Christian Pulisic may have found himself back in transfer chatter for an unexpected reason: as a potential long-term successor to Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, according to a former USMNT teammate who knows exactly what makes the forward so difficult to defend against.
As reported by GOAL, former USMNT defender Jonathan Spector believes Pulisic’s pace and directness would translate well to Liverpool’s style of play, describing him as a genuinely difficult opponent for any backline to handle.
Pulisic, currently at AC Milan after a four-year spell in the Premier League with Chelsea, is known for his combination of speed, confidence on the ball, and instinct for making forward runs at defenders. Spector, who played alongside him in the U.S. national team setup, argued that Liverpool’s counter-attacking edge suits exactly the kind of direct, high-tempo movement Pulisic brings — the sort of unpredictability that makes life miserable for opposition defenders.
The bigger question, though, is why that same skill set didn’t translate into consistent success during Pulisic’s time at Chelsea. Spector pointed to something less about talent and more about timing and circumstance: at elite clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, or Manchester City, plenty of technically gifted players have failed to establish themselves simply because the fit wasn’t right at that particular moment. According to Spector, identifying a good player isn’t the hard part — working out whether that player suits a specific team at a specific time is where things get complicated, and that’s ultimately where Pulisic’s Chelsea spell fell short.
For now, Pulisic is using the post-World Cup window to rest before turning his attention back to club football. His immediate future appears tied to Milan, where new manager Ruben Amorim is reportedly building a squad around him, but speculation over a potential Liverpool move hasn’t gone away entirely — particularly if Milan’s financial position forces the club into a more open stance on incoming offers for its key players.
