Weston “Immovable” McKennie (16 Viewers)
- Thread starter KB824
- Start date
numbers support our claims about wes' box presence: out of all serie a midfielders, only bobby pereyra (
) has a higher percentage of touches inside the box. pereyra also played seconda punta (or as the tweet says, sottopunta, support striker) a couple of times, while mckennie didn't. kudos to both pirlo and mckennie for discovering and executing this skill.
an other well written piece by horncastle 
https://theathletic.com/2346157/202...e-has-cast-his-spell-over-pirlo-and-juventus/
https://theathletic.com/2346157/202...e-has-cast-his-spell-over-pirlo-and-juventus/
How Weston McKennie has cast his spell over Andrea Pirlo and Juventus
By James Horncastle
The trick Weston McKennie performed left Bologna’s defence spellbound. He was there one minute, gone the next; and by the time Lukasz Skorupski and his centre-backs saw him again, it was too late. The ball nestled in the back of their net and the game was over.
McKennie celebrated with a twirl of an imaginary wand and a cry of Expelliarmus.
The goals are coming so regularly now it’s entirely understandable if the Harry Potter fan is thinking in advance about how he should commemorate them. McKennie is already the joint-highest-scoring American international in the history of Serie A, matching former Chievo and Roma midfielder Michael Bradley.
He has charmed Juventus in no time at all and is one of the revelations of the season in Italy.
When McKennie touched down in Turin at the end of August, the Texan was portrayed as a new Edgar Davids. One of the statistics highlighted by Juventus in the statement issued on his arrival indicated he was a ball winner. McKennie had recovered possession more often than any other player at Schalke last season.
The 22-year-old’s loan from the German club suggested Juventus were recruiting with their new coach’s philosophy firmly in mind. The team needed greater intensity and durability in midfield, particularly with Andrea Pirlo placing an early emphasis on pressing and regains. McKennie’s energy and low centre of gravity made him a functional acquisition in that respect.
When he chased down Lionel Messi and shoved him off the ball at the Allianz Stadium in October, it was a situation that served as confirmation bias for those who had made snap judgements about what to expect of him.
If McKennie was signed solely to pressure Juventus’ adversaries, he has not disappointed. Three years playing in the Bundesliga — the Harvard of gegenpressing and transition football — has rubbed off on him. McKennie comes out on top at Juventus in StatsBomb metrics such as Aggressive Actions, which aggregates tackles, pressure events and fouls recorded within two seconds of an opponent receiving the ball.
To learn more about McKennie’s game, it’s useful to contrast him with Juventus’ most expensive autumn purchase, Arthur, who was brought in from Barcelona with a different remit; that of making the team’s passing quicker and slicker. Arthur perhaps unsurprisingly is averaging more open-play passes than any other Juventus player (77.03 per 90 minutes) and almost double McKennie’s total (39.54). You could be forgiven for thinking one is an architect, reaching for a pencil from behind his ear and drawing passes from side to side, the other a demolition man operating a wrecking ball.
But the damage McKennie does to Juventus’ opposition is by no means limited to when they are in possession and need shutting down. Where he has surprised is in his ability to inflict damage when the Old Lady is on the front foot and seeking to knock teams down. A criticism of Juventus last season was their failure to get enough bodies into the penalty area. Cristiano Ronaldo would go wide. Paulo Dybala would come deep. There were no runners breaking beyond the other team’s back line.
Pirlo quickly addressed that matter by designing a system with a hybrid role for one of his midfielders. Its interpretation requires the player in question to defend one of the wings and attack inside as a No 10, enabling one of Juventus’ full-backs to get forward on the flank and spread the opponent’s defence. “If we have Alex Sandro pushing up, then we prefer the wide player on the left to be right-footed, so he can come inside, and vice-versa if it’s Juan Cuadrado pushing up on the right,” says Pirlo.
After starting at Juventus in central midfield, McKennie has emerged — along with Aaron Ramsey — as the best practitioner of this tricky position-shifting job. According to StatsBomb, only Alvaro Morata (12.99 per 90 minutes) and Ronaldo (12.62) are averaging more passes and touches in the box than Ramsey (10.06) and McKennie (9.88), who have restored some of the unpredictability to Juventus’ attack that has been lacking, at least from deep, since Arturo Vidal was sold and injuries caught up with Claudio Marchisio and Sami Khedira.
The most prestigious example came in Barcelona, when McKennie shifted the ball out to assist-king Cuadrado and didn’t think twice about plunging into the box to scissor kick the return cross past Marc-Andre ter Stegen…
That goal was the apex of Pirlo’s short coaching career as Juventus became the first Italian team to score three times at the Nou Camp. It also marked McKennie out as a man for the big occasion. He’d already helped Juventus turn around the Derby della Mole, ghosting in behind the Torino defence to plant another Cuadrado curler beyond Salvatore Sirigu.
McKennie then clinched victory at San Siro against undefeated league leaders AC Milan, showing his intrepid spirit in following the play into the penalty area…
…and then a striker’s instincts to run Diogo Dalot all the way back into his six-yard box before suddenly checking back, losing the on-loan Manchester United full-back, and sweeping in Dejan Kulusevski’s square ball.
Six months into his new life in Italy, McKennie could not have predicted he would already be such an integral part of the Juventus set-up. When he doesn’t play, he’s missed.
One of the main criticisms Pirlo received after Juventus suffered their biggest home defeat to Fiorentina since 1955 centred on his decision to withdraw McKennie when they were still only 1-0 down. Kulusevski, the league’s reigning young player of the year, came on for him in the hope he might be able to match McKennie for energy and provide more finesse in the final third. The Sweden international is an outstanding multi-faceted talent and the more natural creator. Last season, he was the first foreign player in Serie A under the age of 21 to get into double figures for goals since Mauro Icardi and Eric Lamela did it in 2012-13, adding to his nine league assists. He was expected to provide his new team-mates with reams of chances.
McKennie was not. And yet, when perusing StatsBomb, it’s remarkable to see that, among the league’s central midfielders, only Udinese’s Rodrigo De Paul is averaging higher xG assisted figures (the expected goal value of a pass that leads to a shot). The McKennie backheel is now on Pirlo’s keyring for unlocking defences. It was on display against Sassuolo two weeks ago, when Rodrigo Bentancur spotted his run and played a pass over the top…
McKennie hooked the ball over one defender, held it up against another and then, with his back to goal, played through Gianluca Frabotta with a clever flick.
And it also appeared when Atalanta showed up at the Allianz in December. Here, Danilo notices McKennie making another clever diagonal dash…
He slots it through for him and, taking the defender away, McKennie then backheels it from whence he came for Morata to have a clear shot at goal.
“He’s a really important player for us,” Pirlo said, on the eve of Sunday’s 2-0 win over Bologna. “His timing and dynamism are incredible.” The Juventus coach’s point about timing isn’t exclusively about McKennie’s runs either. It’s his leap too. The FC Dallas graduate is the same height as Dybala at only 5ft 10in. But, as was the case at Schalke, his clockwork jumps and smart movement are allowing Juventus to make the most of their corner kicks. McKennie is undersized in congested penalty areas but he shouldn’t be underestimated, as Bologna found out at the weekend.
Explaining how quickly McKennie has settled under the Mole Antonelliana, Juventus’ chief football officer Fabio Paratici said: “He’s a really outgoing and intelligent kid. He’s already been in Europe for a few years and he’s used to a certain kind of football and culture. We’ve got a lot of faith in him. We’ve got great expectations for him.”
Is it any wonder then that Juventus are in little doubt about taking up their option to sign him on a permanent basis for €18.5 million come the summer?
By James Horncastle
The trick Weston McKennie performed left Bologna’s defence spellbound. He was there one minute, gone the next; and by the time Lukasz Skorupski and his centre-backs saw him again, it was too late. The ball nestled in the back of their net and the game was over.
McKennie celebrated with a twirl of an imaginary wand and a cry of Expelliarmus.
The goals are coming so regularly now it’s entirely understandable if the Harry Potter fan is thinking in advance about how he should commemorate them. McKennie is already the joint-highest-scoring American international in the history of Serie A, matching former Chievo and Roma midfielder Michael Bradley.
He has charmed Juventus in no time at all and is one of the revelations of the season in Italy.
When McKennie touched down in Turin at the end of August, the Texan was portrayed as a new Edgar Davids. One of the statistics highlighted by Juventus in the statement issued on his arrival indicated he was a ball winner. McKennie had recovered possession more often than any other player at Schalke last season.
The 22-year-old’s loan from the German club suggested Juventus were recruiting with their new coach’s philosophy firmly in mind. The team needed greater intensity and durability in midfield, particularly with Andrea Pirlo placing an early emphasis on pressing and regains. McKennie’s energy and low centre of gravity made him a functional acquisition in that respect.
When he chased down Lionel Messi and shoved him off the ball at the Allianz Stadium in October, it was a situation that served as confirmation bias for those who had made snap judgements about what to expect of him.
If McKennie was signed solely to pressure Juventus’ adversaries, he has not disappointed. Three years playing in the Bundesliga — the Harvard of gegenpressing and transition football — has rubbed off on him. McKennie comes out on top at Juventus in StatsBomb metrics such as Aggressive Actions, which aggregates tackles, pressure events and fouls recorded within two seconds of an opponent receiving the ball.
To learn more about McKennie’s game, it’s useful to contrast him with Juventus’ most expensive autumn purchase, Arthur, who was brought in from Barcelona with a different remit; that of making the team’s passing quicker and slicker. Arthur perhaps unsurprisingly is averaging more open-play passes than any other Juventus player (77.03 per 90 minutes) and almost double McKennie’s total (39.54). You could be forgiven for thinking one is an architect, reaching for a pencil from behind his ear and drawing passes from side to side, the other a demolition man operating a wrecking ball.
But the damage McKennie does to Juventus’ opposition is by no means limited to when they are in possession and need shutting down. Where he has surprised is in his ability to inflict damage when the Old Lady is on the front foot and seeking to knock teams down. A criticism of Juventus last season was their failure to get enough bodies into the penalty area. Cristiano Ronaldo would go wide. Paulo Dybala would come deep. There were no runners breaking beyond the other team’s back line.
Pirlo quickly addressed that matter by designing a system with a hybrid role for one of his midfielders. Its interpretation requires the player in question to defend one of the wings and attack inside as a No 10, enabling one of Juventus’ full-backs to get forward on the flank and spread the opponent’s defence. “If we have Alex Sandro pushing up, then we prefer the wide player on the left to be right-footed, so he can come inside, and vice-versa if it’s Juan Cuadrado pushing up on the right,” says Pirlo.
After starting at Juventus in central midfield, McKennie has emerged — along with Aaron Ramsey — as the best practitioner of this tricky position-shifting job. According to StatsBomb, only Alvaro Morata (12.99 per 90 minutes) and Ronaldo (12.62) are averaging more passes and touches in the box than Ramsey (10.06) and McKennie (9.88), who have restored some of the unpredictability to Juventus’ attack that has been lacking, at least from deep, since Arturo Vidal was sold and injuries caught up with Claudio Marchisio and Sami Khedira.
The most prestigious example came in Barcelona, when McKennie shifted the ball out to assist-king Cuadrado and didn’t think twice about plunging into the box to scissor kick the return cross past Marc-Andre ter Stegen…
That goal was the apex of Pirlo’s short coaching career as Juventus became the first Italian team to score three times at the Nou Camp. It also marked McKennie out as a man for the big occasion. He’d already helped Juventus turn around the Derby della Mole, ghosting in behind the Torino defence to plant another Cuadrado curler beyond Salvatore Sirigu.
McKennie then clinched victory at San Siro against undefeated league leaders AC Milan, showing his intrepid spirit in following the play into the penalty area…
…and then a striker’s instincts to run Diogo Dalot all the way back into his six-yard box before suddenly checking back, losing the on-loan Manchester United full-back, and sweeping in Dejan Kulusevski’s square ball.
Six months into his new life in Italy, McKennie could not have predicted he would already be such an integral part of the Juventus set-up. When he doesn’t play, he’s missed.
One of the main criticisms Pirlo received after Juventus suffered their biggest home defeat to Fiorentina since 1955 centred on his decision to withdraw McKennie when they were still only 1-0 down. Kulusevski, the league’s reigning young player of the year, came on for him in the hope he might be able to match McKennie for energy and provide more finesse in the final third. The Sweden international is an outstanding multi-faceted talent and the more natural creator. Last season, he was the first foreign player in Serie A under the age of 21 to get into double figures for goals since Mauro Icardi and Eric Lamela did it in 2012-13, adding to his nine league assists. He was expected to provide his new team-mates with reams of chances.
McKennie was not. And yet, when perusing StatsBomb, it’s remarkable to see that, among the league’s central midfielders, only Udinese’s Rodrigo De Paul is averaging higher xG assisted figures (the expected goal value of a pass that leads to a shot). The McKennie backheel is now on Pirlo’s keyring for unlocking defences. It was on display against Sassuolo two weeks ago, when Rodrigo Bentancur spotted his run and played a pass over the top…
McKennie hooked the ball over one defender, held it up against another and then, with his back to goal, played through Gianluca Frabotta with a clever flick.
And it also appeared when Atalanta showed up at the Allianz in December. Here, Danilo notices McKennie making another clever diagonal dash…
He slots it through for him and, taking the defender away, McKennie then backheels it from whence he came for Morata to have a clear shot at goal.
“He’s a really important player for us,” Pirlo said, on the eve of Sunday’s 2-0 win over Bologna. “His timing and dynamism are incredible.” The Juventus coach’s point about timing isn’t exclusively about McKennie’s runs either. It’s his leap too. The FC Dallas graduate is the same height as Dybala at only 5ft 10in. But, as was the case at Schalke, his clockwork jumps and smart movement are allowing Juventus to make the most of their corner kicks. McKennie is undersized in congested penalty areas but he shouldn’t be underestimated, as Bologna found out at the weekend.
Explaining how quickly McKennie has settled under the Mole Antonelliana, Juventus’ chief football officer Fabio Paratici said: “He’s a really outgoing and intelligent kid. He’s already been in Europe for a few years and he’s used to a certain kind of football and culture. We’ve got a lot of faith in him. We’ve got great expectations for him.”
Is it any wonder then that Juventus are in little doubt about taking up their option to sign him on a permanent basis for €18.5 million come the summer?
