Gregg Berhalter admitted that it was "strange" to hear Thomas Tuchel speak out on Christian Pulisic's call-up, but the U.S. men's national team boss said the Chelsea manager has no reason to be concerned regarding the handling of the recently fit winger.
Berhalter confirmed on Thursday that Pulisic will not start Friday's match against Mexico as the winger continues to ease back into his return from an ankle injury.
That decision came after Tuchel warned the USMNT not to overwork Pulisic, who featured in two cameo appearances for the Blues before jetting back to the U.S. for international duty.
What did Berhalter say?
"It was kind of strange to hear that that come from Tuchel because we use common sense," Berhalter said.
"Christian was back training for three days before these games, before the game that he played the first time in Malmo and then it was a midweek game, and I think he got another maybe day of training before the next game against Burnley.
"So he's been training for four days, and common sense is going to tell us you can't start a guy in a game like this when he's only been training for four days and has been out for so long.
"I understand Tuchel's concern. Our idea wasn't to play him 180 minutes in this trip anyway. He's not going to start tomorrow. Hopefully he'll get some playing time, we'll put him on the field and he can make an impact and help us get the result that we want."
The big picture
While "common sense" is the biggest decider in this case, Berhalter can also be comfortable in his wing options even without Pulisic and Gio Reyna, who is out for the entire camp, in the starting lineup.
Berhalter has options on the wing in Tim Weah and Brenden Aaronson, both of whom shined last window, as well as the ever-reliable veteran Paul Arriola.
And, as Berhalter alluded to, Pulisic could play the perfect supersub role should the U.S. need him on Friday night in Cincinnati.
One player that Berhalter did confirm would start, though, is Zack Steffen, with the Manchester City goalkeeper earning the nod over Matt Turner for Friday night at least.
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