Serie A briefing: Prime Pulisic, Hojlund's hot streak and Hannibal's crossing of the Alps
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:James Horncastle
There were victories for Milan, Inter and Napoli as United States international Christian Pulisic continued his impressive form in Italy
The January transfer window has not formally opened yet, but the pre-orders are in. Niclas Fullkrug took his seat at San Siro for Milan’s game against Verona on Sunday afternoon. The conspicuously gap-toothed German passed his medical where others — notably Aly Cissokho — failed on orthodontic grounds in the past.
“He got here all smiles,” Milan coach Max Allegri told DAZN. “He’s happy to be here and looks very keen.”
Fullkrug supposedly has a skill set this team lacks. Surgery on Santi Gimenez’s ankle ruled him out until the spring. Divock Origi’s contract was terminated before Christmas. Wunderkind Francesco Camarda is on loan at Lecce. There was, theoretically, a need for a good old-fashioned striker — someone prepared to get their elbows out and be physical in the box.
Already available for next Friday’s game against Cagliari, it remains to be seen, however, if the incisor-less Fullkrug is al dente. He hasn’t scored since April and underwhelmed at parent club West Ham, where he missed a lot of football through injury.
Allegri likes warriors up front. For all the forced anagraphic comparisons with Oliver Bierhoff — look, another German in a Milan jersey — and the assumed savoir faire of Olivier Giroud, what Allegri has always appreciated in a striker is busyness, blunt force and goals. Forwards in the mould of Mario Mandzukic, a player Fullkrug’s fellow guest in San Siro’s VIP section, former Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, knows very well.
Both saw Milan beat the kind of team they’ve inexplicably struggled against this season. Impeccable in top-of-the-table clashes, points have instead been dropped when faced with relegation fodder. Not this weekend — even if much of the first half felt like it was played straight after Christmas dinner.
Prime Pulisic
Seconds before the interval, Christian Pulisic appeared at the far post to volley home an Adrien Rabiot flick-on from a corner. Milan’s X account proclaimed him the “LeBron James of calcio”, the sort of descriptor — along with Captain America — he rolls his eyes at. Let’s call him prime Pulisic instead.
He is averaging a goal every 74 minutes in the league and his goals-per-shot ratio is the best across Europe’s top five leagues.
“He’s still not 100 per cent,” Allegri said on DAZN. “He’s doing well, even if he’s still not physically fit with this minor flexor issue.”
Even in a season in which Milan aren’t playing in Europe, Pulisic has started and finished only two club games this term. The 27-year-old is having to manage his body. Pulisic decided to stay in Italy during the November international break with that in mind, a wise decision with a World Cup with the United States the bigger picture.
What’s remarkable is the effectiveness and clinical nature of his football in condensed form. It led DAZN’s commentators to compare him to Pippo Inzaghi, so acute and refined is his sense for goal at the moment.
Pulisic has 10 goals from 15 Milan appearances this term (Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
After reposting his goal celebrations on Instagram, Pulisic uploaded another story to shut down unfounded social-media rumours linking him to Sydney Sweeney. He is already in a relationship, after all. “Also please stop with the made-up stories about my personal life,” he wrote. “Need to hold sources accountable — it can affect people’s lives.”
Moving on from the Careless People at the helm of social-media accounts and platforms (I’m currently reading the book of that name by Facebook’s former head of global public policy), let’s focus on a couple that really matter.
Fullkrug’s presence in the stands seemed enough to cause Christopher Nkunku to blow up. First he dispatched a penalty — Pulisic is usually the designated taker — then he pounced on a rebound after Luka Modric struck the post.
These were Nkunku’s first league goals since his €42million move from Chelsea late in the summer window. Until the weekend he had, injury notwithstanding, been viewed as one of the big disappointments of the Serie A season.
Didier Deschamps kept picking him for France throughout — an indicator, to use a football cliche, that there is still a player in there.
“I want to get used to playing in any condition,” Nkunku told DAZN. To be decisive, like Pulisic, regardless of whether he is 100 per cent or not.
After belatedly opening his account, he pulled out a red balloon and celebrated in trademark style by blowing it up.
Milan’s 3-0 win temporarily took them back to the top of Serie A. They are averaging almost 2.2 points per game which, extrapolated over a season, would predict an 83-point finish. Napoli won the league last season on 82.
Allegri loves making these forecasts. “For now, the odds are on the champions getting between 82 and 84 points,” he said on DAZN. “It might become 86. If a team then goes on a winning streak, I don’t know. But right now the odds are around 84.”
He would have dwelled on it longer, but he had to dash. He wanted to catch up with Agnelli over a late lunch.
Nkunku’s balloon was ultimately popped by results elsewhere.
One of the narrative strands of this season has been the refusal of the top sides to burst into a sprint. No one has run away with the league. A contender can usually be relied upon to stumble from week to week, keeping the title race open and the winning total lower than the 90s — certainly below the 102 Juventus posted in 2013-14.
This weekend, however, all the big clubs won.
Gen Zhegrova
Juventus momentarily stepped on to the podium with their seventh win in eight games under Luciano Spalletti. Substitutes Fabio Miretti, Jonathan David and cult figure Edon Zhegrova came off the bench and changed the game in Pisa. David was involved in both goals as Juventus left the shadow of the Leaning Tower 2-0 victors, much to the delight of Tuscan expat and Canada coach Jesse Marsch, who was in the stands at the Arena Garibaldi.
David’s impact was eclipsed, at least in the post-match analysis, by Zhegrova, whose intermittent silkiness has captured the imagination of Juventus fans as if he were a Gen-Z bello di notte — the nickname Gianni Agnelli bestowed upon Zbigniew Boniek for his performances under the lights.
Kosovo international Zhegrova joined Juve from Lille this summer (Paolo Giuliani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“I’ve seen few players with his ability one-v-one on the edge of the box,” Spalletti told DAZN. “Very few indeed. The way he strikes the ball. The way he puts others through on goal. He’s got real vision. It’s as if he has 3D specs on — he can even see what’s happening behind him.”
Holders Napoli followed up their Super Cup triumph before Christmas with a 2-0 win over Cremonese. Afterwards, Antonio Conte was full of praise for his match-winner, Rasmus Hojlund.
The Dane got the clincher in the Super Cup semi-final against Milan in Saudi Arabia. His subsequent brace at the Zini made it 14 goals for the season in all competitions.
“Rasmus is becoming a dominant player in his position,” Conte said on DAZN. “He’s starting to understand when to attack space, when to hold up the ball and when to come short. My way of playing is demanding on strikers and he has huge potential.”
Hannibal and his elephants
Highlighting once again the depleted nature of his squad — still without Alex Meret, Frank Anguissa, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku — Conte reached for the annals of ancient history. He didn’t quote the Latin — aut viam inveniam aut faciam — but drew inspiration from Hannibal crossing the Alps in 218BC.
“I shall either find a way or make one.”
He rattled his rivals by noting that “in setup, second teams, wage bill and squad cost” Juventus, Milan and Inter are “different” — and therefore better equipped to win the league than the club that has won it twice in the past three years. They countered that the only Hannibal parallel he should be making is with the A-Team, as that’s what Napoli have become in recent memory.
Conte during Napoli’s victory at Cremonese on Sunday (Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
Inter president Beppe Marotta, who worked with Conte twice, couldn’t help but smile when the comments were relayed before kick-off against Atalanta.
“In a festive time like Christmas, I don’t want to argue,” he told DAZN. “Conte is not only a great coach — he’s a great communicator. He knows how to take pressure off his team. Napoli are favourites because they’re champions and have invested heavily. Above all, they have continuity.”
Inter, like Milan, subverted their own trend at the weekend. With the exception of Roma away, they’ve dropped points in big games. Elimination from the Super Cup at the hands of Bologna was another case in point.
Atalanta had been resurgent since Raffaele Palladino replaced Ivan Juric. No incoming coach had a higher points-per-game average going into the weekend, not Spalletti at Juventus, nor Daniele De Rossi at Genoa and certainly not Paolo Vanoli at Fiorentina.
A mistake undid them. Berat Djimsiti, one of Atalanta’s most experienced players, gave the ball away near his own area. Inter’s young striker, the much-hyped Pio Esposito, displaying a maturity far beyond his 20 years, slipped in Lautaro Martinez instead of going alone, and Inter’s skipper got the winner.
“I’m not interested in what Conte has to say,” Inter boss Cristian Chivu said afterwards on DAZN, as his side finished 2025 top of the pile. The mobility and fluidity of the title race contrasts with the rigidity of the forthcoming transfer window.
A soft embargo January
Serie A’s version of PSR has kicked in again. While Lazio’s embargo has been lifted, a soft one looms for Napoli and Pisa.
“It’s a paradox,” Napoli’s sporting director, Giovanni Manna, told DAZN. “We’re one of the healthiest clubs in liquidity terms, yet we have to sell before we buy. UEFA allows adjustments. This, in my opinion, is unfair.”
It may, in fact, complicate Napoli’s pursuit of a midfielder such as Kobbie Mainoo. In one sense, the restrictions further tie Conte’s hands and validate his argument. On the other, like Hannibal, he has amassed elephants — some injured, all expensive. Take Lorenzo Lucca, the €35million striker from Udinese, who has scored once all season, against former club and newly promoted Pisa.
Elsewhere, January promises to be busy. No more so than at Fiorentina, who lost again to Parma, a rival for survival. Whether Fabio Paratici can extricate himself from Tottenham, the club he only recently rejoined in an official capacity, in time to become their new head of football remains to be seen. If he were to stay in north London and serve a notice period until February 1, it would be far from ideal for a club in as dire straits as Fiorentina.
Juventus need a deep-lying playmaker and a wing-back. Roma want a striker. Milan have theirs already — though it is probably not their last piece of business, as chief executive Giorgio Furlani lives for the trading of the transfer market.
Every team has a gap to fill, a frown in need of turning upside down.
