Beyond the Lens - To Fonz or Not

Before anyone freaks out, I am not talking about Arthur Fonzarelli, the character played by Harry Winkler in the 70s sitcom Happy Days. Although, there is a happy coincidence in this.

Some would say that watching Caps teen phenom Alphonso Davies brought happiness when Davies on the ball. Yes, even this photographer and supporter got excited when that happened.

However, after an early season heavy workload and an injury bug, has Davies tired already? Or does Robbo feel that AD isn’t a good fit for this new formation, likened to a 4-1-4-1. It would just so happen that I started barking about a formation change midway through last year, and going to a 1 man shield, aka Laba, would simplify his game and given the plethora of midfielders the Caps have, I thought it was worth a shot.

With Shea’s somewhat surprising return on Friday, it presents another question. Is Alphonso being pushed out, through no apparent fault of his. With Reyna about a month away, and if what we were told is true, he’ll be the Caps #10, meaning one less spot in the midfield to be had. Right now, the Caps 2 CMs are Tchani and Jacobson. Not exactly a beacon for offensive creativity right there. No offense to either Tony or Andrew, but given the lack of a true #10, I think this works well. I was never fully on the Pedro Morales bandwagon therefore I thought it would be easier to change the team to adapt to Pedro rather than trying to cram a square peg into a round hole (Pedro as a regista aka deep lying playmaker or going further back Daigo as an outside winger).

Enough about the past, back onto the present and future. How do you handle Davies, granted his age and the relative success of a new formation and bodies starting to return from injury?

At this point, I’m of the thought that Davies needs to assess his marker for the first 10 minutes or so, before becoming fully effective. That could just be a sign of the the lack of a mature physical and/or mental game. Let’s not forget he’s only 16 years old (Yes, I held off as long as I could before spewing his age). It’s no secret that a few Europpean giants have been to BC Place to watch Fonzie, but let’s just enjoy the next couple years that we know he’ll be here.

One final note, I can’t go without giving a shout-out to Kristjan Aug. His singlehanded support of the Caps on Friday night in Commerce City was apparently quite the display for those around him, garnering attention from the Guardian. As someone who’s known Kris for a number of years, I can tell you he’s always been that way. Always going balls to the wall, not only when supporting, but pushing his beloved Southsiders to be better as a capo.