Christian Pulisic was a key player for AC Milan in their 3-1 win against Frosinone last night, scoring the second goal at the start of the second half. Deservedly so, he was praised by the fans and media outlets afterwards.
Pulisic played from star on the left once again, due to Rafael Leao’s injury, and he did very well from the beginning. He was comfortable in possession and never tried to overdo things, allowing Milan to keep the ball and put pressure on Frosinone.
In the second half, he really showed his quality with a perfectly timed run, just about avoiding an offside position before receiving Mike Maignan’s pass. After a great first touch, he lost some of the angle but calmly dinked it over the goalkeeper instead.
Courtesy of CompsACM, you can take a look at the highlights of Pulisic’s performance against the newly-promoted side below. In our player ratings, he was given a high score not just because of the goal, but also his ability to offer solutions for the Rossoneri.
Christian @Pulisic vs Frosinone (H)
TOP performance | SUPER goal 🇺🇸🫡pic.twitter.com/BTDgdvyTTi
— Milan Comps (@CompsACM) December 3, 2023
It’s intersting how he is willing to take on his man out wide last night but during the week v Dortmund he rarely did.
He has often been questioned in EPL for doing well v the weaker teams and not the stronger.
It seems to me he likes to move inside to link up play etc. He has the speed for the wing v’s Frosinone level teams but not CL level teams.
I think for those big games he should be played as an AM
Pulisic created a lot of chances that his teammates didn’t take against Dortmund, for instance his signature cut-inside cross which I believe Calabria missed at the far post. While he had more successful dribbles in the latter game, his xg+xa was .41 against Dortmund and .41 against Frosinone (fotmob).
Anecdotally, having watched Pulisic for years for the US national team, his top performances for country tend to come in the biggest games against bigger opponents (Mexico; recent golaso against Germany; all 3 group stage world cup games) than against the tiny Caribbean nations and Central American minnows that we so often have to face.
Finally, Pulisic scored a brace against Liverpool, the winning goal in a CL semifinal tie, and against Man City just off the top of my head from his time at Chelsea, which I didn’t watch too often. So I think we can lay the “minnow-killer” narrative to rest for now 🙂
Don’t forget that he also scored in an FA Cup final, and in fact, did his hamstring (complete tear) while on a breakaway which was about to be his second goal of the match.
You can go all the way back to when Dortmund beat Bayern in the DFB Pokal, and it was a 16 or 17 year old Pulisic that drew the match winning penalty in the final.
I’m not knocking the guy, just trying to understand him.
He clearly has plenty of ability!
From what I am seeing he just looks better more centrally than on the wing.
There were sooo many times against Dortmund he didn’t take on his man when he could have.
There is such a difference in levels between Frosinone and Dortmund.
I know you aren’t knocking him, but I’m noting that he produced identical xg+xa in the two games. While these stats aren’t perfect, Pulisic doesn’t need to take men on to be effective since he isn’t a one-trick pony like Chukweze….
Pulisic doesn’t take on his man like Chukwueze for a very good reason, the odds are not in your favor when you play against a strong defense, which is the case in Serie A and in the Premier League.
In the Premier League, the book on containing Pulisic after his breakout first and second seasons was to just kick and foul him, because most of the time the English refs would NOT give him the foul call.
And so Chelsea fans grew very frustrated by how often in the last two years that Pulisic was there that would lose the ball. That was their constant complaint, that Pulisic would lose the ball as soon as it was passed to him.
Sound familiar?
Just like Chukwueze is now!
Only in La Liga and the Brazilian Serie A do players routinely try to beat their man one on one and succeed.
If you try to do that in the stronger defensive leagues, you will get stuffed, fouled, and dispossessed.
Having followed Pulisic through his entire Chelsea career, this is clearly a change that he needed to make in his game, and to me, it is a welcome sight that he DOESN’T try to take on defenders anymore.
This is fundamentally Chukwueze’s #1 through #10 problems. He DOESN’T REALIZE HE’S NOT IN LA LIGA ANYMORE. If he tries to take on defenders, like he does all the time, the defenders are much tougher to beat, and even if he does beat them, all they have to do is to kick him, and he’ll lose the ball and most of the time the refs won’t call that as a foul for him.
So yeah, somebody needs to sit Chuk down and have a major heart to heart talk – STOP trying to take on all these defenders! Just look at how bad your success rate is! You’re not in La Liga anymore! Watch Pulicisic! See how he passes the ball before a defender can stuff him and take the ball away!
Yeah, Pulisic learned the hard way, by playing in a much tougher defensive league than even Serie A.
Actually, his goal yesterday was similar to his goal against Real Madrid in the champions league. Doesn’t get much bigger than that!