Milan left yearning for Leao and Pulisic in unconventional front two again

Milan are once again yearning for the Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic duo to start up front, having tried several different combinations during the season with little success. 

At the start of the season, there were some concerns about Milan’s striker power, given Santiago Gimenez’s acclimatisation struggles and the Christopher Nkunku question mark. Six months later, it’s clear that those concerns have turned into a full-blown emergency.

Looking at the stats in Serie A, Gimenez and Nkunku have found the back of the net zero times (!), only contributing with goals in the Coppa Italia (one each). For a team in the Scudetto race, this is obviously nowhere near enough and it has hurt the Rossoneri a lot.

Fortunately, the blow has definitely been softened by the brilliance of Leao and Pulisic, who both have stepped up in new roles under Massimiliano Allegri. The No.11 has nine goals and two assists, while the No.10 has six goals and one assist. That said, they haven’t played much together…

Third game on the cards?

Due to injuries, Milan have very rarely been able to field their best strikers together. Leao was injured at the start of the season, and shortly after he returned, Pulisic was forced to step aside. As such, they have only started twice together.

Photos: Paul Kane + Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

Those games were against Bari, when Leao got subbed off due to injury, and the derby win against Inter. The feeling is thus that Milan haven’t experienced the full force of their attack many times, now yearning to have the duo back together amid the struggles of the others.

While the quality of the duo is undisputed, it says a lot about Milan’s situation up front that they are dependent on two wingers/attacking midfielders in those positions. As long as it works, Allegri will surely be happy, but the addition of Niclas Fullkrug could potentially be very impactful.

However, since the next game is against Hellas Verona on December 28, Milan won’t have their new signing. The goal is thus to recover Leao from his current injury and start him alongside Pulisic, hopefully experiencing the prolific attack that has been hinted at by the duo in different periods.