‘He’s not entirely suited to this’ - Why USMNT star Christian Pulisic’s AC Milan drought is down to tactics

There's the old quote about the ketchup bottle that makes the rounds whenever a player is struggling. For a while, nothing comes out, then suddenly it all flows at once. Pulisic is still in the "nothing comes out" phase. He's been in that for a while.

Since the start of the year, the U.S. Men's National Team winger has appeared in 18 games for club and country. He's scored in none of them, with his 16-game club scoreless run equalling the longest barren run of his career. In those 18 games, he has just one assist, too. By every important metric, Pulisic has been unable to impact games in 2026. He spoke about that fact at the USMNT camp in March, saying that he felt he was doing the right things but just needed his luck to change.

"I know a ball will hit off my knee and go in and then things will change," Pulisic said in March. "I’m not going to panic. Better now than in the summer. Things are going to change. That's all I can do: just be positive."

Per Allegri, the positivity is becoming just a bit tougher the longer this thing goes on.

“Christian is a very sensitive man, and this drought is hitting him harder," Allegri told DAZN after the game. "He is also someone who struggles more with the physicality of duels and the lack of a center-forward, but I must try to give a balance to this team, as we have an objective to achieve."

The bigger problem is what Allegri alluded to at the end. By attempting to balance the team, he's taken the sting out of his two best attackers.

Both Pulisic and Leao acknowledged that the rumors of a rift were overblown. It popped up after what appeared to be a heated moment amid AC Milan's struggles. Soon after, AC Milan's whole team gathered after a goal to do a combination of Pulisic and Leao's signature celebrations. Everyone smiled and laughed. It was all good.

It isn't all good, though. Both Pulisic and Leao continue to struggle in Allegri's tactical setup, one which isn't designed to get the best out of them. Despite that Milan continue to persist with a 3-5-2 in the name of balance. In search of that balance, Allegri is putting two wingers together without a defined striker. In that sense, the results shouldn't be too surprising.

“I realise he is not entirely suited to this," Allegri said of Pulisic. "I had asked him to play center-right tonight and Leao center-left, so we were without a center-forward."

Leao, too, is going through long stretches without scoring. He hasn't found the back of the net since March 1 against Cremonese, as both he and Pulisic have failed to make the difference in some of Milan's biggest games of the season. Without Pulisic and Leao shouldering the attacking load, Milan's goals have dried up. The Rossoneri have played 18 games so far in 2026, and they've scored multiple goals in just five of them.

It's gotten worse recently. Over the last four matches, Milan have scored just once, collecting just four points over that span. As a result, they've fallen back towards the pack and now sit third after spending much of the season on the heels of league-leaders Inter.

The answer seems simple, then: add a striker and get the attack humming again. Allegri has shown an unwillingness to do so. In this 3-5-2, Milan are defending much better than they were previously. This season, Milan have conceded a league-best 27 goals after being scored on 43 times last season.

The question is whether the juice is worth the squeeze. Is it worth sacrificing the attack to ensure that sort of defensive stability? To match last season's goal output of 61, Milan would need to score 13 goals over their final four Serie A games.

Making matters worse is the fact that Milan don't have a striker the club can really rely on. Niclas Fullkrug has just one goal. Santiago Gimenez, who recently returned from injury, has yet to find the back of the net in 12 games. You could argue that Christopher Nkunku is a striker since he is a more central option, but even he has only five goals in 28 appearances.

Fortunately for Pulisic, that isn't a problem he'll have when he joins up with the USMNT, who seem better equipped than Milan to put him in the right places on the field.

It is, at the very least, a slight concern for the USMNT that Pulisic isn't scoring. If he isn't the team's most important player, he sure is one of them. If the U.S. is to go far at this summer's World Cup, they'll need Pulisic to be at his very best.

He hasn't been that for Milan in recent months, but he also hasn't been in his very best position. For the USMNT, he'll play in something closer to it as an attacking midfielder behind the striker, not as a striker himself. From that spot, he can be on the ball in space and create, either for himself or others. From that spot, he isn't restricted, and he has players around him to play off of and make an attack dynamic.

It was easy to see the impact of that in the March camp as Pulisic generated chance after chance against Belgium, in particular, but just lacked the finishing touch to put it all together. In that game, he had three looks at the Belgium goal - how different would the conversation be if one of those three had gone in?

That's one layer of it. The other is the fact that, with the USMNT, Pulisic doesn't have to be the primary goalscorer. Folarin Balogun is scoring goals for fun at Monaco. Ricardo Pepi lights it up whenever he takes the field for PSV. Haji Wright just won the Championship with Coventry City. Those are just the strikers. Weston McKennie has taken his game to new levels at Juventus by scoring in Serie A and the Champions League, while players like Malik Tillman, Brenden Aaronson, Gio Reyna, and Diego Luna have also scored either at the club or USMNT level.

So, while there is pressure on Pulisic this summer, it's a different type of pressure. Before he gets there, though, there's still so much business to take care of in Milan.

There are still four games on AC Milan's schedule. There's no overstating the importance of those four games. At the moment, they sit in third place, three points ahead of Juventus. More worryingly, Como are lurking in fifth, just six points behind.

In a way, Sunday's draw helped the big picture, as it held off Juventus while moving one point closer to a return to the Champions League. That's how Allegri saw it, anyway.

“We can be content with the point," he said, "As it allows us to take another small step forward. We are mathematically now just six points away from securing our target, so that means winning two games."

The matches, in truth, are very winnable. Aside from Atalanta, who sit seventh, the other three are all in the bottom half of the table. One of them, Cagliari, is on the fringes of a relegation fight.

There will be opportunities, then, for Pulisic to get back on track. There will certainly be moments he gets on the ball, even if they continue to come in places that don't suit his game. As he said, all it takes is one bounce off a knee or one defensive mistake for that goal to go in. Allegri believes it's coming.

"Rest assured," Milan's coach said, "By the end of the season, Pulisic will have given his contribution."