Weston McKennie’s impactful run in the Juventus starting lineup continued Saturday with the American teeing up the winning goal vs. Frosinone.
McKennie’s game-winning assist helped the Old Lady to a 2-1 road victory on Saturday, keeping them in the hunt for first place in Serie A. The U.S. men’s national team midfielder logged 90 minutes while fellow teammate Tim Weah also played a key role on the deciding goal.
With both teams pressing for a winning goal, Weah’s pass allowed McKennie to deliver a right-footed cross into the box. Dusan Vlahovic’s looping header landed into the back of the net, boosting Juventus in front 2-1 in the 81st minute.
It marked McKennie’s second league assist of the campaign and one that certainly came at a crucial time.
https://x.com/CBSSportsGolazo/status/1738560297227419829?s=20
Juventus would hang on for three points, extending its unbeaten run to 12 matches.
The Old Lady sit one point back of league-leading Inter Milan heading into a Dec. 30 showdown with AS Roma.
“In recent times for the USMNT, he “chooses” to not be responsible with his defense, nor disciplined with his tactics, because he feels he can get away with, and still continue to be on the field.
Nothing will change from Weston’s perspective unless he is forced to change.”
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That is what managers do if they aren’t impressed with a player right away, force them to change if they want to play.
Where it goes wrong for all concerned is when the player either can’t or won’t change.
And Weston has proven to be remarkably intelligent, adaptable and competent. He got to Schalke and figured out how to get himself playing time. He did that by playing every position on the field competently enough so that he became almost indispensable.
When he went to Juve, regardless of all the off field noise, he became an integral part of the squad in large part it seems because he gave Juve the aggression and dynamism it lacked when he wasn’t around.
In other words, he’s figured out how to make managers think they need him on the field. So either he’s smart, competent and adaptable.
Or he’s a great BS artist.
https://www.juvefc.com/tuttosport-reveals-average-player-ratings-for-juventus-this-season-mckennie-the-best/
At the halfway point, Weston is rated as Juve’s best performing player. That’s not an accident.
As for friction or insubordination by Weston, what is evident is that Gregg, like Allegri, plays him a lot. I have no idea how Weston gets on with Gregg or with Allegri but with all managers, they don’t play you that much unless they believe they need you to win, so Weston’s relationship skills with his managers appear to be good enough for now.
It doesn’t matter how it looks to outsiders. Gregg took Aaron Long and Roldan to the World Cup. He probably would have taken Ariolla had Paul been healthy. Does that sound like a man who gives a damn what outsiders think of his decisions?
There’s really no other metric than playing time. Managers are not suicidal.
To a neutral third party, Weston is an unlikely looking soccer player. He’s big and cuddly, looking more like mascot than a player.
Yet, he’s one of the few USMNT players who is not a softie but rather is hard, mean and aggressive. He’s also quite smart and more skilled than people like to give him credit for. He’s no McTominay. You don’t win over an old school hard ass like Allegri, the way Weston has unless you’ve got a lot going for you.
Weston has his flaws but he can be a difference maker and is perhaps the last thing the USMNT needs to be worrying about.
They are lucky to have him.
Dude has been good either as a wing back or in the midfield. Proving Di Canio wrong. Who came out and stated he wasnt good enough to win a Serie A title with Juve at the start of the season.
McKennie’s kind of a hard one to assess sometimes because he’s such an unusual player, IMHO. He’s an extraordinary athlete, probably the best in the US pool, period, with Jedi and Tillman being the only two I can really see challenging that. He’s super-versatile and you can play him about four or five different spots on the field. He can be incredibly creative and conjure up genuine magic out of nothing in a way we really haven’t seen since maybe Clint Dempsey, and also like Dempsey he’s audacious and tries the wild stuff. He’s getting really good with dropping in clever chipped balls in a way we haven’t seen since Michael Bradley.
On the other hand, he’s defensively and positionally inconsistent, and he turns the ball over with sloppy or mislaid passes way too often. He’s also not really goal-dangerous except maybe with his head on set pieces and is generally a terrible finisher. He can have a temper. He’s got some flashy moves in the open field but he’s not particularly good at running at a defender in the box the way Pulisic or Balogun are. If you play him in traditional roles he can be a liability, though he can take over a game in the right situations when used correctly as well.
He’d have a role on virtually any team and brings a lot to the party, but I can definitely see how he can be challenging to coach and use appropriately. Di Canio does seem to be figuring out how to use him, though.
Quozzel,
For McKennie, it’s all about what he “wants” to do and what he thinks he “can get away with.”
As you point out, he is versatile and can be very effective in a multitude of positions. That was evident during this time at Schalke and now, at Juve. During his time at Schalke, he was disciplined with his tactics, because he was a young player trying to break into the squad, and he knew he couldn’t get away with being undisciplined. He even played CB for Schalke…if you asked Weston, you think he wants to play CB? 🙂
Now, with Juve, he is disciplined, or will even play as a wing back, as he knows that is his way onto the field. Again, no way he gets on the field for Allegri, if he is undisciplined.
Weston is a free spirit that prefers to get forward, be creative, and use his athleticism to do so. He doesn’t want to play as a 6, and although he can do it, he prefers to play as an 8…and I even think he wants to play as a 10.
In recent times for the USMNT, he “chooses” to not be responsible with his defense, nor disciplined with his tactics, because he feels he can get away with, and still continue to be on the field.
Nothing will change from Weston’s perspective unless he is forced to change.
Who is Di Canio?
V: Paolo Di Canio, is a former Juve player (who by the way never won SerieA in his time at Juve either) who in an interview said basically said Wes went to Leeds and got relegated how could Juve win a title with someone like that. Di Canio has gotten a lot of press over the years for being a fascist (has a pro-Mussolini tattoo and did a fascist salute to his club supporters at Lazio just a few) so that he picked out the foreigner is not surprising. In the quote he also named Gatti and Miretti as being not good enough.
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Allegri the manager has always found Wes useful. It’s always management that has tried to move him because they wanted to recoup some of their investment.
JR
quozzel said: “Di Canio does seem to be figuring out how to use him, though.”.
So he must be a Juve coach.
McKennie nearly won it himself with a spectacular scissors kick that rattled the crossbar. Unlucky!
Dude has been a straight up rock for Juventus this season.
which is all the more impressive given the chatter over the summer about how he wasn’t in their plans and they wanted to sell him but couldn’t seem to find a buyer.