To be played on the left limits his impact, that's clear, but doesn't impact his ability to pass. He misses the safest of passes and makes weird decisions in our half.
To me a players role has fundamental aspects. A defender first has to be a good defender before any play making and attacking capabilities can be evaluated. A midfielder needs to have a certain level of passing and understanding of the game. Runs between the lines and headers are extras of what makes a good midfielder, not the foundations of it.
Its why Pirlo played McKennie in attack and wings, then Allegri arrived with all of his experience and does the same. He cannot play the role of a midfielder because he lacks so much understanding of the game. Basically the opposite player as Jorginho.
A "complete midfielder" version of McKennie is Vidal. The difference is enormous, Vidal had those runs and stamina combined with all the attributes that make a great mid. McKennie is the most incomplete midfielder we have, a player that cannot do the basic job but adds extra qualities. He is someone we can field when we have a proper functioning team that can carry his deficiencies and exploit his goal threat. An extra player. Which at the moment we can't afford. He puts our team under too much pressure in most cases, better to have him as a sub to maximize his impact against tired teams.
Allegri deploys him in the half spaces which isn’t strange as he’s a player with attacking abilities, players with good understanding of the game, with vision and who are defensively good are the players who are deployed in the center (Loca, Pjanic, Jorginho etc).
There’s more space in the half spaces compared to the center aswel, which is quite obvious. It makes attacking and running into the box a lot easier.
I do think that if we look to our first half yesterday, McKennie was forced into difficult situations due to playing on the left side. It made him struggle. In a situations where you’re under pressure and if you’re playing on the opposite side, players often cut inside to their stronger foot, only to find their passes in very tight spaces, and often you’d lose the ball. There are player like Berna who choose the safe option and always pass the ball backwards. At least he didn’t do that.
I don’t think it’s about basic fundamentals, obviously there’s room for improvement but it isn’t easy to adapt to every situation.
I want to compliment him, first half was underwhelming even tho we don’t agree on some details, offensively he made the difference for us in the second half. I’m happy that we have a player who attacks the goal as much as he does.
His passing and concentration has to improve, and many of our attacking players should stop trying difficult one touch passes. It’s more about understanding whenever to add up the pace and when not. I’m curious to see if McKennie will finish the season as LCM or RCM.
We can’t compare him to Vidal. Arturo had his prime years at us and was world class, that’s a few bridges to far for McKennie. He has the tools tho to become a good midfielder and not only in the attacking phase for me