Brave Nieuw World: Mark McKenzie at Genk

McKenzie remained stuck on the bench to start the new season.

Club Brugge 3-2 Genk

Lost a 1-2 advantage.

PK conceded in stoppage time.

With McKenzie not playing, you love to see it!

 

Well, I love seeing them lose.

 

There’s too many Yanks in Belgium. And not enough of them are starters.

 

Otasowie doesn’t count. We’ll talk in Jan. McKenzie is good enough but the situation at his club is ridiculous. 4 CB’s, two that were expected to begone by now going nowhere. Ugh.

The other guys are all marginal for the most part TBH.

 

Right CB with the 2nd lowest sofascore out of Genk outfield players:



Hoping McKenzie gets a shot next week. Oddly enough, OO's replacement for Brugge was the worst rated player on his team 16th out of 16. Is it strange that I all of a sudden have more hope in the evolution of OO as an elite CB rather than McKenzie? Mark has none of the mental baggage and has a ton of experience but OO is just so friggin talented. If he can just keep his head on straight he could be the Yank breakout star of the year. Yeah... I know. It isn't the most likely scenario but just two months ago we would have said he had zero chance to be that guy. Now he is primed to make his mark (no pun intended).

 

Does this mean McKenzie is marginal? We were counting on players leaving for him to get playing time? Are they so good they were expected to leavev? Serious questions - I haven't followed the league or team.

 

They were supposed to leave at the end of the season he got there, but it didn’t happen. Now they are playing better than McKenzie enough to bench him, but not well enough to obviously earn a transfer.

 

No. He played quite a bit. The manager last year rotated all 4 CB’s regularly to get them time. Mark was good overall, but did have his fair share of down matches, and a few bad blunders (They all did from what I saw TBF). With all of the rotation, and a team that was wildly open in how they played it was a tough environment. When they bought Mark they expected the Colombian Lucumi to be sold. Sevilla had interest but it didn’t happen. No real interest last year, and doesn’t seem like any this year in his last year I believe. He was supposedly a big prize, but in the dozen or so matches I have seen I see little that says he is all that special TBH. The other Col, forget his name, maybe starts with a C was supposed to be next up, but he looks no better than Mark to me.

We love making excuses for our players but this one has been terrible with regards to circumstance and timing. Genk expected a nice fee from Lucumi and now they may get little to nothing. They have 3 other possible starter worthy CB’s rotating with him. Not great.
We’ll see what happens this fall but this has been a tough one.

Has Mark really proved himself. No, but he hasn’t shown he doesn’t belong. All the rotation and uncertainty at CB can’t help. Here’s hoping he isn’t pencilled in as a bench player now as they try and stabilize.

 

That’s the other guy beginning with a C! He is nothing special. Maybe Mark isn’t either, but this guy isn’t IMO.

 

Good news. Finally.

Need it to happen.

 

Well. Mark stayed on the bench and while I only saw the last 25 minutes over breakfast Genk looked good. Lucimi also looked good.
Hope it’s to ensure his transfer. Didn’t pay that close attention, but it looks like stability will be the Genk play this year. Announcers hinted at it.
Oh well. Here’s hoping Lucimi gets that move.

 

For those who can't immediately translate this (or can't be bothered): "Bologna is still interested in Lucumí, they've received an 8M Euro counter offer from Genk that they're assessing. Their first offer was 5M + 1.5 in add-ons. People close to the player expect bids from other teams in the next few days."

Seems a deal is very close.

 

How much did they pay for McKenzie?

 

I believe McKenzie was around 6 million USD.

I really hope the Lucumi transfer happens. I am still burned by what happened last summer.

 

So this should make him a de facto starter here on out right?

 

Well I am assuming so, McKenzie was as much a part of the CB rotation last season as anyone else, so I think they still hold him in some regard. I think he deserves the starting spot more than Sadick for sure.

One specific detail that has been lost in things that could play a role is that Lucumi plays LCB whereas in his time at Genk I think McKenzie has only played RCB. But McKenzie was very comfortable at LCB at Philly so I would expect him to be fine there for Genk too.

 

It's probably too late for his WC hopes, but this is probably best case scenario for Mark. Lucumi is sold, he get's a clear full half season as starter to claim the role. The ball is in his court now.

Assuming best case scenerio, he is still at the age that CCV was when he first went to Celtic and EPB at Troyes - and those two are WC hopefuls over McKenzie at this point. So, McKenzie can still turn things around and become a bigger part of the 2026 cycle atleast.