Christian Pulisic has admitted he must improve his finishing as Chelsea dropped more points in the Premier League on New Year’s Day.
[ MORE: Premier League schedule ]
The USMNT star, 21, returned to the Chelsea starting lineup for the first time since Dec. 14 in their 1-1 draw at Brighton and lasted 66 minutes after his slight hamstring issue.
Pulisic had several shots on goal at Brighton but he and his Chelsea teammates couldn’t double their advantage after taking an early lead.
“We said at half time that we had the chance to kill the game and we just weren’t able to,” Pulisic said. “We couldn’t get the goal and in the end they found an unbelievable goal. So now it is about doing a bit more to keep going, attack and create chances and just have that killer instinct. Just a little bit of that, we are missing that.
“I can do better with that as well. Just being more clinical in the final third, finding the right pass or shot and scoring the goals. That’s both mental and technical. After we scored the first goal it was just about continuing and just not stopping there, making it two or three and putting the game to bed. We’ve had troubles with that this year and then in the end, they fought until the end, scored a great goal and that is how it goes.”
[ MORE: Pulisic Watch - How did he perform? ]
Pulisic got into some great positions and caused Brighton lots of issues with his dribbling and clever runs in the final third, but his shooting was wayward. He snatched at a few shots and looked like he was hurrying a little and maybe that is because he’s now gone seven games with a goal or an assist for Chelsea.
His purple patch in October and November proves he can score goals in the Premier League but Pulisic just needs that little bit of luck to get the ball rolling again. Everything else is going well but as he said himself, he needs to improve his finishing.
Chelsea need to improve theirs overall too, as Frank Lampard’s side continue to blow hot and cold in their battle to finish in the top four and cannot keep squandering big chances against teams in the bottom half of the table.
Pulisic admitted that with Chelsea now able to buy players in the January window due to their transfer ban reduced upon appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) he is now relishing the chance to compete with new players for minutes.
“It is normal that teams look to improve and and if players do come in there is competition, that is how it goes,” Pulisic said. “So we’ll be ready for that and hopefully we’ll have players that come in and want to help us.”