Christian Pulisic scored a fantastic goal on Saturday night against Frosinone, his fifth in Serie A, and it has become clear that he is one of AC Milan’s most important performers.
Having arrived as one of the first of the 10 summer signings that Milan made, it didn’t take long for him to nail down a starting spot despite the fact Samuel Chukwueze joined after as the most expensive purchase of the campaign at €28m including bonuses.
Now, head coach Stefano Pioli can’t do without the American and he is repaying his trust. The Rossoneri’s possible recovery will depend on the performances of the former Chelsea man, as well as other key protagonists in the squad of course.
A masterclass in technique
Let’s start with the goal, a pearl by Pulisic from an aesthetic point of view but also fundamental for the inertia of the match. The 25-year-old showed all of his attacking intelligence by starting with a job across the defensive line that turned into a perfectly-timed sprint.
Mike Maignan’s 60.7m pass might well steal the show because of its accuracy, but Pulisic’s incredible first touch to take the ball in stride and then his excellent dribble to resist the charge of three opposing defenders, with a composed finish over the goalkeeper.
It was definitely one of Milan’s best goals this season and some have likened it to a goal from the ‘old’ Pulisic, when at Borussia Dortmund he was linked with elite European clubs and was talked about as being one of the top wingers in the world.
Confidence is key
In the summer, Pulisic made the decision to leave London for Italy and to try a third European league in his relatively young career after the Bundesliga and the Premier League.
He believed that Milan could be the right club and the right launching pad to allow him to find himself agains and return to the levels everyone knows he is capable of. He was also conscious of the need for consistent playing time, after struggling for game time with Chelsea.
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Moreover, Chelsea’s huge spending spree over previous windows made it clear that he was not considered a key part of the plans for their attacking department moving forward, so the right time had come to move on.
At Milan, the American found an atmosphere without too much pressure and an ownership that focus on the American factor to enhance the relationship also from a commercial point of view.
A key pawn
From a technical point of view he is now fundamental for Milan. When he is absent there is a hole on the right wing, not always filled by Samuel Chukwueze who among other things has been inconsistent also due to injuries.
When Pulisic and Davide Calabria are on one wing and then Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao are on the other, the Rossoneri have two dangerous and complimentary flanks, that are building chemistry and cohesion with the midfield as well.
In recent games, with Leao out injured, Pulisic has been diverted over to the left side. It is a position that he knows well and has played previously for club and country, and the goal he scored against Frosinone shows he can be dangerous from either side.
Pulisic – a big chess player – has become a fundamental pawn in Milan’s tactical chessboard and providing that he can remain fit it will continue that way.
A step above the competition
At the beginning of the season, on paper, Pulisic and Chukwueze started almost equally. Indeed, the former Villarreal player was coming off a very impressive season in LaLiga, with excellent performances against Real Madrid among others.
The numbers were on the Nigerian’s side, while the American had a tough season on his CV both personally and as a team with Chelsea, which led to there being more excitement regarding the arrival of the former.
Pioli, on the other hand, values those players who arrive earlier in the summer and have more time to get accustomed to his mechanisms. Chukwueze came later so started as the back-up, a choice that paid off for large stretches of this start of the season.
Pulisic’s numbers
In Serie A he played 12 games, amassing two assists and five goals, his most against Frosinone last night. In the Champions League, however, he stands on the threshold of being a disappointment with zero goals and assists to his name and performances that were not always as impressive as domestically.
The American is complicit in Milan’s attacking sterility in the top continental competition, especially in the first few group games. However, the fact there is even further room for improvement with time and more confidence can only be exciting.
He really has been crucial. Definitely signing of the season so far. I don’t know where this team would be in the league without the points he’s gotten us, from goals, assists and even winning back the ball to lead to a few goals. Good player, let’s hope he stays healthy.
“Outcast at Chelsea” is not correct. Every single one of the forwards at Chelsea who was with Pulisic in his first three years is gone from Chelsea. Some, like Timo Werner, Ziyech, Lukaku, Tammy Abraham, and Callum Hudson Odoi, found even less success at Chelsea and stayed for an even shorter period.
The problem clearly was not Pulisic, it was the sheer craziness of the club that drove these otherwise talented and previously accomplished players out of Chelsea. Chelsea has always had this policy of buying way too many talented players for every position – the pressure to succeed is immense, and if you get injured, you have two or three replacements waiting to take your place.
His injury problems had more to do with his sheer competitiveness and desire to win more than anything else. His biggest hamstring injury occurred during the 2020 FA cup Final against Arsenal – he had scored one goal and was sprinting past two Arsenal defenders towards another goal when his hamstring broke, and he could only let off a weak shot before falling to the ground.
After that, Pulisic became increasingly more careful about not overtaxing his hamstring muscles. He only rarely uses his speed to try to beat players nowadays, since that is how you break your hamstring muscles, and this goal he scored against Frosinone is one of the few times in recent memory that I’ve seen him turn on his jets to outpace the defenders.
His other big injuries have since been mainly contact injuries, caused again by his fierce competitive desire to win.
A big injury happened in the USMNT 2017 World Cup qualifiers against Honduras. The numbskull USMNT coach, Gregg Berhalter, had started a bunch of MLS players in midfield behind Pulisic, and not surprisingly, the USMNT fell behind 0-1. That’s when Pulisic went into Hero Mode, and although he was putatively the left wing forward, he started chasing the ball all over the field, including dropping deep back into the defensive line, to win the ball back himself and bring it up himself, bypassing the useless MLS Traffic Cones in midfield (I still remember one time, he almost ran into one of those guys, Kellyn Acosta, who quickly backed off, with his hands up, like, oops, sorry to get in your way).
Honduras, of course, targetted him by hacking him at every opportunity, and this was one match where Pulisic did not back off from one on one challenges in midfield, because there weren’t too many players he trusted to pass the ball to. Eventually Pulisic got hacked so much he had to hobble off the field with a high ankle sprain that took him out of action for weeks. But the USMNT won 4-1.
At the end of his time at Chelsea, he had started to win his spot back with the team again (so clearly he was NOT an “outcast”), but then got injured going for a pass in the box, trying to score, in a match against Manchester City. John Stones slammed into his knee, causing a direct contact knee injury, and this should have been a PK, but of course, the English refs had long ago decided not to call any fouls against Pulisic. That was the only way they could even things up a bit for their English boys.
If you follow Chelsea, as I did, you will know that Chelsea made several approaches to re-signing him to another contract. In fact, during the forced sale by Abramovich of the club, the club sales brochure had featured Pulisic as a prominent plus marketing feature of the club in terms of his ability to attract American fans. I’m pretty sure that American Todd Boehly, who led the consortium that finally bought Chelsea, would have preferred that Pulisic stayed at Chelsea for that reason also, but Pulisic made clear to them that he wanted to leave. So, no, leaving Chelsea was HIS decision.
Pulisic took a HUGE paycut to come to Milan, btw, something that so far NOBODY on Sempremilan has mentioned or covered. His salary at Chelsea was around £145,000 – £150,000 a week (depending on the source), or about £7.15 – £7.8 million a year (depending on the source) whereas his salary at Milan is only around €4 million a year, or about €77,000 a week. You can work out the exchange rates, but this is easily a cut in pay of more than HALF, for him to come to Milan.
(I should mention that almost all of the other players who were with Pulisic and also left Chelsea have had to take similar if not worse paycuts in order to leave and find a more sane place to play. Chelsea just has way too much money to throw around)
So, I have posted several times before that with Milan, Pulisic has evolved his game from his Chelsea days. He doesn’t usually take on defenders one on one, unless he’s close to or inside the box and the rewards for doing so are much greater; farther away from the box, he is much more likely to get off a quick pass instead. He doesn’t do those high speed sprints except occasionally. He has always been an excellent passer and able to produce assists by the boatload (unlike Leao, who is a terribly inaccurate passer, by the high standards required of the top players of today).
Pulisic has become a much more mature player, in other words, able to dominate and control the offense. At some point, if Milan ever finds another productive right wing forward, he would be more beneficial to Milan in the CAM position instead of playing as a wing forward.
Correction: that was the 2021 USMNT WC qualifier match against Honduras that he got an hacking injury
Also, I would note that Pulisic is not exactly hurting for money. Due to the rich American market, he has numberous endorsement deals estimated to earn him at least another $5 million a year, probably much more.
“Pulisic took a HUGE paycut to come to Milan, btw, something that so far NOBODY on Sempremilan has mentioned or covered. His salary at Chelsea was around £145,000 – £150,000 a week (depending on the source), or about £7.15 – £7.8 million a year (depending on the source) whereas his salary at Milan is only around €4 million a year, or about €77,000 a week. You can work out the exchange rates, but this is easily a cut in pay of more than HALF, for him to come to Milan.”
The salaries in EPL are always gross amounts while in Italy they’re always net amounts. If you take that into consideration he didn’t halve his salary.
capology.com/player/christian-pulisic-36056/
See the Net-tab. Only 1M€ difference.
That graph on the page you referenced sure looks like his salary got cut in half, whether gross or net.
I see an almost €4million drop in that graph on that page you referenced.
Not sure what your eyes are seeing.
Also not sure where you got this idea that published salaries for players in Italy are net amounts – as in, after taxes?
Nobody puts out those sorts of numbers.
The € 5,130,000 annual salary on that page is higher than the € 4 million salary that I found in another reference, but it’s still a steep drop from his £7.15 – £7.8 million a year salary at Chelsea
Hr earned 5M net in eng and now he’s on 4M net. That is not a huge pay cut and in no way is it half. Gross is the cost to the club as i understand it. That stupid growth decree comes into action here, otherwise it would’ve been higher at Milan as well. The gross part..
“Hr earned 5M net in eng and now he’s on 4M net. ”
Finally someone who actually understands even the most basic thing about salaries. It’s like 1st grade math.
That capology website that YOU listed doesn’t show that.
The graph shows him earning €9million at Chelsea (around the £7.15 – £7.8 million I said before) and now making €5,130,000.
That website that YOU listed DOES NOT show two different sets of income, gross for Chelsea, and net for Milan. Nobody would put different standards of income on a single graph.
You are making something up that simply isn’t there on the website that YOU LISTED AS EVIDENCE.
“That capology website that YOU listed doesn’t show that.
The graph shows him earning €9million at Chelsea (around the £7.15 – £7.8 million I said before) and now making €5,130,000.
That website that YOU listed DOES NOT show two different sets of income, gross for Chelsea, and net for Milan. Nobody would put different standards of income on a single graph.
You are making something up that simply isn’t there on the website that YOU LISTED AS EVIDENCE.”
FFS, how stupid can you be? I already said “See the Net-tab”. Click on the f*ng Net-button and you’ll see a graph showing his net salaries throughout his career. If you cannot read a simple as f*** graph that says ~5M€ in Chelsea and 4M€ in Milan then I cannot help you because I can’t fix stupidity.
Here is another page from that capology website that you introduced:
capology.com/it/serie-a/salaries/
It states clearly that the salaries listed are GROSSS SALARIES.
I don’t know where you get the idea that these websites would list net salaries.
You don’t know how to use capology? Gandalf stick to fireworks…
https ://snipboard.io/oOQXLC.jpg
No, I agree with bb. In my experience, in Italy salary numbers tend to be published as net amounts, whereas in the PL they’re published as gross amounts.
Low key wanted him at Milan for a couple years now. Glad he’s doing well. We need more win win signings like him
Pioli should also try to unlock Romero by giving him game time. Dude has great potential and margin for improvement.
Having watched him play, I really do not think Chukueze is better than him.
I think at this time, Romero will be a better solution for our RW position. I think proper scouting was not done on Chukueze, I think this has been his game for years, he hasn’t really been a team player, and not very good at beating his man, and a poor passing and link up play. I can only wish him well to improve with us, but I was never truly convinced by the Chukueze acquisition.
Lol, this article is about how well Pulisic has done and you’re advocating for Romero as the solution for RW? Where do you think Pulisic has spent most of the season? Or are you saying we should bench Leao and play Pulisic and Romero?
In large measure, Pulisic’s play beat Madrid in the semifinal of Chelsea’s run to the Championship win a few years back. In that run, he was playing so well that Porto chose to foul him 11 times in their game (shares the record with Messi). Too, his winning goal against Iran in the WC shows the measure of his heart, as he knew to get the goal, he was likely to collide with the keeper. Shortly after, late in the first half, he went directly to the hospital.