Thomas Tuchel has explained the decision to start Christian Pulisic at wing-back in Sunday’s friendly against Arsenal, saying that now is the time to experiment with some players still not back.
Pulisic started the game as a right wing-back with Callum Hudson-Odoi starting on the left as the Blues sealed a 2-1 victory win with goals from Tammy Abraham and Kai Havertz.
Chelsea were without Marcos Alonso, Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James for the friendly, giving Tuchel the opportunity to try something new with two of his attackers.
“He played there with me at Dortmund and we played many times like this with Callum,” Tuchel said. “Marcos wasn’t able to play today so we put Callum on the left side, which I wanted to see from a long time. Callum can maybe be more dangerous from this position coming inside which he loves, and which he did today. So you know our situation.
“We have Azpi and Reece for this position [right wing-back] but Azpi only started two days ago and Reece hasn’t even started yet. So we need solutions because we start on the 11th against Villarreal and on the 14th is the season. We can’t try things then so now is the time to see.
“It was the possibility to give him some minutes and from here we go on.”
Pulisic has mostly operated on the left wing during his time at Chelsea, although he has also been deployed on the right and centrally too.
He has scored 17 goals in 77 matches for the club while helping guide the team to a Champions League triumph last campaign.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s friendly game, Pulisic said his biggest goal this season was to stay healthy after having to battle several injuries last campaign..
He also opened up on his struggles with mental health, crediting his therapist and his team-mates for helping him through some difficult times.
