Top soccer commentator Ray Hudson went on a fiery rant about Chelsea and USMNT forward Christian Pulisic on Tuesday. Hudson spent about 100 seconds spilling all his ill-feelings about the American star on SiriusXMFC.
Let’s take a listen and break down some of his points.
Ray Hudson Pulisic rant
"' ! ' !" - @RayHudson sounds off on Christian #Pulisic pic.twitter.com/O3bKSYWrL8
— SiriusXM FC 157 ⚽️ (@SiriusXMFC) March 21, 2023
Hudson did not hold back. Wow. Time to analyze this tirade and see how much sense the British commentator is actually talking here.
“I’m sick and tired of this situation of using the excuse that he’s not fit and that’s his whole shield.”
Pulisic being injured and not at 100% is brought up a lot because it’s quite the frequent occurrence. In the past three seasons he has missed a combined 51 Chelsea games due to various injuries.
While this doesn’t excuse Pulisic from poor performances when he does play, it’s important to have context about how often the American is out or recovering from a knock.
“We see these little darty runs, we see all running off of the ball, when he’s got the ball he’s decent. He’s not good enough to be on Chelsea’s first team.”
This point from Hudson is debatable. It’s fair to say that the 2022-23 season hasn’t been too memorable for Pulisic. But here’s a follow-up question: who has been a good forward for the Chelsea first team this season?
Chelsea’s first team has been a train wreck of throwing infinite money at a problem and expecting goals. The club has 29 goals from 27 league games which is the eighth worst in the league.
In the EPL Kai Havertz has seven goals, Raheem Sterling has four, Mason Mount has three, João Félix has two and Hakim Ziyech and Mykhaylo Mudryk have yet to score.
Pulisic is part of a system that simply doesn’t produce many goals which is evident with him scoring once in 18 league appearances. If anything, he fits right in with the Chelsea first team’s lackluster performances.
“Every time I see him, I’m waiting waiting. ‘Come on show me something!’ And it’s game after game. Season after season.”
Hudson must not have watched Lockdown Pulisic. His 2019-20 season was remarkable.
A fair counterpoint to that though is here we are defending Pulisic with stats from three years ago.
“He’s a 60-70 million pound player with tremendous ability, fantastic pace, with a developing intelligence of what the game needs to produce better results. He’s got all of that!”
There we go Hudson! Now you’re sounding like a true Pulisic fanboy who defends his every action on Twitter. This comment from Hudson does feel a bit contrasting to the part where he said that Pulisic is only decent and not good enough for Chelsea.
“Was he the absolute leader of the United States national team in the World Cup?”
Pulisic scored or assisted all the USMNT’s goals in Qatar and won player of the match during the 0-0 draw vs. England. Not to mention he sacrificed his Pulisack against Iran. Sounds pretty leader-like to us.
Christian Pulisic with his first World Cup Man of the Match award. pic.twitter.com/YrWbeGRLEC
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) November 25, 2022
“I’ve been waiting for this kid to light it up. He needs to move.”
Agreed. Pulisic’s time at Chelsea needs to come to a conclusion.
“I may be entirely wrong and out of order with this heated debate.”
Not entirely wrong, but not entirely correct either. We still love you and enjoyed the rant anyway Hudson.
