Looking at the numbers, a rather surprising trend emerges: AC Milan’s attack is more effective when Christopher Nkunku starts.
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As Goal point out, in Nkunku’s 13 appearances as a starter in Serie A, he and his attacking partner have scored 10 goals. After 36 league games, Massimiliano Allegri still hasn’t found a definitive answer regarding his best front two, but there may be some food for thought.
Rafael Leao has been without a goal since March 1st, Niclas Fullkrug since January, Christian Pulisic is still without a goal in 2026, while Santiago Gimenez risks finishing the season with zero goals in the league.
Last Sunday, during Milan’s disastrous night against Atalanta, Nkunku’s light shone again, breaking free after a three-month drought. The Frenchman came on in the second half in place of Loftus-Cheek and was by far the best player, hitting the crossbar, winning a penalty and scoring it.
A chance in Genoa?
It’s because of his brilliance against Atalanta that Nkunku is now favoured to start against Genoa. The former Chelsea man would be back in the starting lineup after a subdued 45 minutes against Sassuolo and the half-time substitution for Zachary Athekame, after Fikayo Tomori’s red card.
The Frenchman and Fullkrug are an almost unprecedented pairing, having started together only once this season, in the defeat against Napoli. Yet, analysing all the attacking pairings Allegri has deployed from the start, an interesting statistic emerges.
In the 13 matches in which Nkunku started (focusing only on goals scored by the forwards) he and his strike partner scored 10 goals. Four goals were scored in tandem with Leao (in eight matches), three with Pulisic (in two matches), and the same with Loftus-Cheek (against Bologna and Pisa).
The effectiveness of Milan’s attacking duo when Nkunku is deployed is 0.77 goals per game: a significantly higher figure compared to the percentages of Pulisic (0.5), Leao (0.42), and Gimenez (0.55).
It seems surprising given his inconsistencies and long goal droughts, but could it be that the ex-Leipzig star best connects with his team-mates?