Is Pulisic your guy? He likely has more Italian heritage than the Brazilians that play on the Italian NT. His Brooklyn-born Sicilian grandmother may have had more direct connections than the Brazilians while his grandfather is from the Dalmatian island of Olib, which may have been part of Italy when he was born. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Pulisic#Personal_life
The Italian diaspora in Brazil is the largest number of people with Italian ancestry outside of Italy.
Ismael Bennacer is expected to be joined by Tijjani Reijnders in the midfield double pivot, which then pushes Ruben Loftus-Cheek further forward into the attacking midfielder position he played in last season. That is because Christian Pulisic will miss the game due to an ankle knock, which in turn means Samuel Chukwueze and Rafael Leao are down as the right and left wingers respectively, with the other new addition Alvaro Morata leading the line. ++++++++++++ Despite a good pre-season in the United States, La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) reports that Pulisic will miss the last summer friendly match scheduled for this evening at San Siro at 21:00 CEST due to a knock to his ankle. However, the paper add that the American is not at risk for the first league match which will be played again at San Siro on Saturday 17 August against Torino, at 20:45 CEST. The exclusion from tonight’s match should therefore be interpreted only as a precautionary measure, given that competitive action begins in just a few days and all players need to be as close to 100% as possible.
I miss the good old days at chelsea when he would miss games and no one knew why for weeks until some obscure report would state that he felt tenderness in his thigh. (code for he tore his hammy)
Or "creative bookkeeping" or "our squad is so big that the bus left without him and no one noticed" or "our squad is so big and we found him in a cupboard after who knows how long"
Fofana is on his way to Milan this week. A much improved team for 2024-2025. Let's see our yanks hold that Serie A trophy this season.
I hope so. Last two years league was basically over by Christmas. Then of course juve winning 9 in a row.
Interesting that Pulisic is now listed as a Midfielder instead of Forward for the 2024-2025 season. https://www.acmilan.com/en/teams/men-first-team/all
Pulisic starts (presumably as a 10; Musah on the bench 🚨 OFFICIAL Milan XI vs. Torino:Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Thiaw; Saelemaekers; Bennacer, Loftus-Cheek; Chukwueze, Pulisic, Leao; Jovic— Milan Eye (@MilanEye) August 17, 2024
The announcer said that Pulisic said that the sporadic nature of his playing time with Chelsea made him more injury prone. Interesting thought.
Puli said that himself too. When asked about all the mins last season he said his body adapted to it and found a rhythm compared to Chelsea. Makes sense. If you go out for a run 2X a week you're less likely to get injured than trying to run once a month.
Both Puli and Leao wasted so many chances today, they need to do better. Milan could have won this easily if they were more clinical. Still, that central defense will continue to be a big question mark throughout the season.
My eyes tell me they will be more dangerous going forward than last year and the new center back and dmid will need to step up. Pulisic and Leao were great today in everything but the finish and with Morata they should do well together. Definitely gave away two points today though.