100%. If smaller, quicker guys like Pulisic and Adams are a knife, Wes is a grenade. And he's one of the rare guys who particularly relishes the explosion. He's absolutely a game planning nightmare for the other team. What a wonder he's so durable too.
For you kids on this board, take a look at Charles Barkley in his day. He was a monster with a body type that mirrors McK. He worked his but off and went head to head with the biggest and strongest of his era. Unfortunately, look at him now.
🗣 Barzagli on McKennie:"He surprised me the most this season. He was going to leave but instead he's proving to be very valuable to the team. [@Gazzetta_it] #Juventus pic.twitter.com/YvtIrH78re— Forza Juventus (@ForzaJuveEN) December 3, 2023
Yeah, I noticed it about a month or so ago. I thinks he’s always been an adidas predator guy, but must have switched contracts/boots to the Puma FutureZ’s about a month or two ago. I think Puma is really making a push to increase business in the States and get in Business with some of our Yanks. Sorry if this is boring/irrelevant, I like Soccer kicks.
Puma kings and gazelles were awesome back in the day. That’s about as much as I can add to this conversation.
Yeah, they do! But it ain’t got nothin’ to do with looks. They don’t look alike. It’s that backside! Why do you think Chuck was a good rebounder? The man could box out a semi truck with that booty. I’ve seen Wes stick that booty out and defenders bounce of him. Defensively I’ve see him do the same with a little added hip check and win that ball back easily.
Now if he could just get Gyasi to give him some lessons on how to score goals wit dat Azz. I will show myself to the door...
Maybe wes relative to soccer players is like chuck relative to basketball. But chuck is massive relative to wes.
Barkley was relatively undersized forward in the NBA. He did not have the most athletic body but was able to maximize what he had. He had an appearance of being on the verge of overweight his whole playing career . That is the comparison I'm making. McK is a specimen and a great ball player. He may look like he could lose a few, but he is comfortable. That is what makes him the player he is, he is comfortable at the weight he's at. When he hits the commentator booth in a few years, that may all change.
He had a good appearance on Ream's podcast where he discussed this. Wes said that he tried losing weight and eating "healthier" but he found that he didn't have enough energy to play his game.
I thought the weight thing was/is kinda funny - I thought WM also kinda embraced it with his joking about silly eating habits. One thing that can be said about Wes is it seems like he doesn’t take himself too seriously. I’m personally not seeing world class disrupting or anticipating - he covers a lot of ground and is very disciplined in being in good spots - but he seems more solid than world class to me and I still think he plays a lot of prevent defense and not a lot of getting stuck in. I assume it’s partly what he’s been coached to do.
Another 90 minutes for W. McKennie (though he did get subbed out in the final minutes of injury time), another 1-0 victory. This time over a provincial side named Napoli. It's starting to annoy me though that Juventus keep getting these Friday matches.
It was another good outing - covered tons of ground and was fun seeing him get so far forward. Bummer he didn’t score on the bicycle chance or get a tidy assist that was probably offside and came off the post anyway.
Man. I forgot all about this. I coulda avoided more work. Juve are the kings of the 1 goal win, esp the 1-0. Amazing: 10/22 - 1-0 10/28 - 1-0 11/5 - 1-0 11/11 - 2-1 11/26 - 1-1 12/1 - 2-1 12/8 - 1-0 That's some stingy D and holding on to tight margins.
Wes is a workhorse who will always have to prove himself. But, so far, he's doing it. That's a lot more than can be said of many stars who have a handful of games where they care in a season, and many more when they're injured or just seem not to care.
I don’t know what “world class disrupting” is, but I’ve basically said it before but I’ll make it explicit, I think McKennie is the USAs most influential player. When he is on, no one in concacaf is beating us; when he is on, Juve is tough to beat. Some of his stuff doesn’t always come off, but he, as Bruce said about Dempsey, “tries shit.” But the unsaid part about that is that he sees it too. People seem to confuse his lack of elegance with lack of effectiveness sometimes
Chuck was called 'The Round Mound of Rebound' as far as a comparison with Wes, Wes looks like he carries baby fat, he is definitely not a lean/cut athlete.