Alphonso Davies

[Yoginess]

3 hours ago, Yohan said:

Too many wunderkinds get too many mins too fast, burn out, hit the mental wall and never get over it, killing their career.

I would guess the vast majority of 'wunderkids' never live up to their potential. If that's the case how do we know it's too many minutes that causes some burn out that kills their career? Maybe giving them as many minutes as possible actually gives them the best chance to succeed but it just happens that most examples of this don't pan out. 

Maybe not, but I'm just saying. How do we know?

[dyslexic nam]

1 hour ago, Yoginess said:

I would guess the vast majority of 'wunderkids' never live up to their potential. If that's the case how do we know it's too many minutes that causes some burn out that kills their career? Maybe giving them as many minutes as possible actually gives them the best chance to succeed but it just happens that most examples of this don't pan out. 

Maybe not, but I'm just saying. How do we know?

If wonder about this too.  No expert, but worrying about the stamina of a 16 yr old seems a bit odd.  If anything, his capacity to recuperate after 90 minutes is probably better than most MLS journeymen.

[Bison44]

Like most high schoolers, he is probably still growing, maturing physically (filling out) and the coaches will be worrying about putting that kind of strain on a still changing 16 year old body.  Can he recover quicker, sure but is it good for him in the long run??  I ran track and got shinsplints in highschool and grew out of it once I matured.  Highschool baseball coaches monitor pitch counts so young elbows and shoulders arent destroyed before the kid turns 18.  

 

[The Beaver]

30 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Like most high schoolers, he is probably still growing, maturing physically (filling out) and the coaches will be worrying about putting that kind of strain on a still changing 16 year old body.  Can he recover quicker, sure but is it good for him in the long run??  I ran track and got shinsplints in highschool and grew out of it once I matured.  Highschool baseball coaches monitor pitch counts so young elbows and shoulders arent destroyed before the kid turns 18.  

 

Yes, and the adolescent brain undergoes massive development too! They need to be smart about HOW they develop Davies. The mental side is as critical as the physical, if not more.

 

 

[harrycoyster]

29 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Like most high schoolers, he is probably still growing, maturing physically (filling out) and the coaches will be worrying about putting that kind of strain on a still changing 16 year old body.  Can he recover quicker, sure but is it good for him in the long run??  I ran track and got shinsplints in highschool and grew out of it once I matured.  Highschool baseball coaches monitor pitch counts so young elbows and shoulders arent destroyed before the kid turns 18.  

I played full 90' soccer games about twice a week at 16. I developed Osgood-Schlatter disease due to the stress on my growing knees. Sidelined me for about 4 months and severely limited my ability to play a full game. Still have knee pain after rec. games over ten years later.

There are certainly medical reasons not to have growing kids playing all 90' on a regular basis.

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

If wonder about this too.  No expert, but worrying about the stamina of a 16 yr old seems a bit odd.  If anything, his capacity to recuperate after 90 minutes is probably better than most MLS journeymen.

Actually, at 16, and being more explosive, he is not yet trained for longer distances. 90 m is a bursting 10k run, it may not be his distance yet, unless he goes for long runs training alone. 

In any case, IMO he is more effective off the bench, though should get a few starts just to mix it up and not alway use him when a game is critically on the line, as that is a form of stressful responsibility that he should not have to run with.

[jpg75]

There are 10's of thousands of teenagers playing multiple 90 minute games every week in Canada and the US, the vast majority have no issues.

 

[harrycoyster]

4 minutes ago, jpg75 said:

There are 10's of thousands of teenagers playing multiple 90 minute games every week in Canada and the US, the vast majority have no issues.

 

Right, but you have to take it on a kid by kid basis. We don't know what Davies' situation is. I'm sure he's fine though, as I've said earlier in this thread, I don't think the risk of him burning out is the reason Robbo isn't starting him every week.

[Unnamed Trialist]

11 minutes ago, jpg75 said:

There are 10's of thousands of teenagers playing multiple 90 minute games every week in Canada and the US, the vast majority have no issues.

That could be jpg75, but I can tell you this: as your competitive level of play rises, the stress does too, and so do injuries. Playing house or on a team that does not need to win is very different, you can coast, even though your run the same distance. I see this when my u-19 raises the game level, or is playing to get on a higher team, he becomes more injury prone. He trains three days a week, runs on off days, does weights, does 5k races, only thing he is missing is deep stretching--but injuries happen when competitive level goes up.

A club that demands results automatically will find players pushing to the physical limit, and mid season could have a lot of players out, or playing with half-injuries. 

If you look at those early videos of Alphonso, he is very elastic, has great balance, and is resilient. He has natural physical gifts, clearly. Now he is more solid on his feet, still great balance running through defenders, and seems to be healthy. But it is explosive play. The other day he was creamed on a play, one of the first times I saw a rival tactically foul him off the ball. It is going to happen more, rivals owe us nothing and not to a kid either. 

But I am not saying anything definitive here.

[Club Linesman]

21 hours ago, jpg75 said:

There are 10's of thousands of teenagers playing multiple 90 minute games every week in Canada and the US, the vast majority have no issues.

 

And those players are competing against other teenagers, not adult males.  The Whitecaps are doing a good job of giving him minutes but not burning him out or exposing him to the demands of playing full games and people much, much stronger than you.

[jpg75]

4 minutes ago, Club Linesman said:

And those players are competing against other teenagers, not adult males.  The Whitecaps are doing a good job of giving him minutes but not burning him out or exposing him to the demands of playing full games and people much, much stronger than you.

What does that have to do with shin splints? What UT makes sense, intensity of the game puts more stress from faster impact of running, but what does the physical strength of the opponent have to do with it? Not to mention Davies is probably as strong as most of his opponents in MLS.

[Club Linesman]

The game is physical and most men mature and gain strength into their late 20's, early 30's.  While he would run ragged around other 16 year olds, if he is stressed/tired/overworked and gets run over by a large CB the result could be catastrophic.  He is a physically strong kid, but he still needs time to develop and increase his strength for the rigours of playing 90 for 30+ games in MLS. 

[jpg75]

1 hour ago, Club Linesman said:

The game is physical and most men mature and gain strength into their late 20's, early 30's.  While he would run ragged around other 16 year olds, if he is stressed/tired/overworked and gets run over by a large CB the result could be catastrophic.  He is a physically strong kid, but he still needs time to develop and increase his strength for the rigours of playing 90 for 30+ games in MLS. 

Catastrophic? It's Soccer ffs! it's not like he's playing in the NFL. Christ, forget limiting his minutes, they should drop him back down to the U18 team...and drop Bustos to the U13's while they're at it.

[Northvansteve]

On 6/19/2017 at 2:32 PM, Vince193 said:

I wonder what his future is. Robbo used him in a box to box role in central midfield last game and he was pretty good, but most of his reps so far have been as a winger. 

He will not end up a winger. He's strong and calm in the middle, has vision when he passes and a strong shot. Central mid is his future.

[Bison44]

Ahh the happy Voyageur spirit is alive and well.  The question as to why Robbo seems to be limiting his minutes came up and some of us suggested that possibly he was worried about a 16 year old breaking down during his first full season in MLS.  

jpg75..you disagree. Cool, can we leave it at that.  

[The Beaver]

17 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Ahh the happy Voyageur spirit is alive and well.  The question as to why Robbo seems to be limiting his minutes came up and some of us suggested that possibly he was worried about a 16 year old breaking down during his first full season in MLS.  

jpg75..you disagree. Cool, can we leave it at that.  

It is all because the Caps hate Canada, dontcha know?

[TRM]

34 minutes ago, Northvansteve said:

He will not end up a winger. He's strong and calm in the middle, has vision when he passes and a strong shot. Central mid is his future.

Hutch 2.0 

[jpg75]

48 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Ahh the happy Voyageur spirit is alive and well.  The question as to why Robbo seems to be limiting his minutes came up and some of us suggested that possibly he was worried about a 16 year old breaking down during his first full season in MLS.  

jpg75..you disagree. Cool, can we leave it at that.  

I'll leave it at that if everyone else does.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Just curious, have to ask: a competitive HP teen team in Canada, how many games do they play a season, and how often do they train? How long does their season last, from preseason to end of training after season?

[harrycoyster]

31 minutes ago, TRM said:

Hutch 2.0 

No. Very much no. 

[dyslexic nam]

8 hours ago, TRM said:

Hutch 2.0 

As much as I love Hutch, I already see more attacking intent in Davies play than I have generally seen with Atiba.  I see Davies being a very different player when he eventually finds his best role. 

 

[jonovision]

1 hour ago, dyslexic nam said:

As much as I love Hutch, I already see more attacking intent in Davies play than I have generally seen with Atiba.  I see Davies being a very different player when he eventually finds his best role. 

 

I don't see them as the same player either, but Hutchinson had a much more attacking role, and he did it well, when he was with Copenhagen, at least from the matches I remember seeing.

[Yohan]

I see Davies developing into a box to box CM, just like Hutch was for us for long stretch of his CMNT career. I don't think Davies's passing is quite there yet though. That's a few years off IMO. The kid is still developing his footy IQ to be effective as box to box CM. But he's not afraid to play and has composure to play in middle of the park already.

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

I think Davies is going to be more attacking than Hutch was both for Canada and for club. He is obviously talented in many areas but his attacking talent is something most Canadians don't have...

 

[lazlo_80]

seeing him play in the middle last game was a big deal. if he can keep that sort of fearlessness in the middle of the park while still developing, he could be an absolute beast.