USA coach Gregg Berhalter had backed Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic to adapt to life in the Premier League after a slow start to his Chelsea career.
The forward joined Chelsea from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of around 64 million euros ($71 million) in the close season to become the most expensive American player in history but has struggled for minutes, making only three Premier League starts.
But Pulisic gave manager Frank Lampard a reminder of his talent by setting up fellow substitute Michy Batshuayi to score the winner against last year’s semi-finalists Ajax at the Johan Cruijff Arena.
This comes after he was also involved in Marcos Alonso’s winner in 1-0 win against Newcastle last Saturday.
His international coach Berhalter is sure in time he will come good: ‘There’s a lot of pressure that he’s under,’ he told the Mirror.
‘I think Frank Lampard has been trying to say: the outside stuff is not real, it’s really not – when you analyze the transfer fee when you analyze who he’s replacing when you analyse he’s the only guy they bought.
‘And let’s not forget that he’s not the only player in the world who has had a challenge adapting at the beginning of a move. Look at Griezmann in Barcelona, Hazard in Real Madrid.
‘These are top, top players. Salah and De Bruyne at Chelsea, of course. The list goes on and on. Because he was the only transfer this year, a lot of attention is placed on him.’
Pulisic will hope to start against Burnley on Saturday in place of Callum Hudson-Odoi or Willian both of whom were average against Ajax.
