Explained: Why USMNT star Christian Pulisic was sacrificed by AC Milan following Malick Thiaw’s red card against Juventus

The Rossoneri were reduced to 10 men at San Siro five minutes before half-time. With Germany international centre-half Thiaw being sent for an early bath, Milan boss Pioli had some big tactical decisions to make.

He could have kept faith with those still on the field and merely shuffled his pack, but he opted to reinforce at the back by sending on Pierre Kalulu in place of American forward Pulisic. The USMNT star was less than impressed at seeing his number held up, but Pioli stands by his decision despite seeing Milan slip to a 1-0 defeat.

Pioli told DAZN of why Pulisic had to make way on the back of an untimely dismissal: “I removed an attacker to maintain the same defensive structure that we had prepared during the week. I decided to make [Rafael] Leao and [Olivier] Giroud work against the three Juve defenders and maintain the defensive set-up we had, as there were some good reference points against them. We believed that the contribution of the midfielders like [Yunus] Musah and [Tijjani] Reijnders, or Giroud holding up the ball for Leao, could allow us to continue being dangerous in attack. The second half started pretty well, but then we lacked a little intensity above all in midfield. It’s also true that we allowed Juventus barely any chances, so with a little more intensity I feel we could’ve taken home a very important result even down to 10 men.”

Manuel Locatelli netted the only goal of the game for Juventus just past the hour mark, with Weston McKennie and Tim Weah able to celebrate picking up three points in a domestic meeting with United States international team-mates Pulisic and Yunus Musah.