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USMNT 2023


ztejas

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16 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

756DA534-D5C9-4B9B-8C5E-1919C323A28D.thumb.jpeg.33828e29c6b76e96fd078acaca9a4b26.jpeg

Matt Turner voted MOTM by Arsenal fans after his near perfect performance against Man City. it's really kind of crazy how far he's come during his short time at Arsenal.

He was really good before he got to Arsenal. He just had to settle some jitters and adjust to a big club environment. 

Y'all got a good one. He's going to be another elite keeper in a long line of them for the NT. 

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1 hour ago, shadow_operative said:

756DA534-D5C9-4B9B-8C5E-1919C323A28D.thumb.jpeg.33828e29c6b76e96fd078acaca9a4b26.jpeg

Matt Turner voted MOTM by Arsenal fans after his near perfect performance against Man City. it's really kind of crazy how far he's come during his short time at Arsenal.

Well, Bruce Arena was his head coach in New England and even though Bruce was a goalie, you’re not going to learn shit as a keeper under his tutelage.

He was obviously a fast study even though/ because we know the focus on soccer came later and yet he quickly learned the ball stopping skills, but he needed to be exposed to a real coaching staff because he could flourish. 

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7 hours ago, ztejas said:

No. Fuck that. Dude has never won anything. 

Also - how are there even rumors right now when we don't have a GM or whatever the title is? 

Go home Telemundo. 

I saw that last night when i spotted that thing about the cross confederation champions league. This was my very same thought. 

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i don't follow this stuff as closely as you guys do, but i can't figure out why Balogun wasn't starting for us at this last WC. seems like a really obvious move to aggressively try and cap tie him before that event with promises of playing time, which he absolutely would have earned and deserved anyway. for us to be calling up so many MLS clowns while not rolling out the red carpet for Balogun makes no sense to me. 

 

Edited by shadow_operative
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1 minute ago, shadow_operative said:

 

 

i don't follow this stuff as closely as you guys do, but i can't figure out why Balogun wasn't starting for us at this last WC. seems like a really obvious move to aggressively try and cap tie him before that event with promises of playing time, which he absolutely would have earned and deserved anyway. for us to be calling up so many MLS clowns while not rolling out the red carpet for Balogun makes no sense to me. 

 

I wonder if we even tried. Klinsmann sure as shit would have tried. Gregg probably didn't have time to consider it between waxing his head and working on his ball tossing skills.

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12 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

i don't follow this stuff as closely as you guys do, but i can't figure out why Balogun wasn't starting for us at this last WC. seems like a really obvious move to aggressively try and cap tie him before that event with promises of playing time, which he absolutely would have earned and deserved anyway. for us to be calling up so many MLS clowns while not rolling out the red carpet for Balogun makes no sense to me. 

Because he has to actually say yes to playing for us? Seems very likely that his current priority is playing for England. If that doesn't happen fast enough we might have a shot.

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12 minutes ago, goatsaag said:

Because he has to actually say yes to playing for us? Seems very likely that his current priority is playing for England. If that doesn't happen fast enough we might have a shot.

is there any evidence we've earnestly pursued him? he's way down the pecking order for england, may never play for them, whereas he could have started for us last year and then the next 3 or even 4 WCs as well. guys want to play. i have to think that if we had aggressively pursued him that the allure of being a starter for a good team at the WC at the age of 20 would have been enough to win him over- or that we at least would have heard about said pursuit.

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43 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

is there any evidence we've earnestly pursued him? he's way down the pecking order for england, may never play for them, whereas he could have started for us last year and then the next 3 or even 4 WCs as well. guys want to play. i have to think that if we had aggressively pursued him that the allure of being a starter for a good team at the WC at the age of 20 would have been enough to win him over- or that we at least would have heard about said pursuit.

No, we did not promise an Arsenal U-19 player on loan at Middlesbrough, but not getting consistent minutes there, a starting role on our team that was struggling to qualify for the World Cup.

We then did not promise an Arsenal U-19 player with an uncertain club situation a guaranteed starting role for the 2022 World Cup. Instead, we brought a 24-ish year-old former US youth international with a familiarity with some of our young starters, like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, and who was scoring loads of goals in Turkey (Haji Wright) for our June camp.

And finally, we chose to bring back Pepi rather and give him a look after he started showing signs of life in the Dutch league rather than promise a starting ro!e to a kid who only knew Yunus Musah from three years ago, but who was in the process of trying to earn minutes with a new club when players came together for the September camp.

Shockingly we did not guarantee a starting role to a kid who was starting to get comfortable in the French league when the final roster was selected 2 1/2 months ago.

There was never a time before the final roster selection was made for the 2022 World Cup that guaranteeing a starting role to this kid ever made sense. 

I would love to have him play in the U-20 World Cup in May and the Olympics next year, but I don't think that he will make a final decision before late 2023/ early 2024. I think that he will only play friendlies for England until he knows his future.

If he is excluded from the English squad for the 2024 Euros and then only gets a few minutes in one or two friendlies in late 2024, THEN he may consider playing for the US. Until there, US Soccer just needs to keep in touch.

 

"We need to hurry up and cap-tied him."  is like my saying "I need to hurry up and get Ana de Armas pregnant so that she doesn't marry one of the movie moguls/ripped & rich actors that she's always hanging out with in Hollywood, London, Paris, Rome, & Cannes."

 

Edited by Napoleon
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53 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

is there any evidence we've earnestly pursued him? he's way down the pecking order for england, may never play for them, whereas he could have started for us last year and then the next 3 or even 4 WCs as well. guys want to play. i have to think that if we had aggressively pursued him that the allure of being a starter for a good team at the WC at the age of 20 would have been enough to win him over- or that we at least would have heard about said pursuit.

Is there any evidence that he'd pick us? Pefok is probably the most similar to this situation. He wanted to play for France and settled for us once he got old enough that it seemed like it wasn't going to happen. Just based on all of the other dual national stuff we've done under Berhalter, I'd be shocked if we hadn't reached out.

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On 1/28/2023 at 4:32 PM, Napoleon said:


I looked at that match’s box score when he was still on the bench. I was hoping that he’d get called in.

 I think that he is a dual national, but I could see him choosing the US and that leading to Jonathan Gómez choosing Mexico after the 2024 Olympics.

 

So now you’re a British regard who places the subject at the end of your statement. Whether you’re calling football matches or tennis matches, it will never NOT be annoying  

Just don’t start saying “Coper Americker”.

(Or are you a mensch from Central/Eastern Europe who secretly came to the U.S. 100+ years ago, but you can’t let go of your Yiddish-influenced English?)

Like you've never used vosotros with a lisp after a couple of drinks to impress a campesina. 

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4 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

Like you've never used vosotros with a lisp after a couple of drinks to impress a campesina. 

No, boludo. I haven’t.

it would be better to talk about Miami, NYC, LA, or Texas in English than use the vosotros with a stupid lisp.

 

1 hour ago, The Dog said:

 

I have seen Jedi try to make one-touch passes in the defensive quarter of the field and I have seen Jedi try to do that cross thing that wingbacks are supposed to be proficient at.

This possible move is fucking hilarious.

He can run and run and run, but his skillz are crap.

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25 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

No, boludo. I haven’t.

it would be better to talk about Miami, NYC, LA, or Texas in English than use the vosotros with a stupid lisp.

 

I have seen Jedi try to make one-touch passes in the defensive quarter of the field and I have seen Jedi try to do that cross thing that wingbacks are supposed to be proficient at.

This possible move is fucking hilarious.

He can run and run and run, but his skillz are crap.

Pep Guardiola seems to think he has something. I think he's probably a little more qualified than you in player evaluations. 

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23 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

No, boludo. I haven’t.

it would be better to talk about Miami, NYC, LA, or Texas in English than use the vosotros with a stupid lisp.

"Oh he must watch La 2" works with a certain subset of educated women...or could be that I'm blue-eyed with an American passport lulz

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Athletic Article: How McKennie sealed Leeds transfer following Orta’s vision and the American connection
 

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“It was stressful,” McKennie told The Athletic after officially joining Leeds tonight. He had first been told that a bid for him from Yorkshire might be on its way a fortnight ago. “I’m at home and one minute I’m chilling. The next I’m calling my agent like ‘do I need to pack, do I not need to pack, what am I doing?’ I’ve got three dogs, I’ve got everything up and running in Turin, perfected. I’m trying to figure out what I need to do because I’m not just packing one suitcase.

“I’m the type of player who lives in the moment so when I heard the deal was possibly going through, going through the process and all trending well, in my head it was already ‘I’m leaving, I’m coming to Leeds.’ Then you start thinking ‘is it happening, is it not, what’s going on?’ It was a bit of a head-turner but as soon as I was told ‘you’re flying tomorrow’ — good!”

 

 

Full:

 

Spoiler

How McKennie sealed Leeds transfer following Orta’s vision and the American connection

How McKennie sealed Leeds transfer following Orta’s vision and the American connection
By Phil Hay
Jan 30, 2023

147


The Athletic has live coverage of transfer deadline day. Follow along with the latest deals, news and analysis. 

Weston McKennie to Leeds United is a done deal and the links between Elland Road and the United States grow stronger but Germany and Gelsenkirchen is where the roots of this transfer lie.

McKennie has joined a club who are stars and stripes in so many respects: with Americans as their head coach and primary assistant, future American owners and, after McKennie’s transfer from Juventus went through, a squad with three USMNT internationals in it. But as negotiations played out last week, German Bundesliga side Schalke were referenced in dispatches as the place where Leeds’ tracking of McKennie first started, the part of his career which caught director of football Victor Orta’s eye and got him thinking.

Orta has a tendency to work like that.

Initial interest develops into long-term appreciation and sometimes, as with Robin Koch, a deal is done to sign a player who Orta has been monitoring in the background for years.

Leeds, it transpires, first thought about buying McKennie in 2020, the summer when Juventus prised him out of Schalke, initially on loan. After that, with the move becoming permanent the following March, the idea of recruiting him was shelved but Orta has a habit of staying in touch, keeping the door open and nurturing relationships in the meantime. Communication improves the odds of a successful outcome if the opportunity presents itself again.

That was where Leeds found themselves with a week of this year’s January window to go, after a call to Juventus was met with a receptive response at the other end of the line. Before last Tuesday, when an enquiry from Elland Road bloomed into active talks about the 24-year-old, it was not certain McKennie would be leaving the Italian giants this month. He was aware that Leeds admired him and there was talk about Premier League interest from Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest but none of it promised anything definitive.

McKennie, in any case, had been a regular presence in Juventus’ team during the first half of the season and, for much of this month, Leeds spent time thinking about Azzedine Ounahi, Morocco’s World Cup star.

 
 
McKennie had been tracked by Leeds since his time at Schalke (Photo: Ronald Wittek/Pool via Getty Images)

Signing a new central midfielder was a temptation but not an outright necessity. As they came into January, Leeds’ priorities were a defender capable of playing left-back and a quality forward — bases covered by the £10million ($12.3m) arrival of Max Wober from Red Bull Salzburg and the record-breaking capture of Georginio Rutter from Hoffenheim for a fee that could rise to £35m ($43.2m) with add-ons.

The club had allowed Mateusz Klich to move on after more than four years in England, terminating his contract so he could join DC United ahead of the 2023 MLS season, and that slimmed down their midfield ranks, but whereas Wober and Rutter were viewed as essential additions, signing a new central midfielder was dependent on availability and price. The latter, in the end, was where Leeds’ interest in Ounahi fell down.

When they asked French club Angers about Ounahi last summer, they were told he would cost between £8m and £12m ($9.9m and $14.8m).

When they went back to Angers in this window, following his impressive World Cup with surprise semi-finalists Morocco, the club currently bottom of Ligue 1 were talking about a fee closer to £20m ($24.7m), if not more. Napoli, the Serie A leaders, were also quoted a high price for the 22-year-old which they declined to match. Orta told Leeds not to go overboard on him and, if it came to it, to leave Ounahi alone.

By last week, Leeds were actively working on McKennie instead and Napoli had not budged either.

It might have been a sign of the lack of active offers for Ounahi that on Sunday, with less than three days to go before the transfer deadline, Angers sold him to fellow French club Marseille for less than £10m ($12.3m) up front — a modest fee given his performances at the World Cup.

 
 
Leeds were told by Angers after the World Cup that Ounahi would cost around £20m ($24.7m) (Photo: Mike Hewitt – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

McKennie was valued much higher, above £20m ($24.7m) by Juventus — and that price tag was considered realistic.

The deal struck by Leeds, a loan for the rest of this season with an option to buy which the Yorkshire side plan to activate in the summer, will cost them closer to £30m ($37m) if they do take McKennie permanently, reflecting his Champions League experience (24 appearances) and his status as one of the leading members of the USMNT squad.

Triggering that option to sign him full-time will rely on Leeds avoiding relegation, and there are also other conditions attached.

Based on assurances he has been given about what his role will be at Elland Road, McKennie can expect to be in the thick of Leeds’ Premier League campaign, provided he stays fit.

Juventus are in crisis after an investigation into their financial management ended with a 15-point deduction in the league.

Head coach Max Allegri even talked about relegation as a genuine threat for a side now 13th in Serie A after they lost 2-0 to Monza on Sunday, a match which played out as McKennie was preparing to board a flight to the UK.

Nonetheless, a loan deal with an option for McKennie suits them. Even if Leeds had completed a permanent deal now, Juventus were not planning to spend money on new players in what was left of the January window.

His transfer is highly likely to become permanent later this year but if for some reason that plan falls through, McKennie’s value will not diminish drastically. Where Leeds are concerned, they avoid a scenario where they take on a £30m ($37m) fee and then fall back down to the EFL in May. Contracts held by players of McKennie’s stature invariably include relegation release clauses.

 
 
USA’s McKennie takes on Virgil van Dijk of the Netherlands in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup (Photo: Chris Brunskill/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

After several days of discussion over the structure of the deal, a loan with an option to buy worked for everyone.

There were complications on Friday night, at a point where McKennie thought the transfer was as good as wrapped up. By then, he had started saying his goodbyes to team-mates in Turin and was getting ready to travel to England. Further discussions the next morning, though, got all sides on the same page and by lunchtime, Allegri was confirming to the Italian press that McKennie would not be involved against Monza. “He is at the centre of a negotiation,” Allegri said. “I think the club have already found an agreement with his new team.”

“It was stressful,” McKennie told The Athletic after officially joining Leeds tonight. He had first been told that a bid for him from Yorkshire might be on its way a fortnight ago. “I’m at home and one minute I’m chilling. The next I’m calling my agent like ‘do I need to pack, do I not need to pack, what am I doing?’ I’ve got three dogs, I’ve got everything up and running in Turin, perfected. I’m trying to figure out what I need to do because I’m not just packing one suitcase.

“I’m the type of player who lives in the moment so when I heard the deal was possibly going through, going through the process and all trending well, in my head it was already ‘I’m leaving, I’m coming to Leeds.’ Then you start thinking ‘is it happening, is it not, what’s going on?’ It was a bit of a head-turner but as soon as I was told ‘you’re flying tomorrow’ — good!”

Orta tracking McKennie since his Schalke days did not mean the US connection at Leeds was not important.

Tyler Adams, a fellow central midfielder McKennie has grown up with internationally and will now link up with domestically, was influential in selling the move and the location. Adams was at Elland Road this evening to welcome McKennie and interview him for the club’s TV station after as he finalised his loan forms. While Juventus are in a spell of trouble, they were Italy’s dominant club for years and McKennie was accustomed to mixing in Champions League circles. Prior interest from non-Champions League sides in England had failed to attract him in the same way.

Jesse Marsch, Leeds’ American head coach, spelt out McKennie’s role in his line-up, and McKennie was given an idea of how Leeds want to evolve down the line, with a takeover by minority shareholder 49ers Enterprises bubbling behind the scenes. The overall vision satisfied him enough to say yes.

Though a permanent move to Leeds for McKennie would technically happen in the summer transfer window, the past month has seen the club commit to £70m ($86.4m) worth of first-team players — beyond what was widely anticipated for January.

Monday also saw them put in place an agreement for Diego Llorente to go on loan to Roma, a switch which is intended to become permanent and could recoup the £18m ($22.2m) paid for a centre-back who has never managed to wholly convince in two and a half seasons in England.

It has been the most active January for years at Elland Road and a break from tradition for a club who, for so long, saw the winter window as a bad time to do business.

In getting McKennie over the line the day before the deadline, they have comprehensively pushed the boat out.

 

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Balogun was always a pipe dream. He has 14 apps and 7 goals for England's U21 team. He was never going to commit ahead of Qatar and like Nap said we wouldn't have called him up anyway. 

19 hours ago, Napoleon said:

I have seen Jedi try to make one-touch passes in the defensive quarter of the field and I have seen Jedi try to do that cross thing that wingbacks are supposed to be proficient at.

This possible move is fucking hilarious.

He can run and run and run, but his skillz are crap.

He has a lot of potential and that's what any move would be based on but yeah I thought that was a bizarre rumor. As of right now he's nowhere near the level City plays at.

Also - didn't realize (or forgot) he's already 25. If that rumor is true Pep must have a very specific role in mind for him - perhaps further up the pitch as I've always thought he's better on O than D. 

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In news that actually affects the USMNT…

DFFF69AF-287D-4FC2-B143-50C4BF7121A4.thumb.jpeg.a12414a9bd0a10f1a5a71fdc2df8275e.jpeg

Spanish club Valencia sacked coach Gennaro Gattuso on Monday following the team's poor results.

Valencia said in a statement they reached a mutual agreement with Gattuso to terminate his contract.

The announcement came after a 1-0 loss at Valladolid in the LaLiga on Sunday, with the club having just one victory in their last 10 league games going back to before the World Cup.

The latest defeat dropped Valencia to 14th place, one point above the relegation zone.

Valencia's only two wins this year came in the Copa del Rey, though they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Athletic Bilbao at home last week. In the Spanish Super Cup, Valencia lost to Real Madrid in a penalty shootout in the semifinals.

The former defensive midfielder helped Italy win the 2006 World Cup and AC Milan win two Champions League titles, both as a player. He coached Milan and Napoli in Italy.

Valencia did not announce a replacement for Gattuso, who arrived last June on a two-year contract, but said the team would return to training on Jan. 31 under the direction of former interim coach "Voro" Gonzalez.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/spanish-laliga/story/4865292/valencia-sack-manager-gattuso-with-team-near-relegation-zone

 

This totally affects Yunus Musah, because he was an every game starter under Gattuso.

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Athletic: How Weston McKennie will fit in at Leeds
 

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While it is odd to think of a first-choice midfielder being a poor passer, even in this age of role specialisation, McKennie’s strengths in receiving and ball recoveries should help round out the midfield when deployed ahead of summer signings Adams and Roca. That spatial awareness should be a welcome addition for Roca in particular, as the Spaniard can lack options to receive his line-breaking passes due to Leeds’ narrow shape.

Marsch may need to move further away from relying on a 4-2-3-1 base formation in order to accommodate a trio of midfielders who certainly did not come to Yorkshire for 25-minute shifts from the bench. Some of that work has taken place already this month: after lining up in a 4-3-3 just once before the World Cup — in October’s 1-0 defeat against Arsenal at home — Leeds have used the shape for four of their five league matches since play resumed post-Qatar, with Aaronson and Wilfried Gnonto alternating makeshift midfield responsibilities.

Although teenager Gnonto has been an electric inclusion, McKennie could offer much of the Italian’s threat to receive progressive balls while giving Leeds a more natural base shape. Marsch could then play the matchup game by game and pick between Aaronson and Gnonto to join Jack Harrison and Rodrigo in the attacking third — without giving them additional orders to track back.

 

Article:

 

Spoiler

How Weston McKennie will fit in at Leeds

NAPLES, ITALY - JANUARY 13: Weston James Earl McKennie of Juventus looks on during the Serie A match between SSC Napoli and Juventus at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on January 13, 2023 in Naples, Italy.  (Photo by Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images)
By Jeff Rueter
Jan 31, 2023

51


There’s a convenient shortcut one can use to assess Weston McKennie’s fit at Leeds United: an increasingly strong connective tissue coloured red, white, and blue.

His coach at Elland Road is fellow American Jesse Marsch, who could also commiserate with McKennie about their respective stays in the German Bundesliga. He’ll join a midfield including their countryman Tyler Adams, the captain of his national team who has been a first-choice option for the USMNT alongside McKennie for years. When he looks to leave the centre of the park, he’ll do so alongside another American Brenden Aaronson, another U.S. international who became Leeds’ record signing last summer.

Scan beyond the obvious, however, and you’ll find an interesting partnership.

For McKennie, this will appear to be a step down from a perennial title contender in Juventus to a side mired in a Premier League relegation scrap. Leeds’ move to sign him should not be seen as Marsch offering a life raft to a compatriot as the S.S. Old Lady appears to be taking on water. Rather, Leeds’ transition to playing in a 4-3-3 more often required someone who can do all the pressing work of a defensive-minded midfielder without forcing the coach to put another deep-lying player onto the pitch.

“I thought seriously,” McKennie told The Athletic on Monday at Elland Road. “Juventus are a Champions League club, a strong club, one of the top teams in Italy and around the world. But for me, I just felt like I couldn’t express my style or play and my full potential there. Leeds are a team who I feel like I fit toe-to-toe with everything that they want to do and accomplish.

“I have friends here. Obviously I think about myself first because it’s my career, but it helps. Tyler’s a similar player to me. He fits in well here, so I’ve heard only good things. That’s how I came to my decision.”

For a player so often asked to do everything he can to keep an amorphous team well-calibrated, a more specialised role could be needed for his development. Conversely, Leeds have found a younger midfield replacement for Mateusz Klich, who has moved to D.C. United of MLS this winter — and  McKennie won’t struggle to find friendly faces as he acclimatises.


When analysing McKennie, it is easy to prioritise the proverbial eye-test over the numbers.

It is impossible to look away from the U.S. international when he is at his best. McKennie is a sharp reader of a game who loves to get into dangerous areas to give team-mates an outlet for passing — to force another Americanism into the mix, something of an ideal game-breaking wide receiver. His often eye-catching hairdos (with a patriotically colourful patch at the recent World Cup) are outshone by his work rate, which seemingly keeps him in the TV cameras’ shot no matter the vantage point. He’s also been somewhat amorphous in his young career, that less-specialised player who coaches often ask to fill gaps left open by more defined team-mates.

“When I was at Schalke (from 2016-20), I was all over the place,” McKennie said yesterday. “I was playing right-back, I was playing midfield, I was playing striker, I was playing centre-back… everywhere. I learnt to play different positions.

“When I came to Italy, they could see I was a bit hectic in some of my runs and pressing sometimes — running 60 yards instead of running 30 yards and doing the same thing.

“I definitely learned some tactical and positional discipline. But at the same time, it became a little bit too much — where it felt like I was on a string. The string is pulled here, the string’s pulled there and I couldn’t completely have some type of freedom.

“That was one of the main reasons why I came to the conclusion that I’d come to England and see how I shape up.”

GettyImages-1225256647-scaled.jpg
 
McKennie holds off Borussia Dortmund’s Achraf Hakimi during his time at Schalke (Photo: Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)

Like Aaronson and Adams before him, his first chance to make a strong impression on his new fanbase could come with his defensive pressing.

So far in 2022-23, McKennie has averaged 4.98 ball recoveries per 90 minutes, with 41.9 per cent of these coming in the opposition’s half of the pitch. In comparison, Klich averaged 6.48 during two and a half Premier League seasons for Leeds, playing mostly under Marcelo Bielsa, including 47.4 per cent in the attacking third. Some of that was dictated by the difference in styles seen in the Bundesliga and Serie A, as McKennie averaged 8.18 recoveries per 90 with Schalke, while that rate dipped to 5.5 after moving to the fallen Serie A giant.

While he filled the role assigned to him, it was never a fully compatible match between Juventus’ style and McKennie’s brand of flair.

“In Italy, there’s a little bit more on the serious side — not in a bad way either,” McKennie said. “They’re very presentable. I’m very, I don’t know… outgoing. I have a really big personality and sometimes it doesn’t work out. Also, the playing style. Italian football in general is very defensive and different paced to what you get here (in England). I’m a very up and down (box to box) type of guy, so that was another reason.”

McKennie will no doubt hope that Marsch will enable him to unleash more from his game, which he had to contain at the Allianz Stadium.

That box-to-box approach should serve Leeds well as it works to progress up the pitch more quickly. Currently, Leeds average 14.4 passes per minute of possession, a tick below the league average of 14.68. Leicester City lead the Premier League with a 16.2 passing rate, while Southampton operate at a more lethargic 13.1 clip.

While Leeds pass close to the league average, they aim to be more progressive than most.

Their 64.6 progressive passes per 90 is fractionally ahead of league leaders Arsenal, ranking sixth overall behind Liverpool, Manchester City, Brighton, Tottenham and Manchester United. While Marsch’s current midfield partnership of Adams and Marc Roca have both proven capable of spraying passes from deep, McKennie will be far from redundant.

image2-1.png

To put it mildly, McKennie is seldom compared to Andres Iniesta.

Among all midfielders in the European game’s Big Five leagues who played at least 500 minutes ahead of the recent World Cup, none had a smaller share of his team’s live (aka, open play) passes than the U.S. international. However, only six qualified midfielders had a higher share of their team’s received progressive passes, illustrating his capability of getting into promising areas down the pitch.

The same point can be illustrated with a full season’s worth of play.

McKennie logged 1,369 league minutes for Juventus in 2021-22, starting in 15 of his 21 appearances. In that time, Smarterscout data shows that his receptions were far more impactful for their ball progression as a team than his passes or his carries.

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While it is odd to think of a first-choice midfielder being a poor passer, even in this age of role specialisation, McKennie’s strengths in receiving and ball recoveries should help round out the midfield when deployed ahead of summer signings Adams and Roca. That spatial awareness should be a welcome addition for Roca in particular, as the Spaniard can lack options to receive his line-breaking passes due to Leeds’ narrow shape.

Marsch may need to move further away from relying on a 4-2-3-1 base formation in order to accommodate a trio of midfielders who certainly did not come to Yorkshire for 25-minute shifts from the bench. Some of that work has taken place already this month: after lining up in a 4-3-3 just once before the World Cup — in October’s 1-0 defeat against Arsenal at home — Leeds have used the shape for four of their five league matches since play resumed post-Qatar, with Aaronson and Wilfried Gnonto alternating makeshift midfield responsibilities.

Although teenager Gnonto has been an electric inclusion, McKennie could offer much of the Italian’s threat to receive progressive balls while giving Leeds a more natural base shape. Marsch could then play the matchup game by game and pick between Aaronson and Gnonto to join Jack Harrison and Rodrigo in the attacking third — without giving them additional orders to track back.

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Adams and McKennie, team-mates with the USMNT, reflect on the draw with Wales at the recent World Cup. Now they are club-mates at Leeds (Photo: Maja Hitij – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

After so much instability on the pitch since before Bielsa was replaced by the American last February, McKennie’s signing appears to give Leeds far greater balance in midfield.

Roca can stay back with greater confidence that he’ll have a target to find with a pass while Adams continues doing the metronomic work of alternating a series of short passes with his tireless efforts to disrupt opposing build-up sequences.

There is also the fact that, as the squad stood previously, Marsch’s go-to midfielder after Adams and Roca has been Sam Greenwood — a raw youngster who, up to the very end of last season, was regarded as a centre-forward. Beyond that, Adam Forshaw, a 31-year-old veteran of Leeds’ days in the Championship, has lacked fitness this term and barely played, and Darko Gyabi also boasts little experience at age 18.

While signing a central midfielder now was not an urgent priority, it was not difficult to make the argument that Leeds recruiting one of McKennie’s calibre in this window felt extremely prudent.

They can also enjoy a trial period to determine if he is the missing piece to complete Marsch’s newly preferred midfield trio before committing significant funds to making the move permanent.

McKennie was brought in on loan with 24 Champions League appearances for Schalke and Juventus to his name, with Leeds holding a purchase option close to £30million ($37m). Currently a point above the relegation zone, they will have to avoid the drop back down to the Championship over the next four months if they are to trigger that option, on top of certain other conditions.

But that is a question for later in the season. For now, McKennie is squarely focused on making a strong first impression for a team hoping to escape the battle at the bottom of the league far sooner than they did last season, when survival was not assured until the final match. That is very much in his character, as those close to him say he’s “too much of a fighter” to stomach being relegated.

He has enough to focus on the short-term to ensure that purchase option does not loom over his Premier League debut.

“I’m an in-the-moment type person — I’m coming here with how the deal is but if I love it then I don’t see why not,” added McKennie when asked about the prospect of staying. “If maybe Leeds aren’t happy with me or I’m not happy, we’ll see how that goes.

“But, for now, my head is here.”

 

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5 hours ago, Napoleon said:

We have as much of a shot at Balogun as Poland did with Slonina and Croatia did with Pulisic.

More of a chance than Argentina or Portugal did with Gio, but less of a chance than we did with Dest & Musah.

Soooooo, you're saying? But please without the bold, it hurts my ears.

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I've always wondered how much culture plays into these decisions.  Obviously if you love your country and never considered playing for another despite the option, the decision seems easy.  Or, if you're from a smaller, less televised country, perhaps you could raise your profile by choosing, say, England over <insert smaller country>.

For those in Europe that are making their way up the corporate soccer ladder, perhaps the US is a great choice for international play.  European football is a grind.  The media is a grind.  Choose the US and you get a mini-vacation a couple of times a year + you'll get a more fawning fan base/media. 

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There is nothing that I’m aware of on the UEFA summer 2025 schedule.  I’m hoping at the very least we get some World Cup quality teams even if it isn’t England and France.   
 

If this happens.  We just went from basically no competitive matches in the lead up to 2026, outside the Gold Cup finals in 2025, to 2 amazing tournaments in like 3 weeks 

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I was looking up Balogun, Musah, & Saka yesterday or the day before. 

All three are the sons of Africans who grew up in England (at least for part of their youth and were in the Arsenal system as well as the English youth teams.

Musah‘s parents are Ghanaian 🇬🇭 and he live in Italy until he was 7 or 8 and then moved to England until he left for Spain at age 16.  

Born 11/29/2002 (almost a ‘03)

Joined the Arsenal academy in 2012.

 

Balogun’s parents are Nigerian 🇳🇬. He got to England when he was tiny and joined the Arsenal system in 2008.

Born 7/3/2001

Except for 4 U-18 matches in 2018 for the USA, he has played in the English youth system from 2018-> 

 

Saka’s parents are Nigerian 🇳🇬. He was born in England. Joined the Arsenal system in 2008.

Born 9/5/2001

Played in the English youth system from 2017->

Is 2 months younger than Balogun, same cultural background, has played with him since he was 6 or 7 in the Arsenal system and for the English youth system at times in 2018-19.

Balogun tends to play on the left or centrally whole Saka tends to play on the right, so it is likely that they played on the front line together for more than a decade  

 

There is a possibility that Balogun selects the USA, but it would make much more sense for him to play with England. The only central or left forward competition in front within 6 years of his age is Marcus Rashford. There are 4-6 left or central forwards within 3 years of his age on the USMNT.

Then again, I thought that Dest would certainly select playing for the Dutch. Instead, he got smoked by the Dutch in the 2022 World Cup.

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57 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

Then again, I thought that Dest would certainly select playing for the Dutch. Instead, he got smoked by the Dutch in the 2022 World Cup.

Dest played for the US all through his youth years. I think his mind was made up pretty early after he felt snubbed by the Dutch. 

Musah was the shock - never played with the US at any level.

Balogun at least has four appearances with a US youth team. I think that ship has sailed but anything can happen. 

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5 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

There is nothing that I’m aware of on the UEFA summer 2025 schedule.  I’m hoping at the very least we get some World Cup quality teams even if it isn’t England and France.   
 

If this happens.  We just went from basically no competitive matches in the lead up to 2026, outside the Gold Cup finals in 2025, to 2 amazing tournaments in like 3 weeks 

The only things I see are June 2025 - World Cup Qualifying and the KO phase of the Nations League.

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Mama Danielle is going to be on her cunt phone to the Dortmund sporting director after Gio once again does not start.  

Then, to add insult to slight, up a man and two goals early in the second half, Dortmund sends in not one, but TWO 18 year-olds get subbed in as Gio (likely pouting) is left on the bench at home in Dortmund in the 67’.

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4 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

mckennie leeds debut.....  leeds had all of the ball, and zero end product, mckennie came on '58 and proceeded to do...... nothing, like the rest of leeds

forest managed a 2nd shot off a turnover

forest play ugly, relegation-avoiding football, and they're now 13th

Keylor Navas beats the USMNT once again!

I think that I posted in the Premier League thread, but maybe elsewhere...

As soon as Forest signed Navas, they basically booked their ticket into next year's Premier League. They are not going down with Navas between the pipes.

Leeds were never going to win this match after Navas was signed. Maybe a tie, but never a win. And now that Everton appear to be using meth, this is going to be rough for Leeds. I could see them going down.

Don't know if Nottingham has a small pitch, but there didn't seem to be any space at all to get on the ball. I played indoor games in high school that were played at a slower pace than this match. 

Tab Ramos and Freddy Adu would have been the USMNT players needed for today's match. 

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