Christian Pulisic, since joining, has proved to be one of the best forward players in Italy, if not beyond. Closer to home though, he is undoubtedly AC Milan’s most consistent forward, and this is being proved again.
In the past 18 months, there has been consistent praise about Pulisic’s resurgence in football. At Chelsea, it seemed his career was fizzling out, and barring the odd moment, he was falling further away from the exciting young talent that dominated with his last club.
However, his move to Milan offered a chance at salvation, and even though he was expected to be an option for Stefano Pioli, salvation arrived. Pulisic, in many ways, recreated himself, becoming a consistent goalscoring threat, and this continued into the early parts of this season, as he became the most in-form player in Europe.
Now, as Tuttosport (via Milan Press) reports, the American is ‘in danger’ of matching, if not bettering his first season record in Italy. Last season, he scored 14 times in 50 games, which are sensational numbers for a wide player.
This season, he has already hit 13 and he only has hopes of furthering himself, and the team which he ‘loves’, given he has already committed his future to the club moving forward.
Last season Pulisic scored 15 goals and assisted 11 in 50 games, including 12 goals and 9 assists in serie A.
This season he scored 14 goals and assisted 9 in 37 games including 8 goals and 8 assists in serie A. It should be noted however that he scored 4 penalties this season and 0 last season, making the task of scoring more goals a bit easier.
In my opinion, his peak this season was around the first 7 games or so.
His good form was cut short by the injury that kept him sidelined for a few weeks. And even ~2 weeks ago he was forced to start from the bench due to smaller injury. Without them he’d already have 10+10 in Serie A alone.
I only recall 2 penalties.
Can you list the matches in which he scored the PKs?
3 in Serie A, one in Super Coppa.
We’ve had so much turnover in terms of coaching and tactics, from Pioli to Fonseca to Conceicão.
Puli is most effective when he’s deployed wide but allowed to drift inside and also has the space to do so. He also thrives in those semi-transition scenarios, where there’s some attacking impulse and more space (Theo, Rafa and Tijji also thrive there). We created a lot of those attacking transitions under Pioli but far fewer this season. Part of that is we’ve played from behind a lot this season and opponents are sitting back.
And he needs the ball more (versus us trying to force it down the left). For him, he needs to be more aggressive though. He’s too timid at times, almost afraid to take on his man or to lose the ball. I think he has the ceiling to be even more productive.
The other issue is we know have Felix moving in the same space as Puli leaving congestion in the center of the pitch or forcing Puli out of the space he thrives in. We look a lot better when they’re not playing together.
100 percent agree with everything you said. 🙌🏻
Agreed. I believe Pulisic could benefit from more strength too. I think of a player like Salah. His physicality (I’m only focusing on this aspect) is far greater than Pulisic’s… yet he and Pulisic have the same height and bodyweight. Salah can hold up play against far bigger fullbacks and free himself from multiple defenders; Pulisic tends to get pushed off the ball. This might even help with avoiding injury issues.
I get a sense something was lost in the translation with this story. I don’t think Pulisic is in danger of anything at the moment.
Hahaha. So true. The only danger from doing so well would be the risk of losing him to another team. He is happy at Milan and Milan love him so I don’t see that happening.
Key realization hasn’t dawned on everyone yet: He’s our best finisher in the box. His shots are virtually always on target and he doesn’t overpower them, just places them well.
He’s actually a better pure finisher than any of our forwards.
We need to set up our system to get him the ball in the box as often as possible.
With either foot.