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The Importance of Alphonso Davies


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1 minute ago, Bigandy said:

Thats a hot take. De bruyne is the best midfielder in the world right now. 

Salah is great but i cant understand dropping one of Benzema whos a ballon dor winner, Haaland who is tearing apart every prem record in half the time, and mbappe who was lights out at the world cup and has almost double the league goals of salah/ and more goal contributions in the champions league.

Not to mention, they have those 3 forwards, and they also have Messi who is another guy you would not drop for Salah. Besides, what has Mo done this season that guys like Toney, Harry Kane, Mitrovic, Almiron, etc. haven't?

 

Just now, Unnamed Trialist said:

You are asking about left back, right? The position he never plays for Canada? We are not seriously saying yeah for a player in a position he never plays for us?

So since it is only about what he plays at Bayern, not for Canada, how do you justify a guy who was injured half the year? On a team that did not win in Europe and coasted, once again, in a league that is not seriously competitive.

I don't think they're taking positions into much consideration here. They have Messi as a midfielder, for example. I don't know if Haaland has ever played as a winger, ever.

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35 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Not to mention, they have those 3 forwards, and they also have Messi who is another guy you would not drop for Salah. Besides, what has Mo done this season that guys like Toney, Harry Kane, Mitrovic, Almiron, etc. haven't?

 

I don't think they're taking positions into much consideration here. They have Messi as a midfielder, for example. I don't know if Haaland has ever played as a winger, ever.

For sure, no question.

I just find it silly, as a Canada fan, getting excited about having the best left back in the world who never plays left back for Canada. 

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Theo Hernández has probably had a better year, and maybe a far better year, at left back, than Davies.

I am very proud to see him there. And I am also fine with him being named on the basis of reputation, which is really an amazing feat. The guy has credit in world football at his age, he's the youngest player there I think. So all good. Let's build on it.

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27 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

For sure, no question.

I just find it silly, as a Canada fan, getting excited about having the best left back in the world who never plays left back for Canada. 

I think the reality is when it's all said and done, Davies will be remembered as an all time great for Bayern Munich (who also played some soccer for Canada) who was the greatest LB of his generation, and we get to watch his rise. The stuff he does for Canada is the side dish to the 5 course feast he provides for Bayern.

That said, there's too much talk about "when Davies becomes good enough to be a winger for Bayern" and not enough "when Canada gets deep enough that Davies can play his best position".

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1 minute ago, InglewoodJack said:

I think the reality is when it's all said and done, Davies will be remembered as an all time great for Bayern Munich (who also played some soccer for Canada) who was the greatest LB of his generation, and we get to watch his rise. The stuff he does for Canada is the side dish to the 5 course feast he provides for Bayern.

That said, there's too much talk about "when Davies becomes good enough to be a winger for Bayern" and not enough "when Canada gets deep enough that Davies can play his best position".

We maybe all think this, in the back of our minds it is there. I admit I am waiting for Bayern to play him as an opposite leg wing, on the right. We are always hoping that his club preps him and prepares him as the attacker we want.

But you may be right, he may become an absolute Bayern classic; if he wins 2-3 more leagues and some European silverware, he's already there. He may not even have a really good reason to go anywhere else until he's 26-27. 

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39 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Theo Hernández has probably had a better year, and maybe a far better year, at left back, than Davies.

There's an argument there, sure.

On the other hand, the specific positions can be somewhat meaningless, so you needn't place such importance on them.

Haaland, for example, is not a wide forward, yet he was listed there for the sake of the graphic. He's a top-3 forward, that's the main thing. Messi was more of a forward than a midfielder playing in a "3", despite the graphic. Clearly, the players are chosen first, then a formation is presented based on that.

And as it were, Davies was chosen (again), and gets represented at LB (again). The fact he played many different positions for Canada is inconsequential. 

If you view things like that, Davies is a more worthy choice for team of the year than Theo Hernandez. Theo Hernandez is a very fine left back, but Davies is the best two-way left sided player in world football.

 

Edited by Obinna
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4 minutes ago, Obinna said:

There's an argument there, sure.

On the other hand, the specific positions can be somewhat meaningless, so you needn't place such importance on them.

Haaland, for example, is not a wide forward, yet he was listed there for the sake of the graphic. He's a top-3 forward, that's the main thing. Messi was more of a forward than a midfielder playing in a "3", despite the graphic. Clearly, the players are chosen first, then a formation is presented based on that.

And as it were, Davies was chosen (again), and gets represented at LB (again). The fact he played many different positions for Canada is inconsequential. 

If you view things like that, Davies is a more worthy choice for team of the year than Theo Hernandez. Theo Hernandez is a very fine left back, but Davies is the best two-way left sided player in world football.

 

Two-way in terms of attack? 

He's not really a goal scorer for Bayern, and his assist rate it actually rather poor considering how much they score. I mean, Jordi Alba, bless his soul, has better attacking stats even playing on crutches.

Some of his most effective attacking play for Canada, if that counts, has come from the right and down the middle.

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19 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

We maybe all think this, in the back of our minds it is there. I admit I am waiting for Bayern to play him as an opposite leg wing, on the right. We are always hoping that his club preps him and prepares him as the attacker we want.

But you may be right, he may become an absolute Bayern classic; if he wins 2-3 more leagues and some European silverware, he's already there. He may not even have a really good reason to go anywhere else until he's 26-27. 

I looked at his trophy count sometime last year, and by my very rough calculations, if Bayern can more or less sustain their pace throughout the prime of his career, and if Davies can play into his late 30s, he has a legitimate chance of becoming the most decorated player of all time. If he spends his career there, no reason he can’t have 15 Bundesliga titles, 10 cup titles, probably 3-5 champions league titles, etc.

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8 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Two-way in terms of attack? 

He's not really a goal scorer for Bayern, and his assist rate it actually rather poor considering how much they score. I mean, Jordi Alba, bless his soul, has better attacking stats even playing on crutches.

Some of his most effective attacking play for Canada, if that counts, has come from the right and down the middle.

Again, I think you are getting too granular in your analysis. He's simply just the best two-way left sided wide player, full stop. Obviously, he wouldn't be anywhere near the conversation if he were exclusively a wide forward. Nor would be considered if they went with a flat midfield.

But at left back the shoe fits, so to speak, and his attacking dominance works in his favour here. It's the same on the right side with Hakimi, too. I think it's less about goals and assists and more about "wow factor" with those two. Both are amongst the fastest players in the world, for starters. 

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This board is so weird sometimes. And I am not even getting into Johnstons bagged milk comments. Johnston makes the SPFL team of the week and everyone is jacked. Davies makes literally the team of the year, and noone really cares or debates if he actually deserves it.

3 years ago this is the hottest thread on this board and people are jacked.

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It wasn't that long ago that just the idea of a Canadian making a World's Best XI list would've been basically hallucinatory.  Along comes Davies and a few short years later we're so immunized, it's like "Yeah, but that's not really where he plays", or "So-and-so had a better year I think".  I guess that's a measure of just how successful he's been?  😉

Edited by GasPed
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20 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

You are asking about left back, right? The position he never plays for Canada? We are not seriously saying yeah for a player in a position he never plays for us?

So since it is only about what he plays at Bayern, not for Canada, how do you justify a guy who was injured half the year? On a team that did not win in Europe and coasted, once again, in a league that is not seriously competitive.

Sorry.... who? 

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19 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

No d-mid recognition, either.  Not sexy enough.

Could this team even execute a double pivot? Useless.

 

16 hours ago, Stryker911 said:

This board is so weird sometimes. And I am not even getting into Johnstons bagged milk comments. Johnston makes the SPFL team of the week and everyone is jacked. Davies makes literally the team of the year, and noone really cares or debates if he actually deserves it.

3 years ago this is the hottest thread on this board and people are jacked.

It's funny, because my attention is mostly to ascendant players and prospects, so for me, Davies is the best LB in the world, one of the top 30 (?) or so players in the world, he's at probably the best club in the world, so unless he has a shocking play of the year level play, or Bayern is in the very final stages of Champions League, what more is there from him that can impress us? I mean that in a good thing- we spend so much time wondering about who will become the next so and so, so to have a player where we know he's one of the best and we don't have to pay much attention to him, it's nice.

He's one of the most entertaining players in the world, for sure, but if I was Belgian, I wouldn't exactly be jumping for joy every time KDB and City demolished some team 3-0 and with him assisting two goals, etc., because like... he's supposed to do that, if we miss this week's game, we can tune in next week to watch him do the exact same thing.

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On 1/12/2023 at 1:04 PM, InglewoodJack said:

Just realized they didn't even pick the real Luka Modric, just some dutch guy with the same name, by the looks of it.

I was going to make this comment too. We didn't play 5 of the best 11, only 4. We played the Croatian Modric, but the Dutch one made the world XI.

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