It must be nice to have the kind of problems that Canadian men’s national team coach John Herdman has to contend with ahead of Sunday’s friendly against Panama at Vancouver’s BC Place.
Among the issues Herdman is facing at the moment is how to shoehorn Alphonso Davies back into the starting 11 after his lengthy time away from the national team setup.
Davies started in seven of Canada’s first eight games of the final round of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, scoring one goal and tallying three assists along the way. But the 21-year-old from Edmonton missed the last six matches of the qualifiers after developing symptoms of myocarditis, a mild heart condition, following a bout of COVID-19.
He had to watch from afar back in Germany as Canada officially punched its ticket for the World Cup in Qatar later this year with a 4-0 win over Jamaica in Toronto on March 27.
After being sidelined for three months, Davies eventually returned to action for Bayern Munich in April and helped the Bavarian club win its tenth consecutive Bundesliga title.
Now he is back in the fold for Canada, named to Herdman’s roster for this month’s international window, which also includes a pair of Concacaf Nations League qualifiers against Curaçao and Honduras.
The Canadian men went 5-2-0 in World Cup qualifying without Davies, and posted big wins over the United States at home and Honduras on the road. But despite the team’s success without the Bayern Munich star, it’d be foolish to think that he won’t go straight back into the starting lineup against Panama. You simply don’t bench a player the calibre of Davies, whose previous appearance for Canada came in a 2-1 win over Mexico in Edmonton on Nov. 16, 2021.
But the question remains: How will Herdman fit Davies into his lineup on Sunday?
Davies has been deployed in a number of different spots on the pitch by Herdman during his tenure as Canadian coach. This included slotting him in at left fullback, where he regularly plays for Bayern Munich and is generally considered to be among the best players in the world at the position.
As a fullback in a 4-5-1 formation, Davies can join the attack by making probing and overlapping runs from a deeper position down the left flank that have become his trademark at Bayern Munich. But it also means he’s not nearly connected enough with Canada’s dangerous forward duo of Cyle Larin and Jonathan David, who finished with 11 goals between them during the World Cup qualifiers.
More recently, Herdman has used Davies as a wingback on the left side. While Davies’ starting part on the pitch is not as deep as it would be if he was used as a fullback, it still allows him to go on dangerous runs and be more involved in the buildup of Canada’s attack.
Playing as a wingback also means Davies doesn’t have as many defensive responsibilities to worry about, and frees him up to gamble more and take more chances in the attacking end. Panama found this out to its peril in a 4-1 loss to Canada in World Cup qualifying on Oct. 13, 2021 in Toronto.
With Davies at the heart of a fervent attack, Canada asked serious questions of the visitors in the first half. One notable sequence saw Davies dance his way through five Panamanian players with the ball glued to his feet before passing off to David, whose shot from just inside the box forced a great save from goalkeeper Luis Mejia.
With the score knotted at 1-1 in the second half, Davies broke the game open with a play of individual brilliance that instantly went viral around the world. David played a hopeful ball into Panama’s half that was headed out for the throw-in, but Davies used his speed to make a run from deep inside his half to win the ball as Panama’s Harold Cummings tried to shepherd it out.
The Canadian speedster then burst into the penalty area, sidestepped defender Fidel Escobar, and using teammate Tajon Buchanan as a decoy, he beat Meija with a low shot inside the post that left the goalkeeper rooted to the spot.
Davies’ introduction back into the starting 11 appears inevitable, but it does mean Herdman has to decide whether or not to play in the same 4-5-1 formation he’s used the last few games, with David serving as the reference point up top and Larin dropping back a bit in support.
More likely, Herdman will opt to go with a 4-4-2 with David and Larin up front, Buchanan serving as a counter-balance to Davies as the right wingback, and Stephen Eustáquio and Atiba Hutchinson holding things down in central midfield.
Regardless of what happens, Davies’ return is very good news for a Canadian men’s team that is entering the home stretch of its preparations for the World Cup.
John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 20 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer. TFC Republic can be found here.
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