AC Milan made it back-to-back Serie A victories to begin its new campaign and Christian Pulisic added his name to the scoresheet once again.
Pulisic scored the opening goal for the Rossoneri, who defeated Torino 4-1 at the San Siro. It marked the second goalscoring performance for the U.S. men’s national team star since joining AC Milan from Chelsea in a permanent deal.
Pulisic arrived in the Torino box in the 33rd minute, slotting into an empty net for a 1-0 AC Milan lead.
Despite Torino tying the match at 1-1 just three minutes later, AC Milan would earn a 3-1 lead before halftime thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Theo Hernandez.
Giroud would add his second tally of the match in the second half to pad the final score at 4-1.
Pulisic logged 90 minutes in the home triumph, winning four of his seven duels, drawing three drawn, and making one interception. His fellow USMNT teammate Yunus Musah made his club debut after playing the final 24 minutes of the match.
AC Milan next visits AS Roma on September 1.
just gonna note that both goals so far are transition efforts running right up the middle, regardless what his position on paper is.
Like his assist to Weah in WC, like his goal vs Iran, like his two goals vs Mexico in NL, same is his 3rd goal vs Panama in qualifying, he plays in the exact same spaces for AC Milan as he does under Berhalter/Callahan. You’re not a tactical genius. This is modern football, players move around the field based on the position of the ball and the opposition. Milan plays a 4-3-3 which you disparage at every turn, Pulisic and Leal play as narrow wingers just as Pulisic and Weah/Reyna do for the NT.
of course, because what a RW in a 433 is usually doing is trailing the play centrally and that far behind as opposed to being the one out wide delivering the cross. sure.
i think where you’re confused is do we actually play pinched wingers with the US. what i have seen they are usually out by the flag playing keepaway with the wingbacks. which while not on the chalk is close enough for me. one of the few i have seen playing pinched is reyna and they couldn’t seem to find him when he did. perhaps because a poorly aligned 433 can set up a bunch of square passing lanes easy to cover.
you’re also confusing where you think he “moves” with where he “produces” which i believe we addressed on reyna. i feel like pulisic out wide often kills the attack with james harden iso dribbling after stopping the ball dead and losing the transition. repeating myself, his two actual goals this year are relatively central going straight to goal and either shooting or sweeping garbage. his goal at qatar was up the 9 channel.
Torino throw in midfield left side. Pulisic as the LW is in the center because no one is going throw it clear across the field. Tomori wins it and plays a pass in the direction of Loftus Cheek but misses. CP seeing he can get to the ball for the defense gets it directly in the center and takes it up the middle. LC who was going left after the missed pass takes CPs space, Giroud occupies his defender. Its just playing football there’s nothing tactically different from what Berhalter tasks him to do. It’s a similar play to his attack in the second minute against Iran, Robinson just couldn’t catch up to present an outside option to pass to. The balls opposite him it gets turned over and he can run at them.
———————
Against Wales, Pulisic is in the channel at midfield heads it to Musah. Musah’s momentum is carrying to the outside as he heads it to Sargent so Pulisic cuts in knowing that Sargent will need an inside option and that’s where the space is. He takes the ball from the layoff and dribbles up the middle and finds Weah. The only difference is how the defender plays Weah/Loftus Cheek. It’s CP being a footballer and recognizing space and anticipating where the ball will be.
————-
Look at his heat map, the Pulisic goal, and his cross that leads to Giroud’s against Bologna that is as wide as you will see him. Wider than he is for the national team. You clearly have forgotten his Bologna goal, he’s on the touch line dribbles through defenders like James Harden plays a one-two with Giroud and takes his shot from just outside the corner of the 18yd box, kind of like a Harden pull up. Not even remotely right up the middle and it’s in transition but the back four is set and there’s 7 defenders behind the ball when Christian begins his moves. Hmm, tape don’t lie as they say.
https://youtu.be/g_U0bF41ZNo?si=sP4C7iL3k7Iz9p72
Sorry Pulisic is the RW not the LW so he’s cheating to the ball side of the field.
It’s early days yet, 2ouldn’t it be justice to see Giroud, Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek win Serie A and advance far in the Champions League? Also why did Chelsea ever let Rudiger go?
Apparently Chelsea saw them as not worthy. Chelsea just tied Fulham with whom they are tied on points in mid-table after 3 games. OK Pulisic had a history of injury, but all Giroud does is score goals wherever he is and Rudiger was a rock in their defense.
What is Chelsea thinking? Are they still chasing the bright new shiny things rather than trying to build a team.
After the profligate spending spree they went on, you can’t defend Chelsea by saying it was economics that forced the sale of any of those players
Dennis
“you can’t defend Chelsea by saying it was economics…..”
Rudiger made it clear that playing for Real Madrid was his desire.
Once players get to a certain level and the dream becomes possible, a lot of players “dream” of playing for either Barca or Real Madrid.
We don’t know what the negotiations between Rudiger, Chelsea and Real Madrid were like but if Madrid really wanted him and Rudiger really wanted to be in Madrid, the way the rules are over there, hanging onto Rudiger becomes counterproductive and near impossible.
Some teams make the best of it and decide to take the money and use it for a cheaper, younger replacement who actually wants to be at Chelsea. You see that a fair amount.
Rudiger wanted out. Did you expect them to force him to stay? Why? I don’t believe in building my team around players who really want to be playing elsewhere. Especially if I believe I have the wherewithal to find younger cheaper replacments who might be just as good if not better.
“you can’t defend Chelsea…….by saying it was economics that forced the sale of any of those players….. ”
Only a fucking idiot does not take into account economics when selling that many players for that much money.
Real Madrid is the one team in the world that can legitimately say that they are not a selling club ( for the most part) and are THE destination club for the best. Rudiger sees himself as being at that level and Madrid were happy to accommodate him.
The recent turmoil and chaos is primarily the result of Abramovich unexpectedly and suddenly, being forced to offload Chelsea.
After about twenty years of great success, suddenly most everyone who had anything to do with that success disappears pretty much overnight.
Then the football operation gets taken over by people without a plan and an owner with too much money and without a learners permit, deciding to drive his own Formula One car in a Grand Prix.
It’s too early to tell just how this latest makeover will work out But if tons of money, the willingness to spend it and a very good manager in Pochettino are helpful, then I would say, Chelsea has a shot at avoiding relegation. If they are lucky maybe they can qualify for some version of Europe.
Beyond that who knows?
well people on here applauded when CFC signed gaga and the next season they loaned him and signed petrovic from MLS too.
the impression i get is the GM and HC are divorced from common reality. despite the team being sold the asset mentality in the transfer windows remains entrenched. and then it doesn’t feel like there is any disciplined HC scheme this is all being bought for.
Gaga is a project he’s 19. How many 19 year old GKs in EPL? Petrovic is better than Gaga today, his numbers at NE were better than Turner’s. He’ll likely follow Matt’s path, backup and cups for a year or two then get sold for a profit somewhere. Then they’ll bring Slonina back and test him as a backup and cups and then either use him to replace Sanchez or sell Gaga while buying a big name. That’s more likely that he never plays more than 10 real matches for Chelsea but most people knew that when he signed, Chelsea doesn’t develop a lot of players it buys.
Giroud was fairly old when he got to Chelsea and never had double digit goals in EPL (but was never really the first choice either). It was still in the Abrahmovic era that they brought in Havertz, Ziyech and Werner. With both Kai and Timo being able to play CF there was no room for Giroud. With the style of play older CF seem to do better in Serie A than EPL but that’s just gut feeling I didn’t look for data to back that up.
Go on Captain America! Hope he continues to stay healthy and gets double digits in goals and assists this year. He provided another hockey assist aka pre assist for his goal.
Milan are playing really well as a team and Pulisic is a big part of the attack. Next two games away against Roma and Inter are going to be interesting. I am hopeful Pulisic can win a title this year.
I just want him to do well enough to play regularly and stay healthy the whole season.
After that everything is gravy. I do not want him coming back for BS friendly or some CONCACAF hackfest and get injured.