The 24-year-old Juventus star may be surplus to his club’s poor administration and the lure of playing for an American coach in one of the Premier League’s worst teams. https://bolavip.com/en/soccer/Westo...e-for-the-USMNT-midfielder-20230125-0011.html
Agree with the general statement that it would be a poor move. I disagree to a certain that he has greater value (I.e. a lock to move to a good club) as his health/form has been poor the past year and his WC performance was fine, but limited due to his ability to go 90 minutes. Juventus is going to praise him as they want to get the best value. Still, I would like to see him try to go to a traditionally better team than Leeds (Tottenham is an example). He still has experience and his motivation/impact on games is enough to have move to Champions League Club.
Can't really agree with the article. For one, there's too much emphasis on Champions League in general -- to the point that it criticizes Aaronson from moving from Salzburg to the EPL, which is just silly. Two, Juventus ain't playing UCL ball next year. They also may be relegated because the points deductions aren't necessarily done yet. True, in two years they may be back, but they also could just be getting back to Serie A. There's a ton of uncertainty and Juventus also may need to sell other players, making them a worse team. It's just not a good set up. There's only so many places to go, and McKennie's an unusual player. There's a whole slew of teams who would never be interested that could afford him -- and not just the upper echelon. His skillset is erratic at times, which makes him a player you need to use a certain way. I don't know that Leeds are the right team, but I highly suspect he'd struggle for minutes at Arsenal. And it's far worse to spend your prime sitting a bench than "just" playing in the EPL.
Come on, Marsch. Go ahead and go out and buy Jedi, Dest, Richards, Carter-Vickers, Pulisic, Musah, Vazquez, and see if you can snag a trade between Meslier and Turner.
Leeds' fans love of Meslier is really odd for a keeper who has been at the bottom of EPL shotstopping two seasons in a row now. Turner would instantly save them from relegation, I think. Best upgrade they could do.
i agree, but theyre riding him into the ground right now. i think being able to rotate him (hopefully wide a bit) and get him a game off every now and then would ultimately be good
Definite loss of prestige and I do see the lack of European competition as being a real issue. And overall, it's never comforting to see one of your key players taking a step down when they are still young. Still, I'm not sure it is all bad. If he goes to Leeds, he will most likely be expected to be a larger presence on the field than what he is at Juve. He will be relied on more and will take on greater responsibility. This could lead to him becoming a better overall player in the long term. It will be important that he doesn't end up signing a permanent deal and getting relegated and then falling down to the second tier as that would be a disaster. But Leeds does play in a very strong league, and he'll have a lot of opportunity to show himself against top competition and to take on a leadership role. As long as he's successful, and part of that success means keeping Leeds in the top tier, he will make a nice bit of money and he'll have future opportunities. If he isn't successful, then maybe we all over-rated him from his time in Italy and need to readjust our expectations. I'm hoping for the former. And if he is the kind of guy needed by Champions League teams, he's got time to get somewhere else down the road. He's still young enough that I wouldn't expect Leeds to be the last stop on his journey.
Bad move for WM. The wide open, end to end, style that Leeds play doesn’t suit him. He will be gassed after the first 45. Aaronson’s problem has been lack of width by Leeds attack. He’s playing, primarily, central where the field has been super crowded. Leeds need to stretch the defense better or their struggles in the final 3rd will continue… Mckennie won’t help with this. At all.
when the last time he had a goal or assist in any game? flopped in wc imo started hot in epl then hasnt done anything since
Scoring doesnt happen that much in the EPL. Leeds are a mid-tier scoring side(11th), and 3rd on the team has 2 goals. Aaronson is one little moment or deflection away from being tied for 3rd on the team. Measuring a players first half-season in a new league on goals rather than overall play tells nothing.
For the sake of debate, let me somewhat disagree (although I certainly see a lot of truth in what you’re saying).... McKennie seems to be evolving into more of a wide midfielder more than anything else. In my opinion, at least. That’s not necessarily where I would think that he seems to be best fitted but that’s where he seems to be playing for Juventus and where he sort of seemed to want to play for the USMNT during the World Cup. He finds the edges. Even though he’s not your archetypal winger who is just a cheetah that will get in behind, but more of a slow build up winger who also knows how to crash the box when it’s time to do so. And even though he’s a big boy, he seems to hold up pretty well over the 90 minutes for club and country - except during the World Cup when he was nursing an injury.
https://motleedsnews.com/exclusives...rsch-hes-cost-leeds-united-sky-sports-pundit/ well....aaronson is only starting at this point bc of marsch, imo does he have good future? yeah but right now,..hes not producing in a role that requires production.
Juve's fans have wanted him out for quite a while so they got their wish. Weston McKennie to Leeds, here we go! Understand Leeds will pay €1.2m loan fee — deal will include buy option clause for €33m plus add ons 🚨⚪️🇺🇸 #LUFCLeeds president Radrizzani unlocked the deal with Juventus in the night.McKennie has agreed personal terms with Leeds. pic.twitter.com/mY1g6Fuql0— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 28, 2023 I think now that they have been penalized 15 points in the standings, it's a good time to leave as their season is pretty much lost anyway.
is there such a thing as an obligation to buy unless relegated clause? seems like that would be best for all involved. also, photoshopping a "new player holding up/wearing their new kit" pic is a horseshit thing to do. thats always been the official confirmation that ends all rumors/speculation, and if people start faking that, ugh...
Even if you believe it's a bad move for him personally, is it a bad move from a USMNT perspective? Considering the limited number of opportunities for camps, having 2/3 of your core central midfield practicing and playing together on the same club seems like a tremendous advantage for the national team as a whole.
2 reasons why them playing together isn’t necessarily a good fit for the USMNT. 1. Mckennie shouldn’t be the auto starter that he is for the Nats. IMO, he’s always been grotesquely overrated as an 8. 2. Assuming we stick with GGG, or someone in his mold (4-3-3), the system Marsch employs at Leeds is a bad contrast to play in daily. Especially for a holding midfielder, like Mckennie.
I think we’re going to have to learn to play multiple ways to be successful anyway. Maybe having a core with the experience helps facilitate more tactical flexibility?
Here is Weston leaving Turin.... #McKennie lascia Torino e vola in direzione Leeds // McKennie has left Turin, he’s now flying to Leeds ✈️🇬🇧 @Goalitalia @Goal pic.twitter.com/z243Sz66EF— Romeo Agresti (@romeoagresti) January 29, 2023 He doesn't seem too happy.
1. Grotesquely overrated? Ok. I do believe he’s not consistent enough, and also, the MMA midfield, for all its qualities, is poor at feeding attackers. But grotesquely overrated players don’t typically have so many different coaches valuing him. It’s more likely you underrate him than all those millionaire coaches grotesquely overate him. 2. A coach who plays McKennie as a holding mid is missing the boat; Weston as a space eating box to box mid is a pretty great player. Asking him to be a technical metronome, Claudio Reyna 2.0, is bad. But I don’t know of any coach who has played him in that role. Do you?
My problem here is the Fulhamerica days when we had some of our key players McBride, Dempsey, Boca, Keller, etc all playing for one club who while in the premier league, were a team struggling to stay up and constantly battling relegation. It just kind of gives me this depressing feeling like "have we really improved that much?" I get it that we have other players, and American managers, and Leeds of course are a bigger club historically, but I just get this feeling it's like the late 2000s again. Ironically, Fulham still have US players and are flying higher in the Premier league...
Argentina had players from Aston Villa and Brighton in their starting lineup at the World Cup final, and both played crucial roles. They also had a player from Manchester United, who spent that whole game on the bench alongside their player from Atlanta United. It just doesn't matter that much. EPL is EPL, and teams that want to stay up in that league need to have at least a few very good players.
I have always questioned just how much this “level of the league” really matters in regards to the national team. I mean yeah ok playing in a better league and team should in theory make you a better player but I haven’t seen much evidence of it in regards to national team results. We had a bunch of players playing in Europe in this last World Cup and couldn’t beat Wales , England or Holland and barely beat Iran. They played well against England but still failed to score a goal. Having Pulisic on Chelsea , Dest on Milan and McKennie on Juventus also didn’t really improve the level of play all that much. Getting into the second round was a grind so the level of the league that the players play in didn’t mean all that much.