Milan, Pioli flies with Pulisic and Leao

With wings spread, Milan took off towards the Scudetto. Everything as per the flight plan, studied in detail this summer by Commander Pioli and the Furlani-Moncada couple in the control tower in Via Aldo Rossi: to Rafa Leao’s bursts of speed were added the magic of Christian Pulisic, and the Devil found the pace to climb the rankings. Immediately.

NO ONE LIKE THEM

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Because the American’s impact on the Rossoneri’s start to the championship was simply perfect — two goals in the first two games with Bologna and Turin — and Rafa’s was in line with his standards, which means enlightening flashes for the nights of Calabria and his teammates: an assist on the second day against Torino, a beautiful goal, an overhead kick and “sought for three years” at Roma opened the 2023-24 season of the AC Milan player. Pulisic and Leao went full force and continued to mark Milan’s matches with their class: after eight rounds, the sum of the pair’s goals and assists is 11. No other pair of attacking wingers has done better in this Serie A: Politano and Kvaratskhelia, a pair of ultra-proven wingers after a season spent together in Italian champions Napoli, stop at 8, the same tally as Berardi and Laurienté of Sassuolo; Nico Gonzalez and Brekalo of Fiorentina reach 7; Felipe Anderson and Zaccagni, Lazio wingers, have 5 points.

HEIGHT OF EUROPE

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From this “ranking” the teams that do not use game systems with two wingers are excluded, such as Inter, Juve or Roma, but if the comparison is extended to the big names in Europe, Rafa and Christian hold their own, at great: only Liverpool’s Momo Salah and Luis Diaz can boast the same total of goals and assists, 11 in the Premier League, while all the great pairs of attacking wingers score and invent less than the Rossoneri. From Bernardo Silva-Foden, 6 between goals and assists at City, to Sané-Coman of Bayern, 9. The PSG of Dembélé and Mbappé, Milan’s next opponents in the Champions League, are at 9: Kylian alone has scored 7 goals in as many Ligue 1 appearances, the same ones that Pulisic and Leao paired together in 8 Serie A appearances, but in short, in terms of creativity and danger in front of goal the Rossoneri duo will present themselves at the Parc des Princes with a pretty good record. Provided obviously that they adjust their aim in the cup: between Newcastle and Borussia Dortmund Rafa and Christian repeatedly looked for the goal without however managing to hit the target.

EQUILIBRIUM

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Not in Italy, around here it’s a completely different story. Rafa started surfing in 2019, and from then to now it was a crescendo: the higher the waves were, the more he rode them, scattering goals and amazing plays on the Serie A pitches. The highest peak, needless to say, was Scudetto year: Leao was Milan’s scorer – 11 goals, like Giroud – and provided 9 assists, and the League elected him MVP of the championship. Last season Rafa improved – 15 goals and 8 assists – but Milan was always missing something: the attack leaned towards him, while on the right they struggled. This is why the club worked looking to the right in the summer: signing Pulisic for 20 million from Chelsea, he completed the job with Chukwueze (28 million at Villarreal, bonuses included). The highest investment in the Rossoneri market, which the Nigerian has yet to repay: Pioli has placed his trust in him, even as a starter, but Samu has not yet made an impact. It is probable that the competition from a Pulisic who is already so focused in the AC Milan 4-3-3 has increased the difficulty coefficient. Pioli’s rotations, in any case, play in favor of those further back. Take Okafor: on the left the Swiss is closed by Leao, yet he managed to shine deployed as a center forward (2 goals between Cagliari and Lazio). Imagining Chukwueze at the center of the attack is too difficult an exercise in the imagination, but thinking that he too could soon break free is plausible: if Leao and Pulisic go on autopilot, maintaining the title share could become easier even with the spare wingers.