The fact we have five Americans likely to see the field today in the Champion's League brings a near tear to my eye. McKennie is fitting in fantastically at Juventus, too.
Recently, he's been good, settling in. He's been fantastic today, too. He was really coming into his own the second half of last season at Schalke, clearly their best player, and I think he's gained confidence as the weeks have progressed.
Overall. I’m not watching today. He’s a good energy guy. He at this point just isn’t good enough technically for Juventus’ ambitions, which is to be the biggest provincial club in Europe.
Juventus isn't going to hit that level, but I do think you are underrating McKennie's technical ability a bit. He also provides some of the bite Juve has been missing for the past few years. Regardless, for the first time ever, I think there are legitimately three Americans who have the talent, or potential, to play on a top 5 squad in the world regularly in Dest, Pulisic and Reyna.
He just isn’t good enough passing the ball. “biggest provincial club in Europe” is a backhanded slap at Juventus. Not exactly a compliment.
I think he can have a place there. I just don’t see him as a guaranteed big game first XI guy long term
Meanwhile, Dest is every bit as good a player to start on a regular Barca squad, yet has the misfortune of joining them as they slide back into the pack. I still don't understand why Barcelona didn't sell Messi for the cash this past summer to Man City when they had the chance to cash in. Messi's now old and unhappy, plus likely to leave for free now. Stupid. Of course, they didn't exactly do such a great job of investing the Neymar money they recieved.
The Pjanic/Arthur swap didn’t make much sense either. They’ve kind of fallen into the splashing money on the shiny new toy without thinking about building a team trap
I bet if Bayern, PSG, Liverpool, or City had Dembele, in two or three years he'd be a superstar. Barcelona are just rotten from the top down, no identity(which is an absurd statement) which has led to terrible moves in the market, they keep on shuffling managers which means a lack of cohesion and direction in the squad. Messi was a bandaid for all of their issues, but now he's ineffective, they have no defense, a ton of aging players, a ton of class players that rot on the bench. A joke of a squad. And La Masia isn't even a top 5 academy anymore. Their scouting is atrocious. It's a mess and a lot of their players are paying the price.