Alphonso Davies

[Obinna]

Davies with a heavy touch there leads to a scoring chance for the Impact. Hasn't had an impact on the game so far.

Edit: Looks like he just picked up an "NHL" assist on the Techera goal.

[mpg_29]

From the brief amount of time watching Davies, Tabla and Edwards...Tabla seems to have the most upside.

[matty]

13 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

From the brief amount of time watching Davies, Tabla and Edwards...Tabla seems to have the most upside.

I think he's looked the best but davies has 2 years

[dyslexic nam]

Watching the Caps Kansas City game and Davies got subbed in part way through the 2nd.  He is a friggin beast.  Strong and fast going forward, great tracking back defensively and a nice sliding tackle to stop a cross from coming in.  He isn't "good for a kid" - he is just plain good.  He has been involved in a ton of build up plays since coming on.  The fact that he is so young is amazing.  Really exciting to think about how high he may be able to go.  And as I type this, he has the calm presence to grab Shea and pull him out of a confrontation.

[Unnamed Trialist]

For me it was far from Davies best contribution, the whole team was running at SKC those minutes, his side, middle and the other, we deserved about 3 goals more. And others were more definitive in their play.

That hard foul on him led to the goal, and yes, he takes on defenders. In one play the defender simply absorbed his speed and he had no answer. So we were saying, better learn a few more tricks, kid, just speed and running, that, like end lines, will creep up on you eventually. For me he has to develop way better, or else he'll just be Manneh the 2nd. 

Just saying this because for me, he was not even amongst the top half dozen on the field for us the last half hour. 

[C2SKI]

7 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

For me it was far from Davies best contribution, the whole team was running at SKC those minutes, his side, middle and the other, we deserved about 3 goals more. And others were more definitive in their play.

That hard foul on him led to the goal, and yes, he takes on defenders. In one play the defender simply absorbed his speed and he had no answer. So we were saying, better learn a few more tricks, kid, just speed and running, that, like end lines, will creep up on you eventually. For me he has to develop way better, or else he'll just be Manneh the 2nd. 

Just saying this because for me, he was not even amongst the top half dozen on the field for us the last half hour. 

Manneh was often a pylon defensively. Rarely made a tackle. Davies, while occasionally slow to track the runner, almost never gets beat by his man. In addition, I think Davies has already shown quicker thinking, and better awareness than Manneh ever has. He has plenty of time to learn what to do when matched for speed or double/triple teamed.

[The Beaver]

4 hours ago, C2SKI said:

Manneh was often a pylon defensively. Rarely made a tackle. Davies, while occasionally slow to track the runner, almost never gets beat by his man. In addition, I think Davies has already shown quicker thinking, and better awareness than Manneh ever has. He has plenty of time to learn what to do when matched for speed or double/triple teamed.

Totally agree. While Davies certainly needs to add dimension to his attacking game, he has already shown that he has a better football brain than Manneh, not to mention his willingness to defend and work his ass off. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

12 hours ago, The Beaver said:

Totally agree. While Davies certainly needs to add dimension to his attacking game, he has already shown that he has a better football brain than Manneh, not to mention his willingness to defend and work his ass off. 

I agree, in principle. But the question is repertoire. Manneh had to run from 40m to top of the box and shoot, he needed long runs and had no combination football at all. He was very one-dimensional, but electric. And injury prone.

Davies should be better, but that does not mean you always have to take on your defender. Because it is not always the best option. So you have to learn football, which is about good options, options you can get away with because your a kid, and the best option. And he is a long way from that still. He still has to learn to move in 360 degrees, pause, go back, be constructive, do slower build up play, attack in combination. Feed someone else. Otherwise, he'll just end up enamoured of his own physical prowess and decay. 

He has a lot to learn still, he should be paying attention to all the guys around him. Look at Montero, we were saying (I went to my first Caps match as I'm back) that he looks like he's playing walking, he coasts, but he's very smart and very tricky and paces himself incredibly. He is often deliberately unflashy and deceptive. So that  is the maturity of a striker, because he is not uneffective.

[C2SKI]

He's 16, and he's been in a professional environment for ~ 12 months. Sure, there are facets of the game where he could improve, but it seems a bit early to be comparing him to a player that has never shown any ability to evolve. Particularly, when he's already surpassed that player in many ways and stolen his spot on the squad.

[ThiKu]

On 5/20/2017 at 9:45 PM, Unnamed Trialist said:

For me it was far from Davies best contribution, the whole team was running at SKC those minutes, his side, middle and the other, we deserved about 3 goals more. And others were more definitive in their play.

That hard foul on him led to the goal, and yes, he takes on defenders. In one play the defender simply absorbed his speed and he had no answer. So we were saying, better learn a few more tricks, kid, just speed and running, that, like end lines, will creep up on you eventually. For me he has to develop way better, or else he'll just be Manneh the 2nd. 

Just saying this because for me, he was not even amongst the top half dozen on the field for us the last half hour. 

Having watched Davies as much as anyone can on TV, I have to agree. He is incredibly direct. This is applauded, and should be. But he absolutely has to add nuance to his game. Change of pace or "la pausa" has to be added. He doesn't need to be a Tabla-style player. He needs to develop what he is good at. But simply direct running won't work as opposition drop deeper and continue to send a 3rd defender to support the 2nd defender in every scenario. To combat that he also has to develop his passing. I find his passing generally that of...a talented 16 yr old with little range, vision, and accuracy. His short passing varies in quality as well.

 

He has massive upside, and should be in our national team for many years. But he has to develop nuance to take the next step. Hopefully a European team sees the potential in him and gets him out of MLS on his 18th birthday. And better not be an English team unless it's one of the "top 6" as they all have highly developed technical academy/u23 programs.

[Guest]

TSN didn't list him as one of the Canadians on the roster for Vancouver. Is he not playing or is he still not considered Canadian?

[Big_M]

Doesn't have citizenship yet so not considered Canadian

[Dominic94]

Commentator on TSN says according to the Whitecaps it's coming along nicely, so he should be able to play for us soon.

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

ALPHONSO DAVIES, HE SCORES WHEN HE WANTS!

[Dominic94]

And he scores 

[Dominic94]

Great set up by Davies

[Obinna]

27 minutes ago, Dominic94 said:

Commentator on TSN says according to the Whitecaps it's coming along nicely, so he should be able to play for us soon.

Can he play for us without a passport? Tam naswila played for us against Brazil in Seattle back in 2008 after he had given up his passport for a German one

[ThiKu]

2 hours ago, Obinna said:

Can he play for us without a passport? Tam naswila played for us against Brazil in Seattle back in 2008 after he had given up his passport for a German one

that was a friendly. anyone can play in a friendly.

[Obinna]

2 hours ago, ThiKu said:

that was a friendly. anyone can play in a friendly.

So perhaps we may see him in Montreal.

[Blackdude]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

So perhaps we may see him in Montreal.

I doubt it because it's all about the Gold Cup and if he's ineligible to play for us in the Gold Cup, why should he play in the last friendly before the Gold Cup? You can bring him to a camp, but I highly doubt that they would play a player who can't play the following month.

[TRM]

Great first half by him but seemed to be running out of gas by time he was subbed out (71st minute). His high octane style of play seems to run dry in the second half. At least that is what I've noticed in his starts. Some of that may be due to fatigue and some due to other teams adjusting.

[BrennanFan]

 

[lazlo_80]

Rollins on two solitudes mentioned he likely won't have Citizenship for another year or so. Probably won't be involved in this year's gold cup unfortunately.

[Dominic94]

When did he say this ?

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

2 hours ago, BrennanFan said:

 

I certainly hope he doesn't go there. The club has too many quality players. He needs to move somewhere where he gets a chance to at least sub for the first team.