Weston McKennie-Just another player to increase US profile? or something more?
Salutations, I’m back again with another profile of a player that Leeds United are about to sign, This time it’s Weston McKennie from Juventus, countryman of Tyler Adams & Brenden Aaronson who is currently plying his trade for the Italian giants Juventus.
Today I want to answer if this is just another American face to join the club to boost our profile in the states or if there is more behind this than just his birthplace.
Playing Style and positional Flexibility
Weston is a very versatile player in that he has played a lot of different positions across his career, but he has played the majority of his time as a Central Midfielder, as you can see below.
But I’m not that massively interested in positions he can play, I want to know what he can offer on the pitch and try to nail down why he’s played in so many different positions. What are his strengths and weaknesses.
So the first thing I did was looked at his data, and try to see what this tells me about McKennie.
*All Data in this article unless otherwise stated is from FBREF.com*
So above you can see his FBREF scouting report’s for the last 3 seasons, these profiles are very heavily influenced by the team as much as the individual and across these 3 years there have been some turbulent times for Juventus.
In the 20/21 season Weston had his probably best professional season on an individual basis in Andrea Pirlo’s first season at Juventus, playing a lot as a RM or LM in the 4–4–2 system Pirlo was using at the time but also playing a lot in CM.
In the 21/22 season he picked up a pretty lengthy Metatarsal injury as well as some knee issues, ruling him out of around 20 games which meant his season was disrupted but you can still see how that he still did have a good season on an individual level at the things he does well.
Then finally this season(22/23) he has been playing under a new coach; Massimiliano Allegri, Weston has played again mainly as a CM but has also been played as a RWB in a 3–5–2 system. Allegri has had some criticisms this season, especially on the European level as they were knocked out of the group stage of the Champions League, losing in every single match besides one 3–1 victory against Maccabi Haifa.
So what can we read from the above data about Weston? One thing which immediately stands out to me is his stat for Progressive passes received, This has been one of his best rated stats across all of these 3 seasons, this shows to me that he is good at finding space to receive the ball in advanced areas. Especially in 20/21 when he was in the 95th percentile receiving 5.13 progressive passes p90.
In addition to this his stat for touches inside the penalty area has also been high in each of his seasons, reaching a high point in 20/21 when he was in the 97th percentile, which shows me that he is capable of being involved inside the most congested area of the pitch.
These touches inside the penalty area weren’t wasted either, in that 20/21 season his stats for Non-Penalty xG was in the 98th percentile, showing to me that he likes to shoot from inside the box and the below shot map backs this data up too.
What else can we glean from the data? I can also see that he isn’t a midfielder who progresses the ball, not once in his 3 seasons at Juventus did he get higher than the 39th percentile for progressive passes, and the same can be said for his overall volume of passes. Meaning he isn’t a high volume passer and nor does he complete a lot of his passes. Which means I’m not likely to see him involved much in deeper buildup phases.
Looking deeper into the data I can see some promising things relating to his passing, firstly that his long passing stats are pretty good. In his time at Juventus he has averaged a 72% completion for long range passes(30 Yards or more), but he doesn’t attempt a high volume of them with around 3.21 attempted p90. However considering his low amount of progressive passes at 2.6p90, it’s quite possible he picks his moments when to play long.
I don’t want to talk about the majority of Weston’s defensive stats, as stats like these aren’t always very useful in determining if they are good or bad at something and mostly show just volume.
However one thing which is of concern to me is his success rate stopping direct dribblers, across his time at Juventus and Schalke he has a 35% success rate in stopping direct dribblers, which shows that this could be something of a vulnerability of his. But will caveat this, as he isn’t often on the receiving end of a player trying to dribble past him with it only happening 1.7 times on average p90.
The last thing I want to say on his stats is a brief note on his aerial ability, Weston stands at around 6ft tall so he’s a tall boy, and his stats for winning aerial duels are reasonable, winning on average 57% of his aerial duels across his career. Which means he could be a useful figure to have inside the box as well as in the attacking midfield area, given we do try to go long at times.
The Eye Test
So, we’ve seen what the data says about Weston and what I take from that data. But lets see what he looks like. I’ve watched games from both this season and in the 20/’21 season. I feel this will give me a fair reflection on the type of player he is.
Firstly he has a lot of energy, can be seen pressing high even late in games. So he has stamina which is a very valuable trait for a team like us. On top of this stamina he has a good amount of strength so is able to compete in defensive battles as well as not being bullied off the ball.
Then the final part when it comes to his physicality is his speed, while he doesn’t have lots of acceleration, he also isn’t slow. He’s able to move well with and without the ball. His height gives him long legs which he uses well to get away from opponents when under pressure.
Basically he’s an athlete, he has all the physical attributes you would want from a Central Midfielder. It’s these very traits which mean he’s best suited as a box to box midfielder. It’s pointless sticking this man behind other midfielders because you’re wasting these attributes.
But just because he’s an athlete that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have technique, he’s comfortable with the ball at his feet even when under pressure, his passing ability is fine all around. Not spectacular but still of a pretty high level. He doesn’t often attempt to dribble past players but picks his moments well with a 77% success rate during his time at Juventus.
While he can have his moments where he fails to control a ball, he seems quite adept at bringing down long balls. Using his long legs to his advantage to control them. Which could be of help to us as we do play a fair few high balls.
When he is played in wider areas as a RWB/RB/RM, He seems to be pretty fond of playing 1–2 give and go type movements, which is something which we’ve valued in Luke Ayling for a long time. These are seen especially in deeper wide areas. Additionally if he see’s space in front of him he will drive into it with the ball, which attracts players to him making space for passes.
I have seen a lot of him being involved in wider areas when he is playing at CM, he likes to drift into spaces and then make lots of runs forward into space, giving options for passes in advanced areas, even beyond the last defender. This is something I saw of him under both Allegri and Pirlo so seems likely to be his own trait, rather than managers asking him to do so.
During sustained periods of possession for his team he doesn’t often drop deep to help with buildup, he’ll be much more likely to be seen finding spaces further up the pitch and can even be seen occupying spaces alongside the teams attackers. He will try to be a presence in the box, giving extra work to defenders.
He often tries to make runs beyond the final defenders which aren’t always picked up, on top of these he can make late runs into the box attacking balls being laid back to him from teammates or aiming to attack the near our far post.
However, just because he doesn’t often contribute in buildup doesn’t necessarily mean he’s bad at it. In games where I’ve seen him play at RB/RWB he has been involved in some deeper areas and from what I saw he was pretty effective at doing so. Which means that it is possible for him to play in our double pivot or at RB if needed.
One thing I especially enjoyed of his when playing in deeper areas is he does look to play the ball quickly to attacking players, which will especially suit the way we play. He’ll often look up and if someone is free he will release them if he can.
I mentioned earlier than Weston is capable in aerial duels, this looks to be accompanied with the ability to head the ball well. Twice this season he has scored headers from set piece situations which will be a nice added threat to our set piece attacking.
Overall I would say he’s average with his defensive contributions. His pressing is good but he can leave space with poor decisions as to when to press. Additionally he can switch off in some defensive moments. Below are a few examples. But I would say it isn’t something I’m overly worried about, as would expect him to be more active in our final third than defensive third.
Team Fit
Lastly I want to touch on how and where he could fit into our team and what potential changes we may make to fit him in as he’s arriving for a large fee and will be one of our highest earners, he will expect to start the majority of games.
For the majority of our games this season we have setup something like the below. I’ve also attached some basic descriptions of roles the players were usually playing in the side. I’ve only labelled the positions I think Weston is likely to play in, but the role I’ve labelled may not be where he will play.
Below is what I think is the two most likely scenario we will see after Weston has joined. This isn’t what I think should happen, but I think this is the most likely thing Jesse Marsch will do.
My problem with the above two possibilities is they both involve Roca being dropped, Which would be a problem for me with how key Roca is to our progression and he links our deeper area’s to attack better than anyone in the side.
I am a fan of Weston after I’ve watched him in depth, but one thing he is not is a ball progressor. He is best suited where he has influence in the final third and be the one receiving the progressive passes, without Roca in the side he wouldn’t have the player to feed him and we would be relying on solely ball carrying and vibes to progress the ball.
Below is the shape which I feel both suits our team and also plays to Weston’s strengths the most.
If I had to put a terminology on the role he would play in the above it would be “Box Penetrator” in advanced areas and “Ball Outlet” when we have the ball in deeper areas. He would try to make himself available for a pass proceeded by either a 1–2 with a supporting attacker or just lay it off for these attacks so they can progress the ball.
Adams as the deepest player operating as a screen to our defence, we are vulnerable to counter attacks in this system and I feel it’s important to keep Adams deep to protect against this.
Roca would sit a little ahead of Adams but behind Weston, playing balls to both Weston and the other players in the attack, he’s our best player to play these types of balls.
Whichever players are chosen for LM/RM(I’m happy with any option as they are all good) will do what they do best, carry the ball and create chaos in the attacking half, while you would have Weston making runs into the box alongside whoever is playing upfront making space for Weston or moving into the space Weston will create with his runs.
One other outside chance which I would like to see is a total change in shape, and if whoever succeeds Marsch is a fan of 3–5–2/3–4–3 systems then I would be delighted to see something like the below or a variant 3–4–3 which would give us more width and give extra options in attack.
Conclusions
Weston is a very good player, he has a lot of good about his game and not a lot of bad. With the right supporting cast he could be a success for us, it looks likely he will be loaned to us with an obligation to buy if we stay in the Premier League for around 30–40mil.
Some people feel that the fee is on the high side but I don’t agree, he’s a player who has been playing regularly for a Champions League side in one of the top European league’s and think the fee is about right for a player of this level.
In addition to the above point, McKennie is only 24 years old, so enters the team at a pre prime age level, which means his best years are theoretically yet to come. So he retains the possibility of us selling him in the future for potentially more than we paid for him and at the least we’ll be able to sell him for around the price we pay or maybe a small loss.
There is a risk however, that we don’t use him in the correct way or make sacrifices in other areas of the side to fit him in and my concern is that the wrong sacrifices will be made to our starting lineup, which could ultimately make our attack less effective.
Either way I am happy to see a player of Weston’s calibre enter the side and the question I started out asking, if he was just another American to join the USMNT revolution happening in Yorkshire?
The answer is no he’s not just another American, he’s a high quality player who just happens to be American. Lets just hope we can make best use of his abilities.
Thanks for Reading
Martin
