The Importance of Alphonso Davies

[Aird25]

14 minutes ago, Craig11rm said:

I like the idea of Junior on the left too but I don’t think Junior is as committed defensively. I think if Davies and Layrea are interchangeable on the left then we don’t have to debate about having Davies as a LB or LW. On the right I like Junior and Buchanan but you could easily do Layrea and Buchanan on the right with Junior and Davies on the left. Cant wait to see or full strength squad play together again....

 

I haven’t watched him this season but it looked like he did a ton of defending and was very committed in the Premier League last season. I think we largely nullify Juniors shot from distance if he plays on the right and that’s been our biggest threat in some games. It also buys Davies space on the overlap when teams have to defend against it 

[Craig11rm]

15 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

I haven’t watched him this season but it looked like he did a ton of defending and was very committed in the Premier League last season. I think we largely nullify Juniors shot from distance if he plays on the right and that’s been our biggest threat in some games. It also buys Davies space on the overlap when teams have to defend against it 

You’re probably right. You don’t play in the premier league if you can’t defend but he’s still not a fullback. Junior is a lot a lot better than Layrea at cutting in for a shot on his right foot, especially from long range. On the right Layrea does a great job of overlapping and dribbling down the goal line for a cut back or drawing a penalty, similar to Davies. I think It comes down to who we are playing but I generally think about line ups that I would put out against strong teams. I think if a team is pressing us and trying to play a high line I’m in the boat of having Davies in an advanced position.

[Bertuzzi44]

I have two problems with Davies at LB for Canada:

1) He's one of our best attacking players, and having him farther up the field is a big danger to opposing sides.

2) Canada doesn't have world class CBs like Bayern Munich does to cover for him or otherwise support him. Heck, even having sweeper keeper extraordinaire Neuer back there helps. Therefore, Davies might have to do more defensive work than he has to at Bayern.

Just put Davies in his original/natural position at LW and left him run amok against opposing defenses!

[Mikmacdo]

1 hour ago, Bertuzzi44 said:

I have two problems with Davies at LB for Canada:

1) He's one of our best attacking players, and having him farther up the field is a big danger to opposing sides.

2) Canada doesn't have world class CBs like Bayern Munich does to cover for him or otherwise support him. Heck, even having sweeper keeper extraordinaire Neuer back there helps. Therefore, Davies might have to do more defensive work than he has to at Bayern.

Just put Davies in his original/natural position at LW and left him run amok against opposing defenses!

I think a lot of us here believe a 3-5-2 is best for our roster. It gets Davies higher up the pitch but he can still play a role defensively. Our CB's aren't as bad as a lot of us think. Vitoria is playing regularly in a top 7 league. Kamal Miller started a fair amount for a good Orlando team and Henry is playing at a decent level. 

[Craig11rm]

6 minutes ago, Mikmacdo said:

I think a lot of us here believe a 3-5-2 is best for our roster. It gets Davies higher up the pitch but he can still play a role defensively. Our CB's aren't as bad as a lot of us think. Vitoria is playing regularly in a top 7 league. Kamal Miller started a fair amount for a good Orlando team and Henry is playing at a decent level. 

So...               

                      Cav.   David

                         Arfield

Davies    Osorio    Eustaquio     Layrea

            Miller     Vitoria     Henry

                          Borjan

James also had that one good game recently😁

[Aird25]

1 hour ago, Mikmacdo said:

I think a lot of us here believe a 3-5-2 is best for our roster. It gets Davies higher up the pitch but he can still play a role defensively. Our CB's aren't as bad as a lot of us think. Vitoria is playing regularly in a top 7 league. Kamal Miller started a fair amount for a good Orlando team and Henry is playing at a decent level. 

But not all of us. Davies defers to his wingers/midfielders almost every time he’s isolated on the wing. Maybe it’s Bayern’s tactics but the run against Semedo is one of the few times I recall him taking a defender on from a deep stagnant position. He’ll just be double/triple teamed in that scenario with no overlapping run or wide support. We also lose our best defence against counter attacks.

Its a poor use of our best player IMO. I’d rather see him as a true winger on the right or left side, or even in a strike partnership, than LWB. I prefer him as a LB in most scenarios though. Concacaf has few teams that will break is down defensively, but there are plenty that can counter us

[lamptern]

7 hours ago, TOcanadafan said:

Listened to a year-end “Euro Leagues” podcast from BBC, renowned journalist Guillem Balague mentioned the Davies vs. Barca sequence as a highlight of the year for him...  Amazingly made #72 on TSN’s Top 100 plays of the year behind a random hockey highlight and a baseball highlight (throw to first base) that you might see any given night.

 

The editor for that #72 video clip failed to present the whole process of Davies's dribbling from sideline all the way to six yard box (including run against Semedo TWICE ) before he finish the assist. I will give that editor 2 out of 10 by missing most part of Phozie's  highlight moment.  

Edited December 25, 2020 by lamptern

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 hours ago, Bertuzzi44 said:

I have two problems with Davies at LB for Canada:

1) He's one of our best attacking players, and having him farther up the field is a big danger to opposing sides.

2) Canada doesn't have world class CBs like Bayern Munich does to cover for him or otherwise support him. Heck, even having sweeper keeper extraordinaire Neuer back there helps. Therefore, Davies might have to do more defensive work than he has to at Bayern.

Just put Davies in his original/natural position at LW and left him run amok against opposing defenses!

Only he's not a LW. You can't argue in favour of moving him forward to get more attacking value then kill it with him on the left, where he'll only be centering. Or getting lame shots away.

Let him cross with his right, and shoot turning in with his left. 

Why do folks think he hardly ever even gets a shot away for Bayern? For that, simply, he's on the wrong side. 

[Mikmacdo]

3 hours ago, Aird25 said:

But not all of us. Davies defers to his wingers/midfielders almost every time he’s isolated on the wing. Maybe it’s Bayern’s tactics but the run against Semedo is one of the few times I recall him taking a defender on from a deep stagnant position. He’ll just be double/triple teamed in that scenario with no overlapping run or wide support. We also lose our best defence against counter attacks.

Its a poor use of our best player IMO. I’d rather see him as a true winger on the right or left side, or even in a strike partnership, than LWB. I prefer him as a LB in most scenarios though. Concacaf has few teams that will break is down defensively, but there are plenty that can counter us

We have three or four (Ayo) pretty good strikers so I wouldn't want Davies up top. 

[Obinna]

4 hours ago, Aird25 said:

But not all of us. Davies defers to his wingers/midfielders almost every time he’s isolated on the wing. Maybe it’s Bayern’s tactics but the run against Semedo is one of the few times I recall him taking a defender on from a deep stagnant position. He’ll just be double/triple teamed in that scenario with no overlapping run or wide support. We also lose our best defence against counter attacks.

Its a poor use of our best player IMO. I’d rather see him as a true winger on the right or left side, or even in a strike partnership, than LWB. I prefer him as a LB in most scenarios though. Concacaf has few teams that will break is down defensively, but there are plenty that can counter us

Reminds me of the USA game in Orlando.

[Aird25]

3 hours ago, Mikmacdo said:

We have three or four (Ayo) pretty good strikers so I wouldn't want Davies up top. 

We have three or four pretty good wingers/wingbacks too, but we don’t have a surplus of CBs. So why play with additional CBs?

Davies would be up top to stretch the line, advance the ball,  press, ride the shoulder of the defender, create an outlet on the counter etc. Not to be a prototypical CF. He’s not as good in front of goal as many of our players, but he can create havoc with his speed and ability on the ball. Still, I don’t think that’s where he plays in most circumstances if we’re fielding our strongest lineup

Tbh sometimes I’m surprised that a left side of Davies and Hoilett isn’t penciled in as core pieces in our best XI. Hoilett has 500 + games at a level we hope most of our players reach one day, and most of those games are at LW. He also has been ridiculously prolific for Canada in the last few tournaments 

Edited December 26, 2020 by Aird25

[CanadaFan123]

@Aird25 you’re absolutely spot on. 
 

We have a player in the world best XI. After that we probably don’t have a player in the next 30 best XIs. To put Davies isolated at LWB IN 3-5-2 would be a dream scenario to defend against. Clearly Davies is number 1 on their prioritized defending.

That’s not to say a 3-5-2 wouldn’t work at all. You could put Laryea at LWB and have Davies play as he did at home vs the US. 

[Mikmacdo]

8 hours ago, CanadaFan123 said:

@Aird25 you’re absolutely spot on. 
 

We have a player in the world best XI. After that we probably don’t have a player in the next 30 best XIs. To put Davies isolated at LWB IN 3-5-2 would be a dream scenario to defend against. Clearly Davies is number 1 on their prioritized defending.

That’s not to say a 3-5-2 wouldn’t work at all. You could put Laryea at LWB and have Davies play as he did at home vs the US. 

Scotland has arguably the best left back in the world and they play a 3-5-2. 

[Snowcrash]

14 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Only he's not a LW. You can't argue in favour of moving him forward to get more attacking value then kill it with him on the left, where he'll only be centering. Or getting lame shots away.

Let him cross with his right, and shoot turning in with his left. 

Why do folks think he hardly ever even gets a shot away for Bayern? For that, simply, he's on the wrong side. 

Very good point.  Many teams use inverted wingers and I think Davies is much more dangerous cutting in on the off wing and unleashing a shot or cutting the ball back to an onrushing forward.  He's not the classical winger who sends crosses into box to set up his forwards for headers.

 

[Aird25]

3 hours ago, Mikmacdo said:

Scotland has arguably the best left back in the world and they play a 3-5-2. 

He’s a very different player than Davies though. I don’t think we want Davies swinging in crosses from out wide. His strengths lie elsewhere 

[dyslexic nam]

48 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

He’s a very different player than Davies though. I don’t think we want Davies swinging in crosses from out wide. His strengths lie elsewhere 

I agree for the most part but both of our out-and-out strikers (Larin and Cav) have a ton of strength in the air and get a lot of their chances that way.  
 

It isn’t realistic to expect Phonzie to always dance along the byline into the 6 yard box or to sprint past defenders to get clean on goal.  Getting into a good crossing position and potentially drawing in an extra defender to spread things out in the box is a fundamental skill of a winger - and it is something he does a fair bit of at Bayern trying to find Lewandowski in the box.  No reason why he shouldn’t keep doing that for Canada.  

[Craig11rm]

3 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

I agree for the most part but both of our out-and-out strikers (Larin and Cav) have a ton of strength in the air and get a lot of their chances that way.  
 

It isn’t realistic to expect Phonzie to always dance along the byline into the 6 yard box or to sprint past defenders to get clean on goal.  Getting into a good crossing position and potentially drawing in an extra defender to spread things out in the box is a fundamental skill of a winger - and it is something he does a fair bit of at Bayern trying to find Lewandowski in the box.  No reason why he shouldn’t keep doing that for Canada.  

I agree with this and think his crossing is underrated. He was pretty good at finding Kamara’s head as well. I think he’s even better at cutting the ball back and finding a man making a late run. The type of run that Jonathan David likes to make... I don’t think there are too many wrong answers and it should depend on the opposition. How Herdman deploys Davies is one of his most important coaching decisions IMO.

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 12/26/2020 at 6:35 AM, Aird25 said:

We have three or four pretty good wingers/wingbacks too, but we don’t have a surplus of CBs. So why play with additional CBs?

Davies would be up top to stretch the line, advance the ball,  press, ride the shoulder of the defender, create an outlet on the counter etc. Not to be a prototypical CF. He’s not as good in front of goal as many of our players, but he can create havoc with his speed and ability on the ball. Still, I don’t think that’s where he plays in most circumstances if we’re fielding our strongest lineup

Tbh sometimes I’m surprised that a left side of Davies and Hoilett isn’t penciled in as core pieces in our best XI. Hoilett has 500 + games at a level we hope most of our players reach one day, and most of those games are at LW. He also has been ridiculously prolific for Canada in the last few tournaments 

Nice post. 

The great thing about a wing player is that you can always change him around, although it is not done too often any more. 

We need to have a CF playing target or similar, because we all agree that David plays best off that kind of player, coming into the holes and running into space. So that is two attackers without Davies. If it is Cavallini or Larin up high, fine, nor premium but able to do enough and proper hold up and passing. And then you have Davies on the left of the attack and turning in, but starting further back in the midfield, to defend more and give us more midfield combinations, but also to start with more space in front of him to run into. The other three mids would be, likely, Arfield, and any two more of Osorio, Hoillet, Hutch, Kaye, combine it as you will. You have to have players lined up behind the ball if you're Canada. The good thing about David and Davies amongst the three in your attack is, as has been said, you worry the rival. Even the US or Mexico would pay attention. And that extra attention frees up someone else. Including a wingback overlapping Davies for example. 

We need to play more games to see all this happen.

Edited December 27, 2020 by Unnamed Trialist

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Not as important as some of his other accolades but still nice to see a Canadian on the BBC Sport page. 

 

"The football social media winners and losers of 2020

Winners

Alphonso Davies

What a year for this young man.

A treble in his first full season with Bayern Munich, a Golden Boy nomination and, perhaps most impressively (OK, it depends on your priorities...), the undisputed king of football TikTok..."

...

Jordyn Huitema

Huitema, who plays for Paris-St Germain, completes a social media power couple..."

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55316991

[SthMelbRed]

 

[Gian-Luca]

https://www.tsn.ca/alphonso-davies-captures-conacher-award-as-male-athlete-of-the-year-1.1570038

[An Observer]

2 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

https://www.tsn.ca/alphonso-davies-captures-conacher-award-as-male-athlete-of-the-year-1.1570038

like this from the article...

"Davies is also a key player for Canada with five goals and seven assists in 17 appearances, playing both as a left back and winger.

Canada and Davies face a full schedule in 2021 with World Cup qualifying finally starting in March.

Davies says he is excited at what lies ahead for Canada.

"We have a lot of young, exciting talent coming through, players are playing in competitive leagues who are hungry," he said. "And we are all ready to make history for Canada Soccer in 2021."

[TGAA_Star]

On 12/25/2020 at 2:43 PM, Bertuzzi44 said:

I have two problems with Davies at LB for Canada:

1) He's one of our best attacking players, and having him farther up the field is a big danger to opposing sides.

2) Canada doesn't have world class CBs like Bayern Munich does to cover for him or otherwise support him. Heck, even having sweeper keeper extraordinaire Neuer back there helps. Therefore, Davies might have to do more defensive work than he has to at Bayern.

Just put Davies in his original/natural position at LW and left him run amok against opposing defenses!

Very fair and astute assessment. I would have to agree even though I have not been watching or paying attention so essentially havin to play catch up with everyone on here. But as far as everything you're saying here about Davies bein up front in the Canadian attack as opposed to what he plays at Bayern...it's 100 percent correct because he has the speed to beat opposing defenses.

[BearcatSA]

My preference:  he's in a position further up the pitch, either flank (I am a big fan of inverted wingers so if he could emerge as right flank attacker, that would be great).  Because of his work rate and wheels, he would be a fullback's best friend.  

Like others here, I have no idea of what Herdman's plan is and I based my opinion earlier in this thread on what I saw in the GC and the second leg vs the US.  Heck, maybe he'll try to outcoach everyone and put Davies at defensive holding mid, who knows?

[dyslexic nam]

Fairly good game by Davies today (so far anyway).  He just had one helluva hit on net that was well saved.  Also had a pretty sweet almost-assist on what would have been the go-head goal but it was called back for him being offside - the pass to him was just a moment late.  

Their defence isn’t looking as strong today - Mainz has had chances.  But that seems mostly to be coming through the middle.  

The one thing I noticed about Davies today was that he had a number of poor passes that gave away possession.   Hope he can clean that up a bit.