I think Wes, Musah or Weah would be pretty good. JOB used to do stand-up, iirc. Any comedians in this crew?
It’s only pre-season, but Chukweze looks considerably more threatening, two-footed, and confident on the ball in 2 friendlies, compared to last season. If he keeps it up, He may give CP some real competition on the wing this season, and if so, it may be better if CP can impress and lock into that rumored #10 central position. Either way, I still think Pulisic is the better player.
If Chukwueze plays well, that’s good news for Milan (obviously) but also for Pulisic, who can play multiple positions (and who will also need a break from time to time). First choice might be something like Leao Morata Pulisic ——- RLC ——- but CP can play in the middle Leao Morata Chukwueze ——- Pulisic——- or on the left, when Leao rests Pulisic Morata Chukwueze ——- Reijnders ——- I’m looking forward to this season, and how Fonseca, the new manager, mixes and matches.
I don’t know about Leao. There was a lot of noise earlier this summer - not sure where things stand. I don’t think Pulisic will lack minutes, I think managing his workload will be critical.
Chuck always seemed to me a good player who never found a way to mesh with the team last season. Maybe he will integrate better this year. He clearly has skills, just never seemed to improve the game that much when on the field - outside of an critical goal or two, tbf. If he picks it up this year, that would be great for Milan.
He signed a contract renewal last year that keeps him in Milan through 2028, so his price tag is €100m+. At the beginning of the window, a KSA club with lots of Portuguese connections said they could meet that price tag, they met with his dad-agent (dagent), and it sounded like Leao is only interested in Champions League contenders for the time being. Leao also sounds jazzed about the new coach.
Some of those young kids for Milan looked great last night; again, I won't get too carried away with pre-season friendlies, but I was thoroughly impressed with that Liberali kid. As some alluded to above, a strong Milan side with quality players will only help CP this season. Even though I am sure we all want him to be a lock starter and ball out all season, strength and competition in each position will help push CP, allow him some opportunities to rest during the campaign, and also get him closer to a trophy.
https://sempremilan.com/gds-positions-five-players-change-fonseca "Fonseca will use possession to control the pace, he will ask for more dribbling and he will try to keep the team compact. The most visible shifts, however, are in the positions of certain individuals. .... Pulisic was used as a No.10 and not as a right winger in the friendly against Real Madrid and this has already been talked about a lot. The idea is that from the middle he can go left and right, use both feet, give more assists. It’s difficult to do better than 2023-24 in which he racked up 15 goals and 11 assists across all competitions, but Fonseca believes in the idea and it means that Loftus-Cheek will move back from the attacking midfield role to the double pivot." ++++++++++++ "Rafael Leao recently said to ESPN (via Milan News) that, whilst he is not the coach, he prefers Pulisic when he is able to run through the middle of the pitch. “I am not a coach, but I prefer Christian when he plays as number 10. From the centre he has the possibility of occupying space both on the left and on the right. I think he can be very dangerous in that position, but in general he does very well both as an attacking midfielder and on the right. As a 10 he would give me some assists, we could play fast, with one-twos or with a touch in the middle of the pitch… he can do everything,” Leao said." https://sempremilan.com/mn-pulisic-future-milan-no-10-leao-fonseca
Love to see this experiment. I am sure attacking wingers and forwards would love to have CP in the middle feeding them with assists. Wonder how Loftus Cheek feels after that statement from Leao. Leao just essentially said CP would be a better No 10, and Cheek is not up to the task.
Unfortunately. Milan were negotiating but couldn't agree on agent fee. 10 secs later Manchester close deal in 5 minutes
Team news for the final match of our Tour 📋#MilanOnTour #SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/mqiX8lJyGT— AC Milan (@acmilan) August 6, 2024 CP and Musah starting against Barcelona. Araujo and Kochen on the Barca bench.
Gets an assist on the 1st and a goal on the 2nd from a tough angle. Think they rotated most of the team for the 2nd half?
The goal: WHAT A STRIKE BY CHRISTIAN PULISIC 🔥A GOAL AND AN ASSIST FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/aPzwPkn1u1— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) August 7, 2024
I posted this in the game day thread - but looks to me like the glance at the 6 right before that shot stymied the keeper - I thought it was a no look shot but looks like he froze the keeper with that glance ... just an excellent goal to get that past the keeper at the angle ... perfect placed in a way that the keeper just could not react to. Great lesson for younger players.
RLC is a versatile player. Yes, typically plays advanced in CM but not sure I've heard him described as a 10. The dude is 6' 3" and plays a different type of game. When the season starts, Milan will have to figure out what makes sense for their midfield and forwards.
I agree that it looked like CP "looked" the goalie off. The color guy said about 5 times that he thought CP got lucky?