Tag: Thiago Motta

Weah: I’ll be a ‘different player’ under Juventus coach Motta

The USMNT star is hoping a new coach and new position will turn his fortunes around

Tim Weah is hoping that a new season, a new coach and a new position can make all the difference for him at Juventus.

Weah move to Juve last summer from Lille, and was expected to lock down the team’s starting wingback spot under then-coach Max Allegri.

Instead, the U.S. international endured an up-and-down campaign that saw him mostly relegated to a substitute role by the second half of the season.

Though there were rumors Juve was looking to move on from the 24-year-old after just one season, he has instead been given an injection of new life by incoming head coach Thiago Motta.

Weah has been moved up to the wide attacking role he’s played for much of his club career, and continues to play with the U.S. men’s national team.

He’s also been used as a starter for most of the club’s preseason, indicating the USMNT winger is well positioned for a regular role under Motta in the upcoming season.

Weah spoke to his club’s website after its 2-0 preseason defeat to Atlético Madrid on Sunday, indicating he wasn’t concerned about a lack of preseason wins as he eyes a personal turnaround in 2024-25.

“I saw positive things today, especially in the first half. We have to continue to work like this in training, because the next game will be a league match and it will be more important. We are not worried about the loss, since it was a preseason friendly,” Weah said.

“I am totally focused on the field and on helping the team. We have to continue like this, all together. We have a new coach, a new system of play, we’re more focused on attack, and I think I will also be a different player, it’s what we work on together every day. We have very good rapport.”

Juventus will kick off the 2024-25 season next Monday with a league match against newly promoted Como.

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Juventus really wanted Weston McKennie gone last summer. History may be repeating itself.

The USMNT midfielder was forced to change with academy players, among other indignities

Weston McKennie has opened up on his outcast status at Juventus last summer, revealing details on how the club ostracized him following his return from his loan at Leeds.

The U.S. national team midfielder had a rough spell at Elland Road in the second half of the 2022-23 campaign, returning to Turin last summer as an outcast.

Though Juventus initially wanted to offload McKennie, the midfielder instead worked his way back into now-former manager Max Allegri’s plans and became an ever-present for the Bianconeri in the 2023-24 campaign.

In an interview with The Athletic, McKennie said he couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the treatment from Juventus last summer.

“I knew it was going to be (challenging). I didn’t know it was going to be to that extent; where I didn’t have my locker, I didn’t have a room in the hotel, I didn’t have a parking space,” McKennie said, echoing comments from his USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter in March.

“I changed in the locker rooms with the academy kids, even when you had players in the main locker room who had never played a game for Juventus because they’d always been out on loan. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve only been gone for six months. I come back and I am treated like this.’

“I couldn’t even get my shirt number (14), even though nobody else had taken the number. I was like, ‘OK you guys want to treat me like this? I’m just going to show you on the field.'”

Motta prepared to sell McKennie

Though McKennie proved to be one of Juve’s most effective players last season, it appears the club is once again prepared to offload him this summer.

The 25-year-old’s contract expires at the end of the upcoming season, with talks over an extension seemingly at a dead end. McKennie was rumored to be nearing a move to Aston Villa as part of a swap deal, but that transfer now appears to be off due to McKennie’s failure to reach an agreement with the Premier League side.

That leaves McKennie in a difficult spot at Juve, whose new manager Thiago Motta has reportedly decided the American isn’t in his plans.

Tuttosport claims Motta is entering his first season in charge without McKennie in mind, which could mean the midfielder will be heading for another new club — whether it’s Villa or not.

At least for McKennie, being forced to prove himself all over again would be nothing new.

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