United States men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his coaching staff credited AC Milan for helping him get the best out of Christian Pulisic with the national team.
While Pulisic found success with the USMNT before Pochettino, and has clashed with the head coach over commitments to the Concacaf Gold Cup and summer friendlies, his status as the USMNT’s best player has never waned.
For Pochettino, that meant taking in every bit of information in order to set up the team in the best way to elevate Pulisic’s talents. When healthy, Pulisic has been in fine form for AC Milan this season, scoring four goals and two assists in six matches, before suffering an injury while representing the USMNT in October.
Although Pochettino can’t always have eyes on players across the world, his assistants furl out across the continents to keep tabs on players and check in with club coaches. Jesus Perez, the top assistant coach for the USMNT, credited a conversation with Milan coaches that influenced Pulisic’s best use.
“I remember one conversation in Milan… the [AC Milan] coach at that time said to me, ‘I feel Christian shines if he’s in this space, doing this role,“ Perez told . “For me, it was important to translate to Mauricio.”
