Juventus kicked off its competitive schedule in style on Sunday by earning a shutout victory over Udinese in its Serie A opener.
Timothy Weah made his Serie A debut at wing back for Massimiliano Allegri’s squad while Weston McKennie played 45 minutes in a 3-0 win. Weah started and played 45 minutes at right wing back before being replaced by McKennie at halftime due to a slight foot injury.
Federico Chiesa opened the scoring for the Old Lady in the second minute before Dusan Vlahovic’s penalty-kick goal and Adrien Rabiot’s finish also gave Juventus a 3-0 first half lead.
Weah won two of his three duels, made two tackles, and eight passes in his 45-minute debut. His pass helped spring Rabiot for the final goal of the match before exiting as a halftime substitution.
McKennie came on for Weah and won five of his six duels, made three tackles, and one interception. The 24-year-old was linked with an exit from Juventus heading into the summer, but now looks set to remain in the squad.
Juventus will host Bologna on August 27 in its competitive home opener of the Serie A campaign.
Striker 91
Owen is not the designated serial liar on this site.
It doesn’t matter what the player says. It matters what the manager wants.
If the player can’t give that to the manager, they will find some other player.
I prefer aisle seats but I don’t always get what I want.
He’s a winger for the USMNT but he’s beating out Paul Ariolla, Christian Roldan or Shaq Moore for the job.
If Weah had refused to play wingback at Lille, he might not be at Juve today and he might not be Lille either.
Timo couldn’t get arrested as a striker and was riding the pine as winger. As a wingback he’s a starter at a big, legendary club in Europe and may be on his way to bigger things and bigger money( I see SBI fans look down their nose at money but I find it is often useful).
He’s raising his profile quite a bit.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Weah looked really good (like he belonged on the field). I hope Juventus STOPS TALKING ABOUT SELLING McKENNIE now that he is playing and playing well. The damage on Udinese though was already done with T. Weah on the field. Good weekend!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeSCsbGISj8
RWB suits Weah really well. Just because he is playing as a WB for club doesn’t mean he won’t be a winger for the USMNT. And to be fair Weah has never shown an ability to score goals frequently in his career. But he is versatile and that’s why Juve went and got him. He can be used as a second striker if Allegri has a need for him there.
Hopefully Weah’s foot injury isn’t serious. September friendlies right around the corner. Booth, Weah, Adams, Reyna all have injuries.
Why do they keep wasting Weah at RWB. Put him at RW in the midfield, or as a right striker as a forward!
Juventus intentionally purchased Weah with the intent to play him as a RWB. Weah knew, before signing for Juventus, that he’d be played as a WB. Therefore this wasn’t Weah being wasted….it was fulfillment of a designed positional change.
While maybe not ideal for the USMNT it may actually be best for Weah in the long run.
Beasley (DMB) went through a similar transition in his early 20s going from an attacking winger to a LB. The transition for DMB to fullback extended his career at club & international levels.
The use of McKennie as a RWB in the 2nd half was more concerning to me as it shows he may have very few opportunities to play.
McKennie is sort of this generation’s version of Clint Dempsey, though…a flawed player with a laundry list of shortcomings who doesn’t check a fair number of boxes, and as such is almost always the first guy on the chopping block at the beginning of every season and at every manager switch.
And then need happens – as it does in soccer – and the manager grudgingly puts him back in. And then because he did well, the manager puts him in again. And again, and again…and before you know it, the manager has The Epiphany and realizes he actually can’t make do without him, at least for the moment, anyhow. And then it’s Rinse & Repeat, and it’ll happen all over again the next season.
I’ll believe McKennie is going to be kept off the field when he’s actually kept off the field.
Juventus should have purchased Dest then 😂 🤦♂️ Weah attacking ability to deadly to be wasted at RWB.
In regards to what quozzel says about Dempsey, one of my favorite soccer stories is about Dempsey. Mark Hughes took over as manager and, as usual, Dempsey started out the season on the bench. After several games, he became a starter. However, in his first or second game as a starter Hughes subbed him out about the 70th minutes. The home crowd at Craven Cottage began chanting, You don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve never seen anything like that in any sport. Like Dempsey, McKennie just needs to keep working hard.
quozzel and Gary Page,
There are a lot of misconceptions about Clint’s time in England.
He had six seasons at Fulham and one at Spurs. Throw out Clint’s first season, a half season really, at Fulham. After that, for the remaining six seasons that he was in England he averaged 42 appearances across all competitions and 11 goals per season.
This on a team that was not exactly an offensive powerhouse.
If he started every season discarded on the bench by the hated anti-americans, he wasn’t there very long. He was too busy playing.
If you check the other regular starters on those teams, guys like Danny Murphy and Brede Hangeland, they averaged in the 40’s per season as well.
Clint was appreciated and acknowledged by the Brits. It’s the Americans who thought he was selfish and lazy and was saving his best games for Fulham
He actually has a lot of freedom to get forward and be involved in the attack. Certainly some of that was getting up early. A lot of the attack was down the other side after Chiesa scored a couple minutes in on the left. They were definitely looking to play Tim in behind and use his “verticality” as 3G would say. Cambiaso on the left is more a true LB so he stayed deeper so Danilo could cover for Tim on the right. In Allegri’s 3-5-2 they don’t use Wingers and he wouldn’t start over Vlahovic and Chiesa at forward. Allegri said Tim still has a lot to learn about SerieA but was pleased with the performance. This is much better than Lille last year when he was playing LB in a back 4.
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As for Wes they are pretty thin at RW(B) so I think he’ll need to play there when Tim isn’t available. Ideally he’d play RCM next to Tim, those really worked well together in preseason.
I guess you missed where Weah stated that his preferred position is wingback. Also if he can excel there I’d play him there over Dest (Dest to bench) and then you have room to get Gio on the field when all the other starters are healthy…ie MMA, Balo, Pulisic…..
I prefer aisle seats but I don’t always get what I want.
He’s a winger for the USMNT but he’s beating out Paul Ariolla, Christian Roldan or Shaq Moore for the job.
If Weah had refused to play wingback at Lille, he might not be at Juve today and he might not be Lille either.
Timo couldn’t get arrested as a striker and was riding the pine as winger. As a wingback he’s a starter at a big, legendary club in Europe and may be on his way to bigger things and bigger money( I see SBI fans look down their nose at money but I find it is often useful).
He’s raising his profile quite a bit.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Why do you all do that state what a player says and never put he link. Ow I know your not making that up. Don’t matter what he said his offense is better than his defense and what they wanted they could have bought both Weah and Dest. Dest is more of what they looking for imo than Weah.
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/usmnt-tim-weah-tells-juventus-best-position-explains-why-12m-transfer/blt6988848b6537602d
Striker 91
Owen is not the designated serial liar on this site.
It doesn’t matter what the player says. It matters what the manager wants.
If the player can’t give that to the manager, they will find some other player.
Thanks for the links Owen, you were right.