Raheem Edwards

[SpecialK]

Oh I totally understand, but there is hope and fans should get excited about the potential.  If only we could can get some good coaches in to help with younger national teams, we would be in really good shape. 

those two goalies who are playing in Italy have some amazing stats, who should check them out. Yes Breza had to return from loan but I'm sure he won't stay long in 3rd division. Also Vaikla is playing in top league in Finland and he's playing well. 

[SpecialK]

I'm excited to see Edwards back with TFC, I hope he's more fired up and comes out flying. He's got the skills, just needs to bring it every day. I can see him going over to Europe soon

[Ruffian]

13 hours ago, SpecialK said:

I can see him going over to Europe soon

I have heard this said about so many Canadian MLSers and American MLSers and most of the time is said well too soon. To be fair some end up going to Europe but end up playing in the German 4th div. or similar.

[SpecialK]

Your right, I hope that doesn't happen to Edwards. If he goes to Europe and plays in 4 division, it's not really worth it. 

[BearcatSA]

1 hour ago, Ruffian said:

I have heard this said about so many Canadian MLSers and American MLSers and most of the time is said well too soon. To be fair some end up going to Europe but end up playing in the German 4th div. or similar.

He needs to stay here and work on all the aspects of his game over the next couple of years.

[Dominic94]

Julian Dunn-Johnson should be on the list aswell.

[Club Linesman]

On ‎2017‎-‎07‎-‎18 at 9:23 PM, SpecialK said:

I'm excited to see Edwards back with TFC, I hope he's more fired up and comes out flying. He's got the skills, just needs to bring it every day. I can see him going over to Europe soon

He came on for Ashton Morgan and he had some fire tonight.  He was very impressive with his runs down the right and made some great dribbling moves.  I was shocked he didn't start but when Morgan got a yellow and hurt, he went in and continued the great work of Morgan!  Edwards appears to have the right mentality and he was impressive tonight.

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

3 hours ago, Club Linesman said:

He came on for Ashton Morgan and he had some fire tonight.  He was very impressive with his runs down the right and made some great dribbling moves.  I was shocked he didn't start but when Morgan got a yellow and hurt, he went in and continued the great work of Morgan!  Edwards appears to have the right mentality and he was impressive tonight.

Beautiful ball on their game tying goal. He definitely was the spark tonight. Vanney seems to really believe in cohesive training. It has happened before. When players go off to camp and haven't trained with the team he doesn't tend to start them when they get back. He usually waits a week. That of course doesn't include the DPs. He did that with Osorio last year i remember. 

[1996]

Edwards can easily be starting for this present national team, without a doubt he has proven by his play with TFC this year . He is not playing for the national team at the Gold Cup because this particular coach for some reason does not think he is good enough to start or even come on as a sub at the moment. This coach is like every other coach out there, they all have certain particularities about them when it comes to how they see players, there is something about Edwards that Zambrano sees that just don't make him national team ready at the moment, what that is who the hell knows, but like most coaches out there , Zambrano will make certain decisions that will make a lot of people scratch their heads and this is one of them.

[jpg75]

Canada plays a back 4, TFC plays a back 3. Edwards plays wingback at TFC where his defensive responsibilities are limited and he has free reign to attack down the left flank. With Canada he either plays LB where his defensive responsibilities are greater and he may be less capable than either de Jong or Adekugbe, or he plays LM or RM in an attacking role where he struggled against Curacao and would have to beat out Davies and Hoilett.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, jpg75 said:

Canada plays a back 4, TFC plays a back 3. Edwards plays wingback at TFC where his defensive responsibilities are limited and he has free reign to attack down the left flank. With Canada he either plays LB where his defensive responsibilities are greater and he may be less capable than either de Jong or Adekugbe, or he plays LM or RM in an attacking role where he struggled against Curacao and would have to beat out Davies and Hoilett.

Liked your post but again he arguably struggled because he played on the right

[PopePouri]

Has Hoilett really earned his spot though? Lots of flashes but no real end product.

I think this team is better with Edwards on the left and Davies on the right. 

[lazlo_80]

Has Davies ever played on the right? I've never seen that.

I mean the results with Davies on the left and Hoilett on the right have been pretty darn good. Why break up a good thing just so that Edwards can play on his preferred left side? 

Edwards is a good player and I'm a huge fan of his play, but he just started playing in MLS this year and he looked so so against Curacao. It might take him a few years to find a consistent place with the national team but that's okay. He shouldn't expect to be accomodated at this point in his career.

[Ruffian]

Edwards is behind both Davies and Hoilett on the left wing and is not as versatile as both of them as they can play on the right with less of a drop-off. De Jong as the third left-wing option is a better choice because he has the versatility to play as LB in a four man defence. Because of these reasons he is expendable. 

[mpg_29]

7 minutes ago, lazlo_80 said:

Has Davies ever played on the right? I've never seen that.

I mean the results with Davies on the left and Hoilett on the right have been pretty darn good. Why break up a good thing just so that Edwards can play on his preferred left side? 

Edwards is a good player and I'm a huge fan of his play, but he just started playing in MLS this year and he looked so so against Curacao. It might take him a few years to find a consistent place with the national team but that's okay. He shouldn't expect to be accomodated at this point in his career.

If I remember correctly...the first bit of the Costa Rica game Davies was on the right and Hoilett was on the left....I think they switched after 10 or so minutes and there was a noticeable difference (ie Canada played better after they switched)

[Club Linesman]

1 hour ago, PopePouri said:

Has Hoilett really earned his spot though? Lots of flashes but no real end product.

I think this team is better with Edwards on the left and Davies on the right. 

Amazing how far the team has come in a short time when after what, 100 pages imploring Junior to declare for Canada and be a potential saviour, he is being questionned in favour of two MLS players who both only started getting time this year.  Good time to be a Canadian fan! 

[PopePouri]

9 minutes ago, Club Linesman said:

Amazing how far the team has come in a short time when after what, 100 pages imploring Junior to declare for Canada and be a potential saviour, he is being questionned in favour of two MLS players who both only started getting time this year.  Good time to be a Canadian fan! 

Our player pool has grown exponentially over the past 2 years and we're only seeing now the fruits of CSA and MLS academy investments. It's evident just based on the right back position alone where we now have Aird, Petresso and Cordova as legitimate competition. That's not ruling out holdovers like Ouimette, Henry and Ledgerwood who are still around.

[1996]

1 hour ago, Ruffian said:

Edwards is behind both Davies and Hoilett on the left wing and is not as versatile as both of them as they can play on the right with less of a drop-off. De Jong as the third left-wing option is a better choice because he has the versatility to play as LB in a four man defence. Because of these reasons he is expendable. 

DeJong is past his best before date, that's why I would put a younger player like Edwards in his place and give him the experience in a tournament like this. Edwards has seen a lot more minutes for a top team in the MLS where DeJong has been riding the pines for a middle of the table team in the same league and apart from a decent game against Honduras has not been anything special in this tournament. DeJong is a been there done that player , he is the futile past that hopefully Canadian soccer has left behind, Edwards represents the future and hopefully a lot more successful future , that is why I would have him playing over DeJong sorry.

[1996]

24 minutes ago, PopePouri said:

Our player pool has grown exponentially over the past 2 years and we're only seeing now the fruits of CSA and MLS academy investments. It's evident just based on the right back position alone where we now have Aird, Petresso and Cordova as legitimate competition. That's not ruling out holdovers like Ouimette, Henry and Ledgerwood who are still around.

Please hopefully we don't ever see a Henry at the right back position ever again, I just got bad flashbacks of Henry at that position, hopefully the Henry's at right back and having to go back and bring in a Ledgerwood days are over because if we have to retort to players like that again especially a Henry at right back again then that would probably mean that this new project is going backwards rather than forward.

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

31 minutes ago, 1996 said:

DeJong is past his best before date, that's why I would put a younger player like Edwards in his place and give him the experience in a tournament like this. Edwards has seen a lot more minutes for a top team in the MLS where DeJong has been riding the pines for a middle of the table team in the same league and apart from a decent game against Honduras has not been anything special in this tournament. DeJong is a been there done that player , he is the futile past that hopefully Canadian soccer has left behind, Edwards represents the future and hopefully a lot more successful future , that is why I would have him playing over DeJong sorry.

Personally I would have liked to see Edwards start over DeJong in the Honduras game. But it really isn't a terrible thing for him to go home, work hard on his game, and show that he is a star with TFC. Let the guy develop his game some more, and earn a contract bigger than his current $53,000. I love Edwards and he is obviously a part of the future of World Cup qualifying Canada (ya I said it). But he isn't perfect. 

IMO The main reason that OZ started DeJong instead was to slightly shield Adekugbe. OZ knew that we needed to protect our own end in that game and he felt that Dejong was the man for that. As a result Adekugbe looked great in that game in comparison to his last game. Part of that was because of Dejong. Dejong was able to drop back and cover the space in front of Adekugbe so that Adekugbe could follow the runners better. I would say that it was a success. 

Right now Edwards and Dejong are about even in their abilities with Dejong being much more defensive and Edwards being much more offensive. If Edwards wants to get significant time with the CMNT he needs to work a bit more on his defensive side of the game. Unfortunately both him and Davies play the same position but hopefully as they develop they will become versatile enough to switch sides of the pitch or even more inwards. 

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

In the future I could see Edwards becoming the great linking Midfielder. Kind of the role that Vazques plays for TFC. Edwards has great vision and ability to pass, and his dribbling and speed are great. I think once he develops he should try playing in the Midfield. Just watching the TFC game last night made me think of that. He seemed more free in his movement, often switching with Vazquez. He made great runs and smart passes from the middle. I think that is his future.

What do you guys think about that? Am I crazy? 

[lazlo_80]

13 minutes ago, BenFisk'sBiggestFan said:

In the future I could see Edwards becoming the great linking Midfielder. Kind of the role that Vazques plays for TFC. Edwards has great vision and ability to pass, and his dribbling and speed are great. I think once he develops he should try playing in the Midfield. Just watching the TFC game last night made me think of that. He seemed more free in his movement, often switching with Vazquez. He made great runs and smart passes from the middle. I think that is his future.

What do you guys think about that? Am I crazy? 

The toughest part is simply how TFC structures it's salaries. Generally they pump a ton of money on the central positions and get DP and TAM players squeezing out the opportunities for younger players to the wings. 

Going into this season it looked like Chapman was gonna have a shot at that attacking central midfielder role then they went out and grabbed Vazquez. Right now Edwards is behind Vazquez, Osorio, Chapman and Delgado for a sniff at that role.

With all that said his play at wing back has been a revelation and I'm thrilled with how he plays there.

Edited July 20, 2017 by lazlo_80

[harrycoyster]

Just scored the 4th goal to put TFC up 4-0 over NYCFC. Giovinco did wonderfully to get the ball to Edwards wide open at the far post, but there was still a lot to do. Edwards with the calm finish.

[badname22]

20 minutes ago, harrycoyster said:

Just scored the 4th goal to put TFC up 4-0 over NYCFC. Giovinco did wonderfully to get the ball to Edwards wide open at the far post, but there was still a lot to do. Edwards with the calm finish.

 

[to70]

Besides scoring the goal I thought that he a great defensive game. From that aspect probably his best game in the TFC uniform. He had a number of good tackles where he just stole the ball from NYCFC players including one from Pirlo.