PITTSBURGH -- Christian Pulisic is on his fifth manager since joining Borussia Dortmund.
He only trained, never played, for Jurgen Klopp. He broke all the way into the first team under Thomas Tuchel in 2016. Pulisic and the rest of the team slogged through three managers in the 2017-18 campaign.
Now he trains under veteran manager Lucien Favre. The 60-year-old Swiss coach has been in management for much of the last 27 years. And while Favre shied away from making comparisons about the 19-year-old Hershey native and star of the U.S. men's national team, he did speak highly of Pulisic, who's scored, assisted, earned or scored the penalty for each of Dortmund's four goals against Manchester City and Liverpool.
"We've seen a lot of progression from him, we've seen the Man City game, he scored the penalty kick and also in the Liverpool game he scored the third goal," Favre said. "He has a lot of potential and he can still better himself and become a better player."
Pulisic did not know much about Favre when the manager was hired in July. He heard positive tidbits from former Favre players like Marco Reus, Lukasz Piszczek and and Mahmoud Dahoud.
Reus spent a year under Favre before transferring to Dortmund. Pizczek had two full seasons with Favre before he was fired at Hertha Berlin. And Dahoud, after a little more than a year being coached by Favre and another two years at Borussia Monchengladbach, got bought by Dortmund for 12 million euros. He is 22.
And while Favre and Pulisic haven't discussed a specific on-field role for him in any great detail yet, Pulisic likes the blend of players who know Favre and players Favre has to learn.
So far, the personal and club-wide results have justified Pulisic's optimism.
Said Pulisic: "It's been a great start with him and I heard good things so I think, yeah, we're definitely looking forward to a good season with him."