Stefano Pioli took a bit of a gamble with his team selection against Lecce yesterday by fielding perhaps his most attacking line-up of the season, and it worked.
As Tuttosport (via MilanNews) recall, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek suspended Pioli decided not to replace him with another midfielder, but instead against Lecce he deployed Christian Pulisic as an attacking midfielder, with Samuel Chukwueze inserted on the right for a ‘super attacking’ Milan.
The response was ideal too. Pulisic, Giroud and Leao scored, while Chukwueze provided another good performance after those against Verona and Fiorentina. For the first time the American, the Frenchman and the Portuguese scored in the same match.
Pulisic reached 10 goals in Serie A (for the first time in his career he reached double figures in a ‘top five’ European league), Giroud went up with 13 goals in the league, while Leao continued his great start to 2024.
Only the Nigerian’s goal was missing to have the perfect match, but Pioli can still be very satisfied with what the former Villarreal player showed, including the assist for Pulisic’s goal after a good bit of individual play.
Roma arrive at San Siro on Thursday for the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals and we are unlikely to see such an attacking Milan, also because Loftus-Cheek is back and will start. Chukwueze should make way, with Pulisic moving over to the right.
Which makes sense.
Was good to see ‘the trio’ together, but for me that was practice for if it’s needed in late game scenarios when chasing, not for starting in big ties.