LB? LW? CAM? Where should Jesse Marsch play Alphonso Davies for the CanMNT, anyway?
Jesse Marsch gave a first hint as to how he plans to use Alphonso Davies with the Canadian men's national team in an interview with CBS Sports Golazo's Jimmy Conrad and Charlie Davies on the Call It What You Want podcast.
"I don't just want [Davies] to be a wide player and wait for the ball to get to him," Marsch told Conrad and Davies. "I know there are certain moments he can be good in wide spaces, but I want him to be involved in the game more."
Fortunately for wild-position speculation enjoyers, this is the exact type of comment that can be interpreted any way and how you like. Some have taken it as evidence that Marsch intends to use Davies in a more central role. Others are certain that Davies will finally land in his rightful place at left back. Maybe he plays striker, or some kind of inverted wing-back turned midfielder. The possibilities are seemingly endless.
But whatever the plan is, it's important to remember that there are pros and cons to every option, and there's a chance that Marsch's comment was somewhat vague because, well... he isn't entirely sure what the answer is yet, either.
So, with all that in mind, let's help him decide with some spirited argumentation in the form of written #content:
"Davies is a Left-Back!"
For those who believe Alphonso Davies is a left-back, it’s incredible this is even a question: Real, competitive national teams don’t play their best players out of position. There’s a place where Davies is considered among the best in the world – and it's not up top.
It's why (yes, still) one of the best teams in world football, Bayern Munich, keeps playing him there, even if they could be playing him up top much more frequently. Six years ago, Davies arrived from Vancouver as a crafty winger. Then-manager Niko Kovac immediately moved him to left-back and every subsequent manager – Hansi Flick, Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel – followed suit and kept him there.
The thinking on this is probably that playing up front actually limits what Davies does best: Running... and often from impossibly deep positions, picking up speed with every yard, drawing defenders away before he even hits the final third.
Winger-forward Davies encourages this free-wheeling, hero ball-y mindset that has dogged us since the World Cup. We’ve seen it repeatedly with the national team; Davies gets his first touch in the final third, and he just looks confused. There’s nowhere to run because the defense is stuck in that tried and true low-block he rarely breaks out of. Three defenders are seemingly always glued to him, and still perplexed, he tries to dribble his way out of it... and then loses the ball.
You can see it in his 'fancy' stats. You would think a secret winger would have some affinity for sending the ball into the box, but Davies - and this is compared to fellow full-backs mind you - is in the 9th percentile in the Bundesliga in crosses attempted. He’s in the 14th percentile for crosses into the penalty area.
You read that right: 90 percent of Bundesliga full-backs cross the ball more than covert winger Alphonso Davies.
As we enter the Jesse Marsch era, Canada should start experimenting with other options. Davies at wing-back in a back three means Canada are needlessly benching Liam Millar or Jacob Shaffelburg – players he could easily be overlapping with, and covering for.
And if you're bashing Davies’ defensive prowess... we've got news for you there: People will attack him defensively in the vaguest of terms: "He’s positionally confused, he doesn’t track back, he just doesn’t care" – that sort of nonsense. The numbers, frankly, don’t back it up. We go into this chart with the prerequisite that playing for Bayern Munich, Davies’ numbers are inherently deflated. When your team has 61 percent possession, the other team has very little possession, and so your defensive actions won’t tally up like they should.
And still, Davies is exceptional in his ability to anticipate play. His blocks and interceptions are well above average even though he plays higher up the field than a traditional fullback. Whatever the ‘he just doesn’t care’ crowd wants to tell you, he’s actually very willing to go into challenges.
Someone will be quick to point out that Davies’ total tackles are merely average. Again, you have to keep in mind how thoroughly Bayern dominate possession. If you’ll be a little charitable, and direct your eyes a little down the chart, you’ll notice that in his own third, where it really matters, he gets the job done.
This isn’t a real question. This isn’t a particularly difficult decision. We have an elite left-back. Let’s play him at left-back.
"Davies is wasted at LB; move him up!"
The argument for left-back Davies is a wholly theoretical one disguised as something clear-cut and practical. Oftentimes, it’s proposed as the only way we could plausibly run that back-four the CanMNT has seemingly abandoned as of late.
Really, it’s the type of best-eleven-crunching John Herdman was accused of at his very worst. Worse, it takes our most dangerous player and throws him to the back of the action.
First thing’s first. Davies isn’t a left-back on a normal team. Davies is a left-back on Bayern Munich. Even in this, a down year, the Bavarian outfit averaged 61 percent control of possession throughout the season.
When you control 61 percent of possession, what is your goal exactly? It’s to penetrate the opposition defense that is rightfully terrified of you. To do that, you do crazy things - you deploy the fastest player in the world wherever you can up the flank. Davies isn’t a left-back because he neatly fits into an archetype – he’s there because top-tier teams are their own beast entirely.
Even with Bayern Munich, the rule isn’t as steadfast as it used to be. Thomas Tuchel has taken to playing Davies at wingback with relative success.
Davies' stunner wins Goal of the Week! ☄️@Heineken || #UCLGOTW pic.twitter.com/Waao6Lyq9Q
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 10, 2024
Place him on a lesser team and he certainly doesn’t play left-back, because his attacking stats are too attractive. Look at that green. That’s a lot of green. It’s the green of someone who’s played as a winger and who attacks like a winger and who passes like a winger.
Davies’ crossing numbers aren’t in the red because he’s secretly bad at the things he’s very clearly good at – they’re red because that isn’t how he does things. Look at all his other passing numbers: Key passes, assists, expected assists, passes into the final third, passes into the penalty area. Behind the flash, people forget the deft playmaking he’s capable of.
HIGHLIGHTS 🎥
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 8, 2021
Jonathan Osorio of @TorontoFC powered #CanMNT to a historic 1-1 draw vs. Mexico at the Estadio Azteca in Concacaf World Cup Qualifying 🇨🇦
WATCH (FULL) ▶️ | #TFClive https://t.co/6FaVhst2WK pic.twitter.com/YjmAIGootN
You don’t need to disregard Canada’s forward depth to acknowledge that they’re not Bayern Munich level; Liam Millar had a good season with Preston, but he’s not Alphonso Davies. Jacob Shaffelburg is a pretty good ball progressor himself, but he’s not Alphonso Davies. Ali Ahmed should absolutely be at Copa America... but he isn’t Alphonso Davies.
We can acknowledge how frustrating it can be when Davies maybe tries to do a little too much by himself instead of passing the ball along... but we shouldn’t overstate how 'bad' he is at his worst (still pretty damn good) – and we shouldn't forget how jaw-droppingly good he’s been at his very, very best. And, of course, we shouldn’t forget that, at the age of 23, he leads the CanMNT all-time in assists.
So while it’s tempting to keep players where they ply their trade for their clubs – it even makes a certain amount of sense – it isn’t where he belongs with Canada. You don't put your best player that far away from goal, right?
"Then put him right in front of goal...!"
If you take the logic that says Alphonso Davies should be played at LW, not LB, and apply it to its natural concusion, you get... Alphonso Davies, Central Attacking Midfielder?
On paper, he certainly has the tools for it. Davies can glide up the middle just the same as he can up the flank. His playmaking seems to lend more to clever through balls than to whipped crosses. He's got a shot on his foot and he's not afraid to unleash it. Some of the CanMNT's best moments pre–World Cup came when Herdman played Davies at CAM. He played next to David in Canada’s 2-0 win over the USMNT in 2019, just as he did when he scored that iconic goal against Panama.
On the other hand, it seems a shame to concede the left wing. Canada has pace in spades, but they’ll be up against it in the coming weeks. Do we really want to give Argentina time and space to work their magic on the outside?
It’s a difficult decision, but Jesse Marsch is lucky he has France and the Netherlands as guinea pigs to experiment with before the 2024 Copa America kicks off – LB, LW, CAM or goalkeeper, Davies is certainly the first name on the team sheet, regardless.
