Wes released into the corner but his shaped diagonal lead pass is off enough to allow BMG to defend it. Schalke win it back and Wes is passed a ball under heavy pressure at the corner of the box, does a drag back and roll over, avoids his markers, turns inside and plays it to a teammate, 1-0 '36
Wes is 19 and doesn't look out of place in a game between two Top 50 teams in Europe. The crucial battle in midfield, however, is between Kramer and Meyer, and the young guy is losing it.
Wes defending wide right of his box, BMG player cuts back and plays a low pass along the top of the box, resulting in a penalty appeal, denied after VAR because of a BMG foul before the cross. 1-0 '41
It would be helpful if all color commentators and PBP guys were required to take 2 days of LOTG training before each season. They would sound marginally less stupid.
I've seen a lot of people saying Wes is a 'defensive midfielder', but he's playing higher than Meyer and seems pretty comfortable high up the field. I think there's a general confusion that he is a lot like Jonathan Gonzalez, but McKennie is consistently very high up the field. He is a two-way midfielder at heart, you can see it in his game.
I thought overall he was great in the first half. Won multiple balls, had an interception, a huge sliding block at the edge of the box, and made some very slick passes to spring guys under pressure.
He's what in French is called a récupérateur, and those guys don't have to be DMs. He started playing closer to the defense, though, and moved more into a B2B role of late.
Looked good. Made some excellent recoveries and was efficient in his passing. I think there were only two misplaced passes
I have seen anyone mention Wes in the same breath as JoGo. They play the game very differently. Schalke is making Wes be a 2-way mid. And when Wes plays too defensive is when he gets yanked, usually because Schalke is looking for the goal.
He seems to do that a lot when recovering on counters for some reason. Once he can do that he'll be glorious. Also, Tedesco really has to start letting Wes go forward on corners. However good he becomes at soccer, the attribute that he'll always be best at is his vertical.
That's pretty much the only way Shalke was gonna score. Great near-post OG by BMG. WesKinnine not invovled.
McK tries a seam-splitter. Good idea, but not much space and overhits to keeper. Would have had to have been weighted perfectly...
Wes gets the ball above the box with Schalke on the move and waits for a run that was not going to come before forcing a pass. 1-1 '66
I just started watching in the 65', and Schalke's had the better of the play, in my opinion. McKennie hasn't been super involved, but has had a couple deft touches in that span.
Gets fouled. Looked bad at first, but he popped up fine. Kind of awkward around the knees had me worried.
Yeah, they just notched it up a bit. It was all BMG in the first 65 or so. It really could easily be 3-0 (tho Shalke did have a goal called back themselves.) Shalke giving up too many wide right breakouts.
The announcers said that McKennie has covered the most ground of any Schalke player. That aligns with the eye test. He really is going box-to-box.
One thing I noticed about Wes' running, when he tries to catch up to an opponent in close courters he leans forward too much this causes him to actually run slower because he loses his balance in the first couple of steps. He is too heavy body wise to do that, he should try to do more power running instead which is more upright, specially when he needs to get off the blocks for shorts spurts.