The Importance of Alphonso Davies

[mpg_29]

Aside from club prestige...what club/league do you actually think is best for Davies in terms of playing time and how he'll fit?

[narduch]

Starting v Barcelona 

[InglewoodJack]

2 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

We get in trouble when we pretend to know what actual goes on in the room, sometimes.

I have a preternatural dislike of agents.  And I don't mind seeing Bayern do well.  But this turns things on their head a bit because I am obviously biased towards Davies doing well for himself. 

 

I like what I see, again, watching Davies play.  He is getting in creative positions and honestly learning how to influence the game from LB in new ways so I generally would like him to stay.   No guarentees wherever he went, even if my club were a team that I unbiasedly thought would help him, that will continue at another big club.  I am for good or bad often a "be careful what you wish for" guy. 

It seems a lot of time the agent's bias is towards getting a player to move because it is their financial interest.  But I again I have no inside knowledge of the contracts involved. 

 

We have a few more months of this fun speculation. 

I can imagine that for a guy who started managing local Canadian players to suddenly be thrust into not only negotiating a contract with one of the biggest clubs in the world, but an extension that is worth generational money, it's tough- you don't have that experience to understand how things necessarily work. But that's speculation, all we know is what Bayern's most beloved loudmouth says in the press. 

I've said it before, but in many ways, Davies and his situation remind me so much of PK Subban's relationship with the Habs. Young flashy player who at his peak is the best player in the world at his position, but his peak isn't always what you get. He's a guy who is very good at marketing himself playing at a club who expect their players to treat their relationship to the club as a quasi religious experience- the player means nothing, the shirt is the most important shirt you'll ever wear. Much like PK, when Davies started looking elsewhere because his job is to worry about himself, the fans turned on him and he got accused of being a selfish diva and what have you when in reality, it was a question of the club trying to get a new type of young player to buy into an old mentality out of fealty that just didn't work. When PK was traded though, every single hater suddenly thought he was the greatest loss of the generation, much like I am certain that if Davies does leave, every Bayern fan will be sad, place some blame on leadership, and you'll get years of "what could have been" pontification from their fans. 

I'm also leaning more towards staying- it would mean a lot more if he could help Bayern win another European title rather than for him to go to Madrid and rattle off a couple as one of 15 superstars that play everyone off the park. Seems fan reaction towards him is a lot more positive, he looks a lot better this year, and ultimately he is getting better- he hasn't yet hit his peak, and his long stretches of injury time off are farther and farther behind him. I also like what Bayern is doing in general. Big Musiala fan, I like Pavlovic too, I have a soft spot for the older German NT guys like Neuer, Mueller, Kimmich, etc. If they can sort out their CB situation, I think they could win it all. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Oof.

Upemacano and Kimmich with poor decision/touches. Down early. 

[InglewoodJack]

Neuer with a 2.9 FotMob score which might be the lowest I’ve ever seen in any sort of top league. Davies not looking too hot either.

[Shway]

6 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Neuer with a 2.9 FotMob score which might be the lowest I’ve ever seen in any sort of top league. Davies not looking too hot either.

Hes not at fault for anything tbh...everything is coming down the other side. 

But he isn't doing anything offensively. Dribbling forward then cutting back...every..time...to make the easy pass. I would be pissed if he was the wide midfielder, so I'll give him a bly. 

Edited Wednesday at 08:29 PM by Shway

[InglewoodJack]

8 minutes ago, Shway said:

Hes not at fault for anything tbh...everything is coming down the other side. 

But he isn't doing anything offensively. Dribbling forward then cutting back...every..time...to make the easy pass. I would be pissed if he was the wide midfielder, so I'll give him a bly. 

I’ve always wondered with these catch all scores- he’s marked one of the worst scores on his team, but it’s “only” 4-1 and it seems like Raphinia has been dog walking the right side, so wonder what’s up. Barca is the team that AD is supposed to be carving up. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

58 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Neuer with a 2.9 FotMob score which might be the lowest I’ve ever seen in any sort of top league. Davies not looking too hot either.

The guy sitting beside me, a Venezuelan Barça fan, insisted at the start that Neuer was the best keeper of this generation. I disagreed. 

At least that's one argument I won today. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

Davies was neither bad nor good,  he did his job.

Barça played at 50% intensity the first 25 minutes and took ages to warm up. It was only entertaining, with Lamine being flashy, after the 3-1. 

We really didn't see a Lamine-Davies matchup because the kid didn't attack deep, he fell more into the middle. 

Very good win for Barcelona, also getting injured players back into the rotation like Fermin, Gavi, De Jong, Olmo. 

Overall, despite the win, it wasn't a great game and frankly Barcelona has too many problems, the score notwithstanding. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

5 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Davies was neither bad nor good,  he did his job.

Barça played at 50% intensity the first 25 minutes and took ages to warm up. It was only entertaining, with Lamine being flashy, after the 3-1. 

We really didn't see a Lamine-Davies matchup because the kid didn't attack deep, he fell more into the middle. 

Very good win for Barcelona, also getting injured players back into the rotation like Fermin, Gavi, De Jong, Olmo. 

Overall, despite the win, it wasn't a great game and frankly Barcelona has too many problems, the score notwithstanding. 

Congrats

[Obinna]

21 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

Congrats

It's a pretty good humble brag by UT...

....but don't worry about it.

If he gets too uppity about it just remind him where the top 3 clubs in the table play 

[Gian-Luca]

Looked to me that Davies was the only member of the back four for Bayern who wasn’t exposed or burnt for a goal. They could do with a Bombito-like upgrade at CB

[SthMelbRed]

9 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Looked to me that Davies was the only member of the back four for Bayern who wasn’t exposed or burnt for a goal. They could do with a Bombito-like upgrade at CB

Upemecano rivals De Ligt for the title of most overrated 'young' CB in the world right now. Both of them are painfully mediocre, yet are getting repeated chances at big clubs and for top nations. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Looked to me that Davies was the only member of the back four for Bayern who wasn’t exposed or burnt for a goal. They could do with a Bombito-like upgrade at CB

Upamecano is very error prone. 

Then Neuer was poor. But the real problem was that it didn't feel like Bayern was testing us seriously. They have great veterans but noone stands out apart from Kane being effective. And you're right, Davies decided he has nothing to say offensively, which is a longstanding coaching defect at Bayern with him. Make him count!

For me the BM moments were more Barça being lazy and lax that first part of the first half. Also playing with Fermin, Pedri and Casado in the midfield, too soft, no bite. 

Tonight David kept his market value right up there, Davies not so much. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

 

9 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Looked to me that Davies was the only member of the back four for Bayern who wasn’t exposed or burnt for a goal. They could do with a Bombito-like upgrade at CB

Just my amateur reductionist analysis but if you are going play your fullbacks that far up the pitch against good teams, you must have centre backs with world class speed.  Those CBs have some great qualities in the box and even with the ball but they were backpedalled into the mistakes they made because they were not fast enough for the ground they had to cover. 

 

Keeping the ball better in midfield always helps, to be fair.

[Obinna]

37 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

 

Just my amateur reductionist analysis but if you are going play your fullbacks that far up the pitch against good teams, you must have centre backs with world class speed.  Those CBs have some great qualities in the box and even with the ball but they were backpedalled into the mistakes they made because they were not fast enough for the ground they had to cover. 

 

Keeping the ball better in midfield always helps, to be fair.

Did Upamecano lose his speed? I remember him being pretty fast.

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

26 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Did Upamecano lose his speed? I remember him being pretty fast.

He's not slow but not world class from my observation.

[SthMelbRed]

5 hours ago, Obinna said:

Did Upamecano lose his speed? I remember him being pretty fast.

The world is waking up to the fact that it was mostly Ibou Konate making him look good in those RB Leipzig teams.

[BearcatSA]

16 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

He's not slow but not world class from my observation.

I haven't watched him much but when I have, he has never impressed me.  He's one of those guy the pointy ball scouts would say looks great getting off a bus but that's about it.

[El Diego]

Ditto for me, every time I watch Bayern Upamecano stands out in a bad way. I forget which match it was but I distinctly remember thinking it was the worst centre back performance I had seen in a long time, might have been a Dortmund match

[GasPed]

20 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

He's not slow but not world class from my observation.

Both Kim and Upamecano are fast for CBs (Upamecano was clocked at 35.7 km/h in 2023).  But yeah, still not fast enough (or aware enough?) to play in this system against pacy opposition. 

[InglewoodJack]

3 hours ago, El Diego said:

Ditto for me, every time I watch Bayern Upamecano stands out in a bad way. I forget which match it was but I distinctly remember thinking it was the worst centre back performance I had seen in a long time, might have been a Dortmund match

The year they nearly lost the title to Dortmund, he had a streak where he let in a few OGs, had a red card, and Bayern had lost all of those matches. 
 

frankly, it’s clear- they need to run him out of town and get a much faster CB. Perhaps one with built in chemistry with their left back. Perhaps another player out of France who can be acquired relatively cheap but will develop to a top player in his position. If he has experience playing under a Bundesliga manager, even better. 

[kacbru]

36 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

The year they nearly lost the title to Dortmund, he had a streak where he let in a few OGs, had a red card, and Bayern had lost all of those matches. 
 

frankly, it’s clear- they need to run him out of town and get a much faster CB. Perhaps one with built in chemistry with their left back. Perhaps another player out of France who can be acquired relatively cheap but will develop to a top player in his position. If he has experience playing under a Bundesliga manager, even better. 

Sounds like the Bomb to me, although I don't think he's ever had a Bundesliga manager.

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, GasPed said:

Both Kim and Upamecano are fast for CBs (Upamecano was clocked at 35.7 km/h in 2023).  But yeah, still not fast enough (or aware enough?) to play in this system against pacy opposition. 

Thanks for clarifying this, because I did remember Upamecano being fast, specifically at Leipzig.

When Davies was breaking through at Bayern I remember one play against Upamecano where he blew by him and I thought "damn, Davies beating Upamecano with his pace? Our guy is the real deal!"

[InglewoodJack]

2 hours ago, kacbru said:

Sounds like the Bomb to me, although I don't think he's ever had a Bundesliga manager.

Mr Marsch coached Leipzig!

I saw something on Twitter suggesting Bombito would be the perfect CB for Bayern under Kompany’s style. I don’t think he’s at that level yet, but if he continues on an upwards trajectory by end of this season, perhaps Bayern try and pull off a coup and bring him in as a backup on the cheap and he works from there.