USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino complained that Christian Pulisic is ‘playing every single minute’ for Milan this season, but he’s not even in the top 20 Serie A players for time on the pitch.
Pochettino was just appointed to the USA job and called his first squad to training this week, including the versatile forward.
During a press conference, he expressed concern that Pulisic is doing so well at club level that he has become indispensable with six goals and two assists in nine games.
“He’s playing every single game, every single minute, something that we are a little bit worried about,” said Pochettino.
“Sometimes we need to protect, because he arrived a little bit tired. But that’s something I’ve spoken about before, to be in a very good relationship with the club.”
Pulisic not the hardest-working player in Serie A
However, La Gazzetta dello Sport point out that the statistics show Pulisic is not even in the top 20 when it comes to playing time for outfield figures in Serie A this season.
So far, he has only amassed 720 minutes of time on the pitch between seven Serie A matches and two in the Champions League.
It’s true, he is the outfield player with the most minutes at Milan, but it’s only six more than Fikayo Tomori and 16 more than Tijjani Reijnders.
In comparison, Marten de Roon of Atalanta has already played 900 minutes and is top of that list.
Atalanta and Fiorentina played more games than any other, because La Dea were in the UEFA Super Cup clash against Real Madrid, while the Viola played two legs of a Conference League play-off.
The second of those ties went to extra time and then a penalty shoot-out.