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When the US international arrived at Milan from Chelsea, there was a sigh of relief among many Blues fans, who were left rather annoyed with the player’s inconsistency and constant fitness issues that hindered his development.
In his time at Stamford Bridge, Pulisic had never scored or assisted more than ten times in the Premier League and only once did his goalscoring tally in all competitions go beyond ten. That was in his first season after his arrival from Borussia Dortmund and after that, muscle injuries constantly held the American back.
He did provide glimpses of his ability during lockdown but all of it faded towards the end of his stint, even if the Blues pocketed a fee of £20 million from his sale.
His time at Milan starting brilliantly, as he scored in both of his first two league games, playing on the right and combining excellently with the likes of Olivier Giroud, Rafael Leão, Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. At that point, it did seem as if he had found a spot on the right-wing, a position that had been a problem for Milan under Stefano Pioli in the two seasons prior.
He did nail down that position for himself, contributing to 21 goals in the 2023/24 season under a manager who has always been more about managing personalities than a fixed tactical approach.
Interestingly enough, Paulo Fonseca‘s arrival as Milan coach has perhaps taken Pulisic to another level. He has contributed to eight goals in nine games in all competitions, scoring five times in Serie A alone.
Under the Portuguese, Pulisic started the season in the number ten spot and after that, he was moved back to the wide areas again.
The side sustained a pretty difficult start to the season and if not for their dramatic win over rivals Inter, Fonseca might not have kept his job.
He changed to a 4-4-2 shape for the derby, transitioning from a midfield three. That setup hadn’t worked against Liverpool in the Champions League but he made the change against the Nerazzurri too, as Milan were insistent on always breaking with pace on the counter.
Pulisic, from the right, scored a vital goal against Milan’s arch rivals and has scored three times in a row since then.
He has this licence to constantly bomb forward, carry the ball and beat defenders at will. There is also this freedom to burst into a variety of spaces and arrive centrally to do that.
So much of it is similar to how things were last season. Interesting enough, he has taken less shots per 90 minutes this season than he did last season. That tally is at 1.80 per 90 this season, lower than the tally of over 2.20 per 90 last season.
Despite that, his goals per 90 minutes metric is at a brilliant 0.82, which is far better compared to what he had last season. It is, in fact, the exact double of how things were last season.
The difference lies in how much he is overperforming on his Expected Goals, while making very limited improvement on his shots on target per 90 minutes.
He has overperformed on xG by a solid + 0.30 per 90 this season, when that number stood at only a +0.13 overperformance under Pioli.
A reason for that is also that Fonseca’s setup allows some freedom to attack spaces in the final third and often, Pulisic finds himself in central areas to take shots away.
Plus, the club have moved away from having a target-man striker in Olivier Giroud to link-up forwards in Álvaro Morata and Tammy Abraham. Fonseca has often been used together in the 4-4-2 shape this season and while their off-the-ball work has given them a boost in pressing, their ability to drop deep makes more of Pulisic’s running ability.
Against Liverpool, for example, Pulisic attacked an exposed half-space after receiving the ball from Morata, who dropped deep and laid off the pass. The American attacked the space with his running ability and quite the same happened against Inter, where it was Abraham who dropped off and Pulisic attacked the defenders directly from a more central area.
This may not have been possible with Giroud, who was less flexible and versatile in positioning. Morata and Abraham move around a lot and Leão occupies a fixed position to beat the full-back, leaving Pulisic to attack the central right spaces.
In general too, there have been some great goals in Pulisic’s arsenal this season. That has played a role in him exceeding his xG by a pretty solid margin.
Having said that, this is a player whose issues lay beyond on-pitch abilities. Injuries held him back constantly in England but they seem to have reduced in Italy.
A slightly warmer climate does help. But there is also the factor that the Premier League involves more sprinting at top speed and players that are natural dribblers and runners can suffer from the incredible amount of demand placed on them. The demand in Serie A to make those sprints is less and there is a higher emphasis on structure and shape.
It has toned down the burden on Pulisic’s muscles, helping him be fit for a longer period of time. It isn’t a surprise that since joining Milan, Pulisic has had only two minor injuries.
In a way, this rise to prominence has come at the perfect time. With the FIFA World Cup to take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Pulisic hitting form at this point could make him a poster boy at a home tournament.
It doesn’t just cement himself as a star in a commercial sense, Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival as the USMNT boss coincides with this period of form. Things are most certainly looking up and they could yet get better.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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