Going into the season, Massimiliano Allegri was pinning a lot of hopes on Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic being his star duo.
From day one of preseason Allegri made a couple of things clear: 1) He wanted to use a 3-5-2 formation, and 2) He wanted Leao and Pulisic to be the duo to spearhead what he hoped would be a lethal counter-attacking team.
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The reality though has been very different, as the American and the Portuguese have only played together for 595 minutes in the league and have scored a paltry two goals. Both have been injured at different times, and are not yet at their peak, neither in condition nor chemistry.
While it has since been resolved with an apology and a handshake, Sunday night’s game against Lazio was emblematic. Pulisic failed to release Leao in behind with a through ball twice, leading to an angry outburst from the latter on the sidelines and in the dressing room.
So, what’s going wrong? Stefano and Lorenzo aim to answer it. You can watch a free nine-minute clip of the episode below, but to watch or listen to the full episode, you need to subscribe to our Substack. As a reminder, you can try 7 days completely for free and get access to all the other bonus content as well!
This Is the reason why leao have not grown. The club pampers him too much. So because he was fed twice is the reason why he is angry when he didn’t do anything positive in that match……..I can’t wait for us to sell him so he gets into another club thats doesn’t care about his tantrums and laziness on the pitch
If I’m being completely honest, you two sound clueless. I’ve never seen or heard anything that suggests Pulisic is selfish or has an inflated ego—where is that even coming from?
Yes, the game was poor overall, but it wasn’t due to a lack of effort from Pulisic. On the other hand, Leão spent 60+ minutes sulking and walking around the pitch, which is completely unacceptable.
Pulisic has always been a team-first player. Missing a pass or two to Leão happens, that’s football. It’s not the reason we lost.
We lost because the formation doesn’t fit the players we have on the field. Plain and simple. Allegri sets the team up not to lose, hoping to nick a goal, but if we concede first, we don’t have the structure or intent to respond.
amen, Alegri is still the root cause with his combinations and decisions.
Play puli & fulkrug
play Nkunku n RLC
these combos have beared fruit and we scored more than 1 goal when these combinations are on.
Did either of you two watch the last 30 minutes of the match. Everything went through Pulisic and he involved all the players. Ask the Lazio players and fans which player they most feared. In the last 20 minutes alone Milan created over 12 corner kicks and there were multiple off-sides and goalie saves. The issue may be the speed/tempo that Milan plays. In the last 30 minutes they picked up the speed and Lazio came away with a win by the skin of their teeth. Both of them should start against Torino but the team should play fast from the first minute.
Allegri it’s like sarri Lazio. They only have one system formation 😂😂… Leao it’s pure winger not striker, mofo !
Please bring back leao to the left winger like pioli did, he will explode! And remember couple last season, Milan have leao + Theo pairing. This season, estupinan even cant close to Theo skills.
Mr allegri have to change the formations. 3-4-2-1 / 3-4-3 to accommodate leao + pulisic + 1 pure striker, and to pull out the useless like estupinan + fofana.
Game over for both of them
Game over for both of them…