Weston McKennie is the Walmart Jude Bellingham

Analysis

Juventus' season is in danger of coming off the rails, and one of their midfielders is a big reason why.

While their chances to win Serie A were always slim, under Thiago Motta's leadership a top 4 finish and some good cup runs were always expected.

But in the last month, Juventus have been knocked out of the Champions League by PSV, then out of the Coppa Italia by Empoli. So their chances of winning a trophy are gone, and then they suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of Atalanta.

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That loss means Juve are now eight points behind third-place Atalanta in Serie A, while being just one point ahead of Lazio in fifth and two ahead of Bologna in sixth. Even a top 4 finish is now far from guaranteed.

Most of Juve's problems can be traced back to their difficulty winning games. Juve have a staggering 13 draws this season, the most in Serie A.

Dusan Vlahovic's profligacy up-front is a big factor here, but also the lack of production from their American midfielder Weston McKennie who has most often been deployed as the most advanced of Motta's midfield trio.

McKennie signed for Juventus on loan in 2020, with a purchase option of €18.5 million that they executed in March 2021.

There was much hype about this signing, despite Schalke being genuinely terrible. And when McKennie scored in back to back wins against Torino and Barcelona in early December, the hype went through the roof.

But the truth is, McKennie isn't good enough for a club like Juventus. He isn't a creative midfielder worthy of the role he has in the team.

Numbers Never Lie

True, he is athletic and definitely gets up and down the pitch in a box-to-box way, but this season he has just 42 shot creating actions in Serie A. That's less than Patrick Dorgu (58), Che Adams (49) and Empoli's Scottish midfielder Liam Henderson (45)

That total is miles off Juve team-mates Manuel Locatelli (69), Andrea Cambiaso (70) and young winger Kenan Yildiz (92).

42 shot creating actions places McKennie 91st overall among Serie A players. And that is just not good enough for a club like Juventus.

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Similarly, McKennie has 13 completed take-ons which puts him 89th among all Serie A players. And while you could argue that he's a box-to-box midfielder, team-mate Khephren Thuram is also a box-to-box midfielder and he's completed 25.

McKennie just isn't outstanding enough at any one attacking thing to justify his consistent inclusion in a Juventus midfield that usually has two men doing what he does better than he does it (Locatelli and Thuram).

But McKennie scored against Man City.

And he scored on PSV in the first-leg of their play-off as well.

Plus his equaliser against Parma, or the opening goal vs. Monza.

Then you go back to those goals against Torino and Barcelona in his debut season.

McKennie is an all-around player, a true jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. Except perhaps the knack of scoring or creating important goals to get everyone off his case.

The Walmart Bellingham

In this way, he is like Jude Bellingham. A similarly dominant athlete who excels at effort stats and defensive input and shouting and pointing and running... looking busy. He can also play "anywhere" in midfield despite preferring to be a central attacking midfielder.

But where McKennie has very little in the way of quality, Jude Bellingham's 27 completed take-ons places him 25th among all La Liga players. And his 65 shot creating actions is also 25th among La Liga players.

He also has 7 goals and 6 assists to compare with McKennie's 2 and 3. And that's just this season. Looking back over previous years and despite Bellingham being five years younger than McKennie the difference in class is colossal (62 career club goals vs. 23).

See, Jude Bellingham may be too much of an all-around talent to excel at any one thing, but he is a player dripping in stardust and game-breaking ability, as he has shown time and again for Birmingham, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and England.

With the greatest of respects, Weston McKennie is just an all-around talent, and there's not really all that much talent there either if we're being brutally honest.

Essentially, Weston McKennie is the Walmart Jude Bellingham. The name brand knock-off version that costs a lot less and is a passable imitation if you're just trying to get by.

And that's fine if you're content to win domestic cups (McKennie has three with Juve) but if you want to make serious progress in both Serie A and the Champions League then you're going to need to sign players that can seriously play.

Will Juve take that leap? Can they?

Time will tell.