Not a bad move, indeed. Pulisic is nevertheless shouldering more of the load. The most, in fact. Milan isn't a team with a singular focal point, but he's the one that's doing the most.
I'd say he's in among them. I personally like Saka a LOT, but... I like Arsenal. Those are judgment calls, and how exactly you want to use a player counts. England are pretty blessed with attackers right now and have the luxury of using a guy that good against tired legs to make a difference.
He just needs to keep this up across the whole season. Imagine if he finished with like 20 goals/15 assists in the league. Easily in the running for Player of the Season.
I think I prefer Saka on the right and I don’t think they should be starting Foden as they have balance with him on the left. Of those four I’d probably be staring Bellingham and Saka. With Palmer and Foden options for both off the bench. Part of the problem in the Euros was trying to shoehorn too many guys into the lineup in a way that didn’t really make sense and threw off the team.
I read an article that said that Liverpool was interested in Pulisic to replace Salah. I strongly doubt that he has any interest in the Premier League as his experience at Chelsea was pretty horrible. In his first appearance there he produced a natural hat trick as a sub and they rewarded him by effectivly sitting him for the rest of the time he was there. Chelsea came pretty close to ruining him as a player or at least dropping his confidence down to near zero. His move to Milan has made all the difference and I think, barring a money offer that make him completely independently wealthy, he will only move if somehow he gets forced to. Milan likes him a LOT. The fans like him a LOT. He likes Italy and Milan a lot. I think he is very unlikely to consent to a move anytime soon and he now has most everything he needs so he, most probably, will stay at Milan. For development he is best outside of England. I wanted to link the article but it disappeared off my Google feed and, right now, it is too much trouble to find. It was on Goal.com, however. Edit: I found basically the same article here: https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/liverpool-keen-on-pulisic-to-fill-salah-sized-void/
You are not wrong, it is not an exact standard. Although surely world class means at least "among the world's best at your position". Whether that means best 11 or best 23 or best 26 or best 50 or ... is not clear. But it cannot go forever, otherwise it loses its meaning completely. I will tell you this, Pulisic's goals against Inter and Manchester City were world class. Of that there can be no doubt.
When I was in England I was mostly put off by the food's lack of flavor. A friend took me to visit some of her friends and there we had dinner. It was absolutely wonderful with both meat and vegies having plenty of flavor and the after dinner pastries the best I had ever had at the time. I thought that I had finally found English cooking that was really good. But then I was told that the family had immigrated from Hungary a couple of generations previously and they had retained most of their cooking style. I was greatly disappointed that there really seemed to be no good English cooking but I learned that for good food I just needed to patronize various ethnic restaurants to get the food I preferred. I also, once I started noticing, found that those establishments. were often more patronized by native English people than by the groups they represented. In my short, unscientific survey I decided that the English, somehow, lost their culinary arts and crave the flavors they have lost. But I should not judge a people by their dietary desires. After all, here in the USA, we really have little truly "native" cooking to compare other's with. However England does have some really great beers and ales and after consuming a bit of those most everything tastes good.
The British used to eat well. A combination of the Great Depression, wartime rationing and convenience food killed the collective taste buds. My first wife's mother was old school. She'd spend all day preparing meals using traditional British recipes with lots of herbs and spices. My mother was post-modern: meat, gravy and potatoes, no spices, no flavor. On the rare occasion we had salad there was no dressing. My experience of living in German speaking countries was worse. They would use lots of herbs and spices but they got it all wrong. You're better off with meat in breadcrumbs and fries.
I actually found that German cooking was quite good but most European fare falls short of my taste expectations. With the exception of Spain and Portugal. But, even there, the tastes were too subdued much of the time. I grew up with the tastes of Texas, particularly Tex Mex, and my first overseas posting was to Thailand and their food is not under spiced. I actually did not much like the much more subdued tastes of most Japanese and Chinese (With the exception of Szechwan and Hunan) dishes. Of curse the other exception is sushi and the sauces they use there. The only place I have ever been where I found the local food nearly inedible was Russia. I do not know what they used for spices or cooking methods but I just could not stand any meal I had there for my fortunately short three week assignment. I wonder just how much of our perceived food taste comes from environment and how much our perception of "environment" comes from the food we consume there? Oh well, this thread should not become about worldwide cuisine but about Pulisic's trials and tribulations. Of which there have been many but he seems to have found a happy home at Milan. I just hope the food there does not do to him what it did to me. I gained 12 pounds in the four weeks I spent in northern Italy. Great food! Nothing spectacular but it was all great. i might not have gained weight except for the little old Italian lady at the corner restaurant. When I told her I was totally full she would say "Tienilo in bocca, ti senti bene" or "Just hold it in your mouth, it feels good." BTW: I improved the English food quite a bit. I carried a small bottle of Tabasco with me and it did marvels to the typically bland English meals. But boiled beef almost never get as far as "good." The best i found was not totally inedible. Lastly I found the lack of "proper" breakfasts in most of Europe to be disconcerting. I kept expecting real food in the morning and, mostly I got nothing but crumbs in the AM and many places not even that. I, several times, had to eat multiple breakfasts just to prevent light headiness before lunch.
Dude, Italy. If you haven't been, book it ASAP. Sicily is my fave place on earth: the food, the physical beauty, the ancient temples and artifacts. Eat pasta pesto made with pistachio, and drink white wine under Mt. Etna. Then we can talk!
But that is southern Italy and Milan is northern. They are very different beasts. It is much like the difference between northern and southern USA. I only spent about three days in the south and I had decent food but the north's is better, to me. I am not impressed by the ruins and old buildings but that does not mean it is not impressive I just prefer different architecture and I generally like new better than old. However the Mediterranean waters are quite pretty. But I think southern Greece is a prettier area. Also keep in mind that my impressions are from the early '80s and things change a LOT in 40+ years.
London has lots of really good places to eat. As you’d expect with a city that big and diverse. And even in cities like Manchester or Brighton there’s no issue finding good places to eat. Now these places are not necessarily what you’d consider to be English food but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. New York City is one of the best food cities on the planet and much of it is not anything you would consider to be American food.
If this was Christian Pulisichino, he would be worth well 80 millio. Pulisic-ham, 100 plus. That English bonus
How many seasons did everyone demand that Jude Bellingham perform at a world class level before people were willing to term him "world class?" Ah, but that's different.
Italy? I spent 4 months in Thailand on three trips 20 years ago. Never ate Thai food before - I was blown away on my first day. And I was in a place that didn't see many foreigners, so it wasn't watered down for farangs. I'm also from Texas. Came back to Houston and searched out Thai restaurants, but was completely dissapointed. I ended up learning to cook Thai myself and grow my own kaffir lime tree, holy basil, lemongrass, and some chilies I can't easily get here. I also spent a month in Siberia in '98. My hotel had a canteen with meals included with the room stay where they served three things - beef, chicken, or fish with some tasteless cream sauce. The guy who brought tabasco was the most popular guy. One day we decided to forego the canteen and eat at the hotel restaurant to try some other foods - it had the same choices, but we had to pay for it.
Bellingham is clearly in the "explode onto the scene" category; he's performed at an elite level as a teenager, then moved to Madrid and immediately won the league, the CL, & the domestic supercup; 35 goals + assists across all Madrid comps, a direct goal contribution in less than every 98 minutes played, at 20 years old. In both of 2 previous seasons for BVB, he got to the 20 mark as a teenager. So yeah. That's definitely "different". People calling him world class in 2022 may have been jumping the gun a bit.. but they are surely vindicated now? He's obviously world class, and like Martinez seems a poor point of comparison to bring up with regard to CP.
So you associate spice, or heat, with taste? I prefer tasty food that doesn't require a lot of spice, so French, Italian (not Italian-American), northern or coastal Spanish or Portuguese.
Vs 9 goals and 11 assists in Dortmund as a teenager. Oh, and has won the CL. You want to pretend like this is an order of magnitude, when really, it's just an order of degrees.
Southern and Northern Italian food was pretty awesome when I lived there. When I visited relatives in Rome, Naples, Abruzzo, Puglie and Calabria, the food was simply incredible. Living in Florence , I was spoiled but all of Tuscany had great food. I never got into the ribollita but other than that, I liked it all. Being from the SF Bay Area, there are tons of restaurants but none amount to any of the good food I had when I was in Italy or even in the South of France. I never really cared for seafood living in Northern Cal but when my cousins in Reggio Calabria prepared the fish, it was the the best ever. I recall as soon as I moved back to California finding myself comparing meals at restaurants but there was simply no comparison. I agree that all Italian and most of western European breakfasts were lacking. As far as “la colazine” or breakfast in Italy, is concerned, The USA wins out. Bringing it back to the thread, Pulisic had an Italian grandmother so I’m sure he’s used to the food. I also doubt he has eaten many bad meals in Milan , Turin or anywhere else in northern Italy.
Being British a good breakfast was one of the things I missed most in my 27 years in the states. The meat just doesn't compare.