How has Pulisic become so decisive for Milan?

Christian Pulisic has scored seven Serie A goals this season with just ten shots on target, and even if stats suggest that he’s less involved in the play, the American has been as decisive as ever at San Siro.

Milan star Pulisic inspired the Rossoneri’s 3-2 comeback win over Torino on Monday night with a stunning brace and is currently the best scorer in the league, alongside Lautaro Martinez.

The American star has netted seven goals in nine Serie A matches, nine in 12 games across all competitions.

Friday’s printed edition of Gazzetta dello Sport offers an interesting insight into how Pulisic has become so decisive for Milan this season.

Technically, Pulisic is used as one of the two Milan centre-forwards this term, while in the previous campaign, he mostly acted as a right winger.

However, heatmaps show that Pulisic is not necessarily playing in a more advanced position than last season, but he moves more towards the left, helped by the fact that he only started once alongside Rafael Leao.

Pulisic has fewer passes, crosses, dribbles, fouls suffered and ball recoveries than last season; based on stats, he seems less involved in the play, but he’s way more lethal. The ex-Chelsea star only needed 14 total shots, ten on target, to score seven Serie A goals.

There’s also something intangible, which you won’t see in stats, and it’s his ability to be decisive when the team needs it. Pulisic, for example, scored winning goals in big games against Napoli and Inter before scoring two past Torino, helping Milan climb to the top of the Serie A table, level on 31 points with Napoli.

Appearances
2024-25: 34
2025-26: 9

Goals
2024-25: 11
2025-26: 7

Goal-per-minute
2024-25: 226
2025-26: 64

Succesful passes
2024-25: 23
2025-26: 17,44

Chances created
2024-25: 2,03
2025-26: 1,78

Succesful crosses
2024-25: 1,56
2025-26: 0,89

Recoveries
2024-25: 2,76
2025-26: 1,22