Dortmund

Bruce Arena's plan for Christian Pulisic: 'He's going to be a big part of our team'

Published Mar. 15, 2017 3:26 p.m. ET

Ryan Rosenblatt

Christian Pulisic is the talk of American soccer, already becoming the United States' youngest ever goal-scorer and playing a key role for Borussia Dortmund on their way to the Champions League quarterfinals. Not bad for an 18-year-old.

The question now is: What kind of role will he play for the national team? Jurgen Klinsmann brought him along slowly, generally using him off the bench, but then Klinsmann threw Pulisic into the fire against Mexico in the Americans' first match of the final round of World Cup qualifying. He built the attack around Pulisic, with some encouraging results. But Klinsmann was fired and new U.S. manager Bruce Arena hasn't gotten the chance to manage a match with Pulisic.

What does Arena plan on doing with Pulisic? He touched on it when he joined Colin Cowherd on "The Herd" on Wednesday.

He’s an outstanding player. The issue is he’s 18 years old. He has relatively little experience at the international level. However, he’s playing for a big team, Dortmund, in big competitions. He’s responding.

He has the potential to be a great player and I think he’s going to be a big part of our team, he’s not going to be a role player. He’s going to be an important part. If we get over the hump and become a real godo team I think Christian is going to play a big role.

Arena doesn't come right out and say what Pulisic's role will be so we don't know if he'll be on the right wing, where he generally plays for Borussia Dortmund, or in the center, where he's been used occasionally at the club level and exclusively with the U.S. youth national teams. But while it's unclear where on the field he will be, it's obvious that Arena thinks he's a special player who will be a focal point of the attack.

It makes complete sense to feature Pulisic. Like Arena said, he's only 18 years old, but that's the only drawback right now and his age doesn't mean so much when he's playing week in, week out in front of 80,000 fans in the Champions League and Bundesliga. He's already playing on a big stage with a bright spotlight and has proven he can do it against teams that are, frankly, going to be at a higher level than what he sees with the national team. Pulisic is playing at a higher level right now than any other American, and that's irrespective of age.

There's no way Pulisic should be a role player. He should be treated like one of the team's featured players, and Arena sees that.

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