that high.”
After being hired Sept. 10, Pochettino is preparing for his first games as USMNT coach, with friendlies against Panama in Austin, Texas, on Saturday and versus bitter rival Mexico in Guadalajara three days later.
And the former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham coach said that the most important takeaway from the current national team camp is for the players and staff to get to know one another.
“There are nearly 40 people working all together, and to have the capacity to organize and to know each other and to settle the way that we want to work is the most important thing from the beginning,” he said.
“Always, soccer is about to compete and to win because our fans, for sure, they want to win, But in the same time they need to understand that our first contact with the whole organization and player, we cannot push [the players] too much. They need to adapt to use our ideas.”
Pochettino added that he’s been impressed by the team’s “discipline to work” and the overall effort the players have shown.
There has been plenty of talk about the intensity of Pochettino’s training sessions this week. Part of that is simply getting used to a new manager. The Argentine is aware of how that is factoring into the players’ performance, and that intensity isn’t just about the physical aspect but the mental as well.
In terms of implementing his philosophy, Pochettino said he’ll be flexible in terms of his tactical plan, especially when it comes to playing out of the back.
“People sometimes say, ‘No, that’s my philosophy, my idea and I going to die with my idea.’ No, I want to live,” he said with a laugh. “It’s amazing. I want to be clever. I want to win. I don’t want to die. Sometimes we cannot play. Sometimes we need to find different way to put our player in a comfortable zone, not in an uncomfortable zone to reduce … the confidence we play [with].
“You need to adapt yourself, your ideas, your philosophy, because we are coaching the player, we are not coaching ourself,” he said. “We need to be a coaching staff that we coach the team. We coach the player because if not we start to coach ourself and then always blame the player.
“We don’t want to blame the player. We want to provide all the tools for them to perform, depending on the characteristics of the team in the best way.”