Right foot, left foot, header, on the break, from the penalty spot or directly from a corner: Pulisic has scored 87 goals in European competitions (with Milan, Chelsea and Dortmund), all more or less intentional. The ball that ricochets off his knee and goes in is still missing, and Chris is hoping for it more than ever this year: “I know it could happen, and from then on everything would be different.”
That’s what people usually say about a striker who isn’t scoring: a lucky rebound can be the solution to a goal drought, and Pulisic’s has continued since the end of 2025. In the new year, nothing has worked: neither renewing faith in him and keeping him in the starting line-up, nor bringing him on against more tired opponents; neither suggestions from Leão nor those from Füllkrug or Nkunku have helped, nothing has brought him back to scoring.
Unproductive, even when retracing familiar paths like those with the United States: Pulisic has scored 32 goals in 84 appearances for the national team. A top striker’s record, but unfortunately, even across the Atlantic, Chris seems to have lost his bearings in the penalty area. Wasteful and ineffective in the heavy defeat against Belgium led by Saelemaekers (5–2), after which Pulisic (on the pitch for 71 minutes) had called for a stroke of luck like a ball that “bounces off the knee and goes in,” and then in a half against Portugal (without Leão) on Wednesday night, another lost match: very few flashes of quality.
On the other hand, Pulisic has expressed a generally positive mood: “Physically, I feel really good and really sharp. I have to help my team to get assists and score goals and create chances, and obviously when I don’t do that it’s frustrating. But I feel that I’m close. Of course it’s frustrating, but I’m just gonna stay positive. A lot of big things ahead, and I know when we get to the other side, things are gonna click.” So there is no concern about the striker’s fitness after returning from the United States: even the old hip issues have been overcome.
Pulisic past the ninety days mark...
Today Chris will return to training at Milanello, doing light work after the fatigue of travel. He will still have two good training sessions to convince Allegri to keep faith in him: given Rafa’s current unavailability (the signs are positive, but recovery will take a bit longer), Chris’s presence seems certain. Alongside him, Nkunku is more likely than the other attacking options: besides Füllkrug, there is also the returning Giménez.
It was in the first part of the season, from August to the end of December, often with Santi by his side, that Pulisic had scored his eight league goals, a tally that has not been added to since. Now past 90 days without a goal (the last came on 28 December against Verona), such a long drought that he had never experienced at Milan. There may have been more or less productive periods before, but never this barren.
Allegri is thinking about it. Pulisic will now be back at his disposal, and the coach has always supported and encouraged him: "At this stage of the season, when quality and technique emerge, both he and Rafa will do well." The same backing Chris had received from national team coach Pochettino: "He’s angry, but that’s what we expect. He has fought and worked hard for the team. He will score again because he has quality: once he gets his first goal, he’ll start scoring freely again for Milan."
That is the hope of the Rossoneri fans, for whom Pulisic's technical quality and unpredictability are not just to be rediscovered but fully polished for the grand finale of the season. His goal against Napoli in the first half of the season was his fourth in the league (and it was only late September), and his first in a high-level clash. With the aim of repeating that, Chris returns today to Allegri’s squad.
Also still in play is the renewal of his contract with Milan, which currently runs until the summer of 2027, with an option for a further one-year extension. A safeguard for the club, should Pulisic truly return to scoring as he knows how. In the summer, he could be back in the global spotlight.
