Christian Pulisic - USMNT Chelsea spotlight can be up and down

United States forward Christian Pulisic said he has struggled with an up-and-down year at Chelsea but that he looks forward to helping the USMNT reach the World Cup.

In 2021, Pulisic won the Champions League with Chelsea in May and the CONCACAF Nations League with the U.S. in June. However, he was then sidelined for two months with an ankle injury suffered during a World Cup qualifying match against Honduras in September. He was out until Nov. 2 and has started just seven of Chelsea's last 11 Premier League matches as he battled for a starting spot.

«It's been up and down this [past] year, for sure,'' he said ahead of the United States' World Cup qualifier against El Salvador on Thursday night (Thursday, 7 p.m. ET; stream LIVE on ESPN2, ESPN+). „Not exactly where I want to be and how I want things to be right now. But, yeah, I'm just going to keep going.''

At Chelsea under manager Thomas Tuchel, Pulisic has also been shifted from his winger role to playing as a center-forward or as a wingback. He has scored just three times in Premier League action for Chelsea.

“It's tough,'' Pulisic said. „I haven't always been playing in the positions I want to play in. But I think it's a good quality to be versatile and be able to play in all kinds of positions and have different strengths on the pitch.

“So, yeah, I've learned a lot and I think I'm ready to hopefully be in a spot in the next couple of games that I'm more comfortable in.''

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Pulisic returned from the injury in November for the USMNT and scored the go-ahead goal on his first touch in a 2-0 win. A month