Christian Pulisic’s injury will give Samuel Chukwueze a chance to start from the first minute, and the winger must begin showing why AC Milan made him their most expensive summer signing.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recall that the main two moments for Chukwueze so far at Milan are his two big misses against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. However, they say that he has lost neither the art of dribbling nor the smile that distinguishes him.
Stefano Pioli will give him a start today in Lecce with the hope of seeing a goal or assist to unlock him. Milan signed Chukwueze for €20m plus €8m in bonuses, and they acquired a player who had the third-most successful dribbles in LaLiga last season behind Vinicius and Nico Williams.
Moreover, they got a player who had 11 goal contributions, while he had 24 across all competitions. However, he has only two starts in the league for the Rossoneri, the most recent in Genoa lasting just 45 minutes. Furthermore, there were four matches that he missed due to injury.
During the mid-October break he suffered an injury in training with Nigeria ahead of the match against Mozambique. The coach José Peseiro said that, although Samu has now recovered, he will leave him alone at Milanello instead of calling him up for the next World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
Milan purchased Chukwueze him to balance the flanks: with Rafa and Samu sharing the wings the idea was that the threat of speed and dribbling would be spread, but once again the team found themselves leaning to the left as the load on the scales placed of Leao remains the most significant.
Christian Pulisic has four goals and remains the starter on the right. Due to the contribution offered so far by Chukwueze (no goals or assists), it is normal that the USA winger remains ahead in the pecking order.
Chukwueze, it is worth remembering, joined up with the squad later than Pulisic as the negotiation to bring him to Milan was more laborious. Samu missed the tour of the United States and part of the preseason preparation, then having to overcome the competition.
In the opportunities available to him, there was no mention of quick dribbles, much less decisive touches. A nice leap forward could be made today, with a play that allows Milan to prevail over Lecce.
I thought this guy was a waste of money when we signed him and he hasn’t done a single thing to change my mind; hopefully he’ll turn it around, but it doesn’t look good atm.