Weston McKennie reached an individual milestone on Saturday in Turin and proceeded to christen the occasion with a strong overall performance.
McKennie started and registered one assist in Juventus’ 3-1 home victory over Lazio on Saturday. The U.S. men’s national team midfielder made his 100th appearance for the Old Lady, logging 72 minutes in the match.
Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa gave Juventus a 2-0 lead in the first half after scoring 16 minutes apart. Luis Alberto pulled one goal back for Lazio in the 64th minute before Juventus would regain its two-goal lead thanks to McKennie’s helper.
McKennie’s long-ball over the top of the Lazio backline allowed Vlahovic to pick up possession and race towards goal. Vlahovic netted his second goal of the match to cap off an important home victory for the Old Lady.
The 25-year-old McKennie won five duels, made one interception, and made three recoveries.
Fellow USMNT attacker Timothy Weah replaced McKennie in the 72nd minute, logging 18 minutes off the bench.
Juventus sits second in the Serie A table and next travels to Sassuolo on Sept. 23.
He’s in great form
Mckennie has an assist BUT WAS AN INTERICAL PART OF ALL JUVE GOALS……ALL THREE OF THEM. He wanted to be sold / loaned by Juventus yet he is turning into one of the most impactful players on the team. The kid is playing his heart out….. with confidence and authority on the pitch……absolutely, without a doubt, he’s the US player of the month
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxSpng2vcHI
Absolutely brilliant!!!!
I see Juve still has “max_americans_on_field” set to 1.
McKennie got the rare start for Juventus and played with the same quality form and confidence he showed in the September friendlies. Here’s hoping McKennie makes himself indispensable going forward.
Most people don’t realize Wes started 4 of 5 CL matches and 12 of 16 Serie A matches he was healthy for last year. He’s now started 2 of 4 this year. Every window there are Wes is leaving rumors and then when the season starts Allegri writes down McKennie more often than not.
I don’t think he wants to play him but they would win when he played and lose when didn’t so he was more played out of self preservation. He has been trying to find ways to not play him and get rid of him for most of his time there.
Tele, doesn’t matter why he starts 70% of the matches just that he does.
JR, I’m not sureI agree with that. He doesn’t have stability at his club and he has a Manager that has demonstrated he doesn’t really want him. If a player comes along that is of slightly lesser quality he will probably play ahead of McKennie unless they start losing; then he would put McKennie back in which he has already done. He got a crappy loan to a team fighting for relegation that ended up terrible. That 70% doesn’t include the games he didn’t start because he was loaned to Leeds.
Tele57,
I don’t believe that there is such a thing as “stability” at a club, particularly for a professional soccer player, no matter what it says on their passport.
They booed Messi FFS at PSG.
As soon as they fall for that “stability” BS they relax, their form drops and boom, they are out the door.
Clint never fell for that stability BS. I did not see him in training but I imagine he never took a second off.
Juve is good for Weston because they don’t fall for his lovable teddy bear persona and they never let his head swell as it might if he thought he had it made.
McKennie gets a lot of over the the top worship from his USMNT devotees and the media. I think sometimes he actually believes that horse manure.
Weston came to prominence when he became Schalke’s most indispensable player by playing nearly every position in the pitch save for keeper. I imagine that kept him on his toes and humble.
I don’t care if Allegri hates Weston’s guts or treats him like dirt.
He keeps pushing Weston’s buttons ( as in “I reckon y’all need to take it up a notch or two or more,” ) and it keeps getting a result out of him. If that’s what it takes to get the most out of playboy Weston then so be it.
Gregg, (who seems deathly afraid of even engaging with Gio for fear of I don’t know what) ought to try and learn something from Allegri about how to manage people.
Weston’s playing time in important games = How much Allegri loves him.
Everything else is just noise.
Tele: 16 starts at Juve and 16 starts in Leeds. I’m not looking it up but did anyone else have 32 top 5 league starts last season. I think it’s more management is trying to unload his salary than Allegri isn’t rating him. He picked him over Weah who was pretty good the first two matches (at least no glaring issues). I could be wrong but didn’t Wes orchestrate the loan to Leeds. I mean if Tyler doesn’t get hurt they scrape out 5 more pts and stay up and Wes stays and Juve makes some money. Instead Wes comes back and plays so well in camp they don’t sell him and now he’s back starting.