American soccer has a Pulisic problem.

Christian Mate Pulisic is undeniably the nation’s best soccer player right now. Considering the fact that he’s only 19 years old — and thus hilariously ineligible to win any potential US Soccer Budweiser Man of the Match awards for another year and a half — it’s a remarkable achievement.

His emergence has come at an opportune moment for the sport. After failing to qualify for this summer’s World Cup, the men’s national team is in the midst of its most important rebuilding project in generations. A young, talented, attacking player is exactly the kind of pillar a rebuilding team needs to place at its center… Right?

Herein lies the Pulisic problem. The current hot debate in the American soccer community is how to structure the team in a way that gets the best out of its most talented member. It boils down to one question: Is Pulisic a central “10,” or is he a winger?

Fans and pundits are split. The “10” camp sees a dearth of inspired attackers in the American player pool. Gone are the days of Landon Donovan and (an effective) Clint Dempsey swashbuckling their way through helpless CONCACAF defenders. Their solution to this problem is to put Pulisic in a position to see the ball as much as possible — to play him through the middle.

This is an approach that has worked to devastating effect a couple of times. We all remember the show he put on against Panama in the penultimate game of qualifying. In that game, the team was basically set up to get Pulisic the ball in pockets of space in front of Panama’s defense and allow him to run at — and past — slow defenders.

The tactics worked so well against Panama that manager Bruce Arena trotted out the same lineup in Trinidad, and the team ran riot and cruised to World Cup qualification.

Sorry, that was cruel. Of course, we know that Trinidad was easily able to frustrate and disrupt the same US midfield in Couva that had had its own way in Orlando days earlier.

The other faction in this debate, in which I am a committed foot soldier, sees two things. First is Pulisic’s success as a winger for his club Borussia Dortmund. It’s the position in which he broke into Dortmund’s first team as a 16 year old, and the position in which he’s cemented himself as a key piece of a Champion’s League caliber attacking corps.

The second important consideration for those in the winger camp, however, has nothing to do with Pulisic at all.

A quick look at the pool of young American players in MLS and in Europe reveals quite a bit of quality depth in central midfield. The star of that group is Weston McKennie, another teenager who has made his name for a Champion’s League team in Germany. But the list goes on and on (and on) from there. Tyler Adams, of the New York Red Bulls; Keaton Parks, of Portugal’s Benfica; Marky Delgado, of Toronto FC; Chris Durkin, of DC United; Kellyn Acosta and Jacori Hayes, of FC Dallas; Taylor Booth, reportedly off to Germany’s Bayern Munich…

That’s an incomplete list, but I didn’t want to lose you. The point is, the future looks bright, and quite deep, in the center of the USMNT’s midfield. And that’s saying nothing of some of the older players the team can still call on in the coming years, including Michael Bradley and Wil Trapp.

At the same time, a look at our attacking and wing midfield depth is… not as promising, to put it lightly. After Pulisic, you can call on Kenny Saief, a player with exactly two national team appearances to his name. Then there are Paul Arriola and Darlington Nagbe, two domestic players who’ve mostly failed to make an impression in the chances they’ve been given. And then? Jonathan Amon should probably get a look, but he has less than one full pro season under his belt. Tim Weah, Andrew Carleton, Ulysses Llanez, and Nick Taitague are all full of potential, but unproven at a high enough level to warrant inclusion in the senior team. Juan Agudelo and Rubio Rubin have been played out of position on the wings, with predictable results.

With the American wing midfield cupboard looking rather bare, and the bucket of quality, young central players filled to the brim, why should the national team handicap itself in a position of weakness at the expense of a position of strength by playing Pulisic centrally?

It’s true that positioning Pulisic as a 10 ahead of two holding midfielders would probably result in more touches for him. However, we’ve seen what happens when playing Give-It-To-Christian Ball becomes too predictable, and Pulisic has not demonstrated the elite vision or passing that can unlock packed-in defenses. Even if he did develop those qualities, the lackluster talent at the other attacking positions around him might not be up to the task of maximizing his talents.

At Dortmund, Pulisic has thrived on being the guy on the end of a defense-unlocking through ball. He is elite in one-on-one situations, and at exploiting the spaces left by an unbalanced defense. The best metaphor I’ve seen is Pulisic as a Formula One car; capable of incredibly high performance, but dependent upon a reliable pit crew. Dortmund’s “pit crew” is among the best in the world at pressing defenses to create space and opportunities for its attackers.

A great example of Pulisic’s strengths; exploiting gaps in a defense, and getting on the end of a through ball.

No one is going to seriously compare the American “pit crew” to Dortmund’s, but there are enough American central players that are ready for the international level now that shoehorning Pulisic into a central position is not only unnecessary, but may in fact be detrimental to the team realizing its potential. Imagine the space that a pressing midfield of Bradley, McKennie, and the absolutely frenetic Adams would create for Pulisic to exploit! And the group will only improve as Delgado, Durkin, Parks, and others hopefully prove themselves capable at the international level.

Pulisic will likely find some measure of success wherever he lines up for the USMNT. I see much more potential in this team as a pressing force, unbalancing defenses to create opportunities for Christian Mate Pulisic, winger extraordinaire, to wreak havoc. Ultimately, though, the Pulisic problem is not a bad problem to have.