The Weston McKennie USA N&A thread

I will reserve judgment until it is confirmed he does not use ranch dressing anymore.

 

On that note, I propose a daily Weston McKennie thread. A new one.

Just because.

 

McKennie's career has been an escalating series of moves between "gee I dunno this seems like a bit beyond what he's capable of" to "no, actually, Wes is like the best guy here".

Long may that continue.

 

Ugh,only plebs go there.
Our wizard requires a thread on the ELITE board.

 

This is the problem with the idea of messing up the MMA midfield. Who do you sit to "try" to get more offensive production? Adams is a defensive rock. McKennie shows up in the data as better than most think. And Musah is a freak of nature at 20 years of age. We lose a ton sitting any of them and I'd say we lose way more then we gain by inserting Aaronson or current-form Reyna.

 

Not wanting to sit any of the three is why I really believe this team needs four midfielders.

 

But then you have to sit a forward. Who are you sitting? The weakest spot is the 9. So, we could put Reyna or Aaronson in the midfield but then we're either dropping the 9 or Weah. I'm not sure a front 2 of Pulisic and Weah is going to be that effective. Then you also lose Weah's good wing play. I think some people think this is an easy decision when I don't think it really is.
I'd love to see Dike or Sargent turn into a really good 9. That would get rid of a crap ton of headaches we have.

 

I agree. I think Gio kind of blew that up by being a jackass. I mean, if his behavior was so bad he almost got sent home, there's no way the team would have been ok with him starting a game. I would have also been ok with Aaronson in that spot. But seems Greg wasn't.

 

You rang?

Here's your problem: Berhalter was counting on McKennie as his 10, his CAM, with Musah and Adams defending/holding. McKennie is not a 10.

There's also issues with the stat in terms of how judicious it is to break a line in a particular situation.

But, whatever. You didn't expect me to sit still for the dinner bell, did you?

MMA was not a balanced midfield. That was the problem.

 

Until we get the "sure thing" international quality #9, which would ultimately be for the best for many reasons, I'd also favor a 4-man midfield. Obviously, there are plusses and minuses.

Others have suggested it, so I'm not treading new ground here. A 4-4-2 also plays to my personal biases for how I see the game and how I usually coach (I always have liked how a 2-man front can unbalance a defense, if done well). And I get to watch it done locally with the Philly Union, where it has been effective.

--------------------------Pulisic---------Weah(future #9)---------------------

-----------------------------------Reyna(Aaronson)----------------------------
-----------------Musa-------------------------------------McKennie------------
------------------------------------------Adams-----------------------------------

Jedi----------------------------CB----------------CB-----------------------Dest


1) It works just fine for Musa and McKennie, who are both #8 types (stronger versions of the Union's Bedoya and Flach). To keep this focused on McKennie, he really reminds me of a stronger, more assertive version of Bedoya. Work hard, progress the ball, crash the box for the occasional goal. Emotional, on-field leader type.
2) Suits Adams well, too.
3) Leaves the space for Jedi and Dest to make those runs up the wings.
4) Carves out a logical role for Reyna (and Aaronson, or maybe guys like Booth and Tillman at some point).

Yes, Weah doesn't scream classic #9. But Pulisic can easily play the mobile second striker role; who crashes the box better or finds gaps better?). Maybe two smart, mobile forwards is the way to go. And once a true #9 develops, he can play as part of a subbing rotation up top.

Maybe with the 4th midfielder, the coach won't be as tied to the MMA trio and can afford to give one a break during tournaments.

NOTE: This is going forward. The whole Gio Reyna issue would have made this unlikely at the Cup, and I'm not arguing for that in hindsight.

 

Great analysis. The only thing that I would add is that we need to start thinking more of our second team at all positions, but especially with MMA. Do we try to go like to like replacements or just the second team mean adjustments to formation/strategy? Who are MMA replacements?

 

If the guy you absolutely have to squeeze in is Aaronson I'd rather shoehorn him in as the wide man in a 4-3-3 (largely because that allows Pulisic to play in his most natural way), but if the guy you absolutely have to squeeze in is Reyna I agree with this analysis.

 

Agreed that the 2nd team midfield was severely lacking and this needs to be sorted out over the next couple of years. The US had no quality #8 subs for Musa and McKennie. I was OK with Acosta as a pure #6 sub for Adams (and since Adams was the captain, he wasn't likely to leave the field in key moments for the lesser Acosta). But we had neither like-for-like at #8, nor a logical late-game adjustment to something different.

 

McKennie was fantastic until he faded. Hope he keeps it up.

MMA midfield can win games, but they need a different philosophy with the wings/9.

 

McKennie clearly wasn't match fit for 90 minutes.
And I guess de la Torre wasn't fit enough for 1 minute.

Berhalter tried a lot of guys as McKennie backups this cycle. None of them really stuck.

People argued and hemmed and hawed all cycle about their favorites. Even telling us that these guys were better than McKennie!!! [None of them are close right now.]

The MMA midfield outplayed England's much more vaunted midfield trio.

But the depth behind them isn't there. When we think we start to see it, it evaporates. Like Busio and Tessmann in Serie B. Like Chris Cappis. They're all limited. De la Torre couldn't take a mushroom. Sands doesn't have the motor required. Others had long injury-layoffs like Eryk Williamson. So guys then start demanding that we play guys who aren't central midfielders and don't fit Berhalter's tactical plan at all, should play as central midfielders. Say what?

You know who led MLS in assists amongst USMNT-eligible midfielders? Sebastian Lletget. He kinda quietly had a very nice season after people stopped paying attention to him.

Our midfield depth got so dicey that we legitimately had people openly campaigning for the re-inclusion of dinosaurs Ale Bedoya and Michael Bradley.

And by the way, if we had no intention of ever playing Luca de la Torre due to injury..............either one of them would have been better. I don't know if that's the case.

Anyway, my point is that McKennie played very well. As did Adams and Musah. But a real priority as a new USMNT coach (hopefully) starts in 2023 is to build depth around them. Guys we're confident in when the going gets tough.

 

not bad since I read here he only had one good game. Must have been a hell of a game.

Bottom line is he's invaluable. A must on the 11. He's the scapegoat for some BA fans but the reality is clear.

 

I thought he was good in every game until he tired. Some saw it differently and that’s ok too.

 

You have to make a distinction between x and y axis. When you do and you consider what the stat represents, you see that our midfield is not in balance. Why? Because the chart shows that McKennie is breaking lines by passing about 2.75 times each 10 times he gets the ball but only 0.35 times per 10 touches (1 in 30 times) carrying the ball (dribbling). Breaking lines by passing also depends on how good the receivers are.

I said it just by eye test when watching this team in Qatar: Weston, if anything, would be a deep lying playmaker but Berhalter plays him as a 10 because he is playing with Adams and Musah who are not 10's. McKennie can't dribble past guys when it gets crowded near the attacking zone. Musah is better at it. That's why we seldom scored and why we led all teams at the tournament in futile crosses while teams invited us into the center where they knew MMA couldn't hurt them. When MMA did venture into the middle, the ball sprang loose and out it went to the Dutch wb's who feasted on our depleted back line.

Weston's duplicating other mids in MMA is what makes the combination unworkable once we face tactical savants in R16 games. It worked v. Iran for a while but the margin was 1-0 right down to the last whistle as Iran steadily tightened the screws offensively and came within a whisker of drawing and sending us home.