Thank you, I try to do them whenever I can, but it took me like almost two hours with translating and boiling it a bit down and leave out the chattery parts
Infact there are a lot of interesting insights when you observe and compare the average positioning of our wingers, as well as their heatmap. I was surprised to see Pulisic positioned further up the field than Leao too. However, I believe this was influenced by Pellegrini being sent off early in the second half, effectively 'freeing' Pulisic from some of his defensive duties since Lazio was theoretically one man down on his side. As a result, Pulisic had more freedom to push higher up the pitch.
One additional point that Diddi and Pellegatti discussed in the video was how Leao seemed to be instructed to stick to his position and execute his trademark outside runs, while Pulisic, as usual, had to cover much more ground. This could have affected his effectiveness in the final third a bit.
Leao vs. Pulisic in
Lazio vs. Milan:
View attachment 30587
Comparing this to the Atalanta game, there's a whole different picture. Firstly, looking at the average positioning of the players, we again see Leao positioned the highest up the field (and Adli as the clear regista behind the CMs).
Average position in
Milan vs. Atalanta:
View attachment 30588
While the difference in positioning between Pulisic and Leao isn't stark, but when reflecting on that game, especially the 2nd half, we essentially dominated play in their own half for 45 minutes.
Now Leao vs. Pulisic heatmap:
View attachment 30589
In this context, Leao's action radius and work rate were insane. It's no wonder everyone here spoke after the game of Leao delivering a massive performance, praising him not just for the goal. An unleashed Leao is a fucking beast. I hope the reason why we often see him seemingly disappearing or restricted to his trademark move in many games is simply an instruction from Pioli.
