Christian Pulisic must develop a nasty streak in order to be a success at Chelsea.
That's the view of former United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who oversaw the forward's progress at international level when he was a teenager.
Pulisic joined the Blues from Borussia Dortmund in the January transfer window, although he linked up with his new teammates in the summer having spent the second half of last season on loan in Germany.
Upon joining up with the Chelsea squad for pre-season there was a lot of intrigue among supporters and the 21-year-old started all but one of the club's opening five games of the campaign.
However, having failed to score or register an assist in those games, Pulisic's only game time since the international break was 90 minutes against Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup.
An unused substitute in the win over Brighton at the weekend, there's been talk regarding Pulisic's future and Klinsmann has sent a message to the forward about winning his place back.
"You never know it's the right fit unless you do it," Klinsmann told ESPN. "Christian did well to say: 'I'm going to throw myself in another cold water, go over to London and throw myself in the Premier League, and I have to fight through the system there.'
"So that's what he's in.
"He's a very special player, he's tremendously talented, but this is a big step, because Borussia Dortmund was also basically the club where he got formed into a professional player.
"He came out of the youth system there, he moved himself up, he had all the support within the club and now going to London -- also to one of the biggest clubs in the world -- you got to bring your elbows out.
"He will go through a phase now where more and more he needs to bring his elbows out to fight himself through the system there. Can he do it? Yes, absolutely he can do it, but you need to be patient too, sometimes you forget he's a very young player.
"You're basically in a daily competition. Maybe in Dortmund he knew: 'I established myself already within the club to be a very special player. I get my minutes in, I get my games in, I'm a starter most of the time.'
"You don't have that automatic assurance at Chelsea. At Chelsea it goes from game to game, week to week. You're basically in training and you have to tell the coach: 'I'm in, I'm going to start this game.' So it's a little bit more cold, it's a bit more nasty.
"What I mean with the elbows is that you have to become nasty in order to make yourself a starter."
