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Is Frank Lampard anti-American? Jesse Marsch appeared to make such claims last week, but now the Chelsea boss is hitting back at the accusations.
Marsch, who coaches RB Salzburg, laid some heavy accusations at his fellow coach on a recent podcast. The Wisconsin native essentially claimed Lampard had anti-American bias over his treatment of Christian Pulisic upon his arrival at Chelsea.
“I could see right away that Frank Lampard’s idea of Christian Pulisic was shaped a lot by the fact that he was American and not that his football education came a lot from what has happened in Germany,” Marsch said on a U.S. podcast. “Since then, I think Lampard has learned that Pulisic is a lot better than he gave him credit for.”
Pulisic has been a star for the Blues since arriving for a U.S.-record fee of $73 million. He was the team’s best player after the Premier League restarted over the summer and was given the No. 10 jersey to start the new campaign. After putting in 19 explosive minutes in the Champions League on Wednesday, Lampard responded to Marsch’s comments.
“I did read the comments,” Lampard said at a news conference, via ESPN. “I was surprised that Jesse had managed to read my mind as well as he thought he did. He’s recounted the conversation wrong; I have to put it correct because it was the game against Salzburg were played and Christian scored two goals in preseason.
“Fair enough, Jesse came up to me and said what a talented player Christian was which I knew, and I agreed with. I spoke about the fact it was so exciting to see how he could develop for us with the talent he has. That was the conversation. Jesse managed to put it across slightly differently.
“Maybe Jesse knows the feeling of American managers and coaches that travel into Europe. But one thing I did have was I played in America for 18 months and I would never underestimate the desire that American soccer players — football players — have to learn, to improve, take on information and understand the technical side of the game.
“So when you have that, which Christian had, and you have incredible talent, it was never in doubt for me. My only thing is I coach in the Premier League and have played here for nearly 20 years, so I understand the rigors of it.”
Lampard spent a couple years in MLS, appearing 31 times for NYCFC, which is 31 more games in MLS than Pulisic and about 300 fewer than Marsch. So Lampard isn’t ignorant about American soccer. And with 429 Premier League appearances with Chelsea, few have more experience in England’s top flight than Lampard.
But while I freely admit I have never played in the Premier League, I do feel there is an overblown belief that players need extensive time to adapt to the league, a belief Lampard clearly subscribes to. Regardless, Pulisic’s coach wants to set the record straight that he always knew the American was talented.
“That brings me onto Christian’s development last year,” Lampard went on. “It is clearly the toughest league in the world to come and play at a young age from a different league. And it is not just Christian who will have felt that in the early stages.
“Some of the greatest players in Premier League history, whether they came from America or Europe or anywhere in the world, have felt that. What Christian did was find his feet very quickly and have a great first season in the Premier League where he produced goals and assists.
“I thought his performance last season was massively impressive. He will get better and better because he is a young player, but I never doubted him in the first place.
“And that’s not me jumping on Jesse because there’s probably a bigger issue there with American players. I don’t want to comment on that — he can field that one himself — but as a manager I never doubted Christian and it is important for me to put that straight actually, more for Christian than anything.”
I totally understand a coach defending his belief in one of his players, especially one as young and talented (and popular) as Pulisic. However, I’m not really sold that Lampard doesn’t have anti-American bias based on these comments and the fact Pulisic’s minutes have not reflected what his performances arguably deserve.
Then again, that might just because I have a pro-American bias.
