Christian Pulisic had only experienced a similar crisis in his final year at Chelsea, and he is the symbol of a failing attacking unit.
Corriere dello Sport write how Pulisic is no longer as effective as he was at the start of the season and is experiencing a very long goal drought, now approaching four months. The American has gone 15 games without scoring for Milan: his personal record is 16 games in the 2022-23 season with Chelsea.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
It is a drastic and in some ways unexpected decline that has significantly impacted the attacking output of Milan as a whole. Pulisic last scored against Hellas Verona on December 28th, while in 2026 he is yet to find the back of the net, a factor that has also held him back mentally.
In the return game against Verona he didn’t look himself and was almost detached from the attacking play. It was another start in which his incompatibility with Rafael Leao as a forward pairing was once again confirmed.
The two forwards have rarely made a difference when starting together, yet the club’s hope was to entrust the entire attacking department to their two most talented players. The enormous difficulties encountered in the second half of the season will lead the management to a series of reflections.
Crisis unit
All five Milan forwards are currently available, and Massimiliano Allegri is trying to get them involved by tweaking the attacking duo during matches. Against Napoli, Christopher Nkunku and Niclas Füllkrug started, while against Udinese and Verona it was Leao and Pulisic started.
Milan’s problem is that no one is scoring whatever the combination. Santiago Gimenez – who came on midway through the second half against Verona – hasn’t scored in the league for almost a year. He has missed a chunk due to injury.
Meanwhile, Nkunku hasn’t celebrated a goal in two and a half months, the last one on February 3rd in Bologna. Füllkrug even scored his last goal for Milan over three months ago back in January, when his goal gave Allegri a 1-0 victory against Lecce.
Of the five forwards, Leao is the player who scored most recently, on March 1st in Cremona, but the Portuguese player has still gone 50 days without scoring. It is a ‘desperate picture’ that highlights how Milan are surviving solely on goals from their midfielders and defenders.
Maybe try Pulisic and Gimenez. You know the pairing that scored tons of goals at the start of the season.
Pulisic would miss a sitter. Irrelevant who he plays with when he has 0 confidence in himself…
To be fair they will all miss sitters at this point, no matter who you start.
The only 2 half good attackers we have are currently shadows of their best seasons with us. The remaining 3 are sorry excuses for professional football players.
Aside from that, some of pairing don’t make sense. Any pairing that doesn’t have an actual striker (Giménez or Füllkrug) is deemed to fail as one of the pairs can’t play as a striker while the other doesn’t have a reference point or a focal point to pair with.
And finally, our playing style doesn’t exactly allow for many chances and thus many goals.
I agree with you guys. I was mistaken big time. I thought a Rafa-Puli would be amazing. They barely played together most of the season and they both are, arguably, our 2 most talented forwards. But didnt work. My bad, that’s why i’m not the coach and real life isnt FIFA.
My next theory is a 4-3-3 BUT. BUT.
1. Going forward makes sense, Rafa does his best as winger in space on the left, Puli did great on the right wing and they both can play off a workable CF .
2. Problem. 4-3-3 exposes our defense. Whether you agree or not, the 5 midfield set up has given us defensive solidity most of the season
3. I still feel somehow, Allegri has to find a way to have Puli, Rafa and a CF on the starting 11 w/o impacting the defense. – What formation is that? idk, Who gets taken out? Idk (Fofana? Saladman? )
4. I’m ok for now, doing the Allegri way. 1-0s with little excitment going forward. Until we guarantee UCL. Then, experiment all we want, because 1-0s are not going to cut it if we aim to win titles next season.
Five forwards who have all been successful in the past, yet we choose to blame all of them instead of the coach, and his inability to run an offense. Per Luca Marchegiani, who spoke on Sky Calcio Club: “The problem in my opinion, even if Modric is there…is instead the midfield itself. Milan have a midfield that carries the ball. It’s a team built more for Rabiot’s runs than for the forwards’ involvement in the game.
damn. That is indeed a controversial take. But cant argue with “t’s a team built more for Rabiot’s runs than for the forwards’ involvement in the game.”
You do make a point with the “built for Rabiot’s runs” however I have to disagree with your first phrase. Nkunku has been dog sh!t ever since he came to Chelsea, his last good season was in 2022/23. Prior to playing with us, Füllkrug hasn’t had a goal since April 2025 and was also dog sh!t. Giménez also didn’t look particularly good with us last season and the coach wasn’t Allegri.
Pulišić DID look good this season until late december while Leão has been injured, although you can certainly blame Allegri for playing him out of position.
352 would work better with wingers that can, provide width, actually attack especially at the far post and provide decent service to the two frontmen. We have neither the wingers nor the attackers to do that.
There is no offensive structure. As I watch the games I see very few passes available to players in attack. We do not have outside backs that really add to the attack outside of Saelmaeker who tends not to play well with others. Also, can a team play any slower?
343?
Mike
Tomo – Gabbia – Pav
Sael – Rabiot – Modric – Bart
Puli – Gim – Leao
Play the golden 4-1-2-1-2 formation, like they played 20 years ago. With pulisic/rabiot behind 2 strikers (gimenez and nkunku) then Leao left and Salad Right (they need to come back in defense too, so if leao doesn’t come back, put Barthesaghi there). Modric or fofana als DMF. And 4 defenders. I think that would be perfect for this Milan team.