He's certainly captain material for club and country and for various reasons (mostly mental steadfastness) Pulisic won't be one.
If he continues to play like his current form and even gets better than I would say yes.... because CP is never going to give you the D/Press Wes brings. If you would have asked me a year ago I would have laughed. At any rate... if the last couple of seasons have taught me anything is that most players go thru ups and downs WRT form.... but the trait of having a non-stop motor and the desire to press players and cause turnovers generally pays dividends even when you are not doing well offensively.
wes has the Italian word of the day grinta. Which the moron British guy on the broadcast said translated as "aggression". It's really more like grit, determination, bravery and spirit. Pulisic, for all his talents, really doesn't excel in those areas. He's not horrible, but Wes has world class grinta. Their Italian language forum says he is now the 1st guy on the team sheet in midfield with a term that is getting translated as "indispensable" or "permanent". Also, in a universal sports fan lament their fans are CONVINCED the refs are out to get them, probably 3/4 of them are up in arms about the rules of the game and intent of the rules' application on the Wes penalty. Pretty nuanced discussion honestly. https://www.vecchiasignora.com/topic/351392-juventus-napoli-2-0-commenti-post-partita/?page=70
You're going to need to define that term. For some, it's literally the Best XI. No, I don't think McKennie makes a World Best XI. But it depends on how you define it. For me, one big question is how many Top 100 players in the world has the US had? Perhaps Howard or another keeper was at some point? Perhaps Pulisic -- certainly during the restart, but probably not for a whole season. Is McKennie there? One of the top 9 or so 8s in the world? Hmmmm. I don't think it's as simple as "Juventus" and playing as well as he is, but it's an interesting conversation.
Personally, I define it as a guy who would not look out of place starting in any squad in the world, not taking into account who else is already there or the scheme. pulisic is a good example to me. Nobody would say that he’s as good as Sadio Mane, but if Mane didn’t exist and CP was starting at LW for Liverpool, their fans would probably be pretty happy with him. I would put cp and Weston in that category right now, though they are both on the fringe. Dest and Reyna are on a good pathway to being there in a few years, and Adams is still young enough to get there as well.
Interesting. I think there's still a lot of subjectivity there, as I think that's a pretty big group of players. It's why I somewhat prefer to try and nail down a harder ranking and just avoid the word in general.
Yeah, it’s all subjective, really. Even when you talk about the truly elite, most guys will not stay at that level for long. Salah was amazing during his first season at Liverpool, but merely very good since then. It’s very very rare to have guys like Messi or Ronaldo who are clearly top 10 players for several years in a row. After that, you have a bunch of guys who are very good, but rely on circumstantial factors (coaching, health, form, etc) to really shine.
Post match dance party: 🕺 Los jugadores de la Juventus celebraron el título de la Supercopa de Italia al ritmo de salsa😅 Cristiano y McKennie siguieron los pasos de Cuadrado https://t.co/8xWDgM4x0D— AS Colombia 🇨🇴 (@AS_Colombia) January 21, 2021
Here is my opinion on world class: a world class player is one that is so valuable/productive/steady, they would be in the starting 11 of any team in the world, no matter who they hypothetically signed for at that moment. Of course, that is a very debatable benchmark. To reiterate for the second time, I did not clearly state that Weston has reached that level - but I wondered aloud if he is approaching that territory, and I argued that he is trending in that direction. he is certainly headed that way more than CP at the moment
I've been a big fan of Pulisic and I still enjoy watching him play more than any other American player in history not named Landon, but McKennie is the better player at the moment--and it really isn't close.
All this to realize a point often lamented here- the right team can make a player unlock his potential. The wrong team keeps it bottled up. I think “soccer talent scout” is honestly one of the hardest jobs in the world.
He needs to be made captain. Bradley should hand it over and let's get it done. He's adapted at one of the top 10 clubs in the world and not only that he's very engaging, open-minded and willing to commit to leave US Soccer better than how he found it.
That website has been added to my regular rotation and will continue to be while Wes is there. It's a very astute soccer message board. I like that their preferred mid-field at the moment is Wes, Arthur and Pogba. Just let that sink in for a moment.
Personally, I don't love how they used him yesterday. It's almost as if they were using him as a 9. He wasn't really getting involved in the midfield build up play, and was making runs into the box when the midfielders had the ball. Most of his runs were ignored, so most of the time he was just running around. When the ball was deep in the attacking third and the opposition had the ball, he was running like crazy, trying to regain possession, which didn't work much of the time. It was almost as if he was playing the role of a 6 in the attacking third. Odd. THe thing I love about Wes was how quickly and accurately he distributes the ball when they are able to catch the opposition in transition. He gets the ball and with one touch moves it to the proper spot/player to keep the counter on track. I'm sure this has been discussed ad nauseum above, but the guy Wes supposedly fouled in the box should have been called for barging into Wes' back prior to Wes kicking him in the ankle. That should never have been a pen, but Wes has to learn to be more cognizant of taking any time on the ball in the box.
My 2 cents. 1. Adam’s will be captain when playing fir the USMNT. 2. Wes is playing better (at his positions) right now that Pulisic is. Which is not the same thing as saying he IS better or is a better player. The latter claim is about long term abilities. How well a player plays over any shorter period is a function of a bunch of additional factors in addition to ability. 3. I do think Wes will be one of 3 or 4 players that add the most value to the USMNT, if used properly. What I love about Pirlo is that he finds ways to maximize the effectiveness of Wes’ strengths. That is the most important thing a national team coach can do.
Adams is probably equal on mentality but he's not the same level player as Wes, which is why I have to go with Weston. You can't have a bench player for Leipzig be captain over your starter for Juve unless the Leipzig guy is more experienced, and he isn't.
Late to the party on this one, but was Wes the first guy to raise the cup last night? I saw a clip of him raising it, but I didn't know if he was the first one. I know it's a small thing, but if that was the case, that's pretty huge for a guy that has been there for all of 4 months, and got the penalty called that allowed Napoli to almost equalize.
For all the handwringing about Berhalter not naming a permanent captain already, it was a smart move and we're seeing why. Adams was presumed by many to be the heir apparent. Guaranteed starter for the USMNT (still is), considered a very strong leader (still is) and may still end up captain. But he's played 2-3 games in two years. In the meantime, Wes, who always showed leadership skills, and was always likely to be a locked in starter, is now beyond locked in, and has really grown as a different type of leader than Adams, who seems more calm and reserved. I think both are good choices; I wouldn't even be opposed to a joint operation where they hand off. But I'm very glad we're not dealing with the potential drama of someone losing the captaincy right now and all that can come with that.