Bb4 vs Bb6 in the 5. e5 d5 6. Bb5 Ne4 7. cxd4 line of the Italian


Bb6 is more ambitious, the bishop might get annoying because it attacked d4, but maybe it will get irrelevant after white plays f4 and f5 and steamrolls, but there too, it has fire against the K on the a7-g1 diagonal.

That's really interesting, I play this line myself as black and I play Bb6 all the time but if white knows his stuff it's hard to get something out of it as black. Imma try Bb4+, think it might be a good move for blitz as it exchanges pieces. Could possibly get black an easier position to play and not waste so much time finding a plan

The "problem" with Bb6 is that if white maintains his center, the bishop on b6 has the potential to become an awful piece. So really you're playing for dynamic counterplay over the next 4-5 moves, like you said.
Don't listen to me, this man is an FM, so its probably the correct verdict.

Don’t listen to me I’m trash but Bb4 looks better long term because of the bishop pair and the bishop being more active, Bb6 looks solid but there isn’t really anywhere it can go unless maybe somehow you can play Ba5 next turn which seems like a waste of 2 moves.
For what it's worth, I took a quick look at Chessbase, and it seems that every world class GM (Carlsen, Nakamura, So, Grischuk, Kramnik) chose Bb6 in that variation

Mainline? what sort of excuse of an opening is that?! Evan's gambit all day everyday