I don’t see Flores as a winger. Mainly due to Canada wingers’ ability to create for themselves. Ahmed and Buchanan are basically locks if Davies plays out of the back or gets injured. What Canada is lacking is offensively is a 10 who can help link up play to J David.
Playing J David as a 10 isn’t adequate as P David is the only other finisher who seems unlikely to be ready for the tournament.
I imagine Flores would be at the top primarily as an attacking midfielder, similar to Kone. However, I’m not sure Flores is enough of a complete player, in particular defensively, to play the full 90.
Wouldn’t mind being proven wrong.
With Canada’s ever-tenacious and hopefully smarter play compared to 2022, bare minimum would be 3rd, with a small chance of winning the group. Switzerland are no slouches.
In regards to the defense, there is a small amount of flexibility in that Lareya can slide onto the right side, keeping Davies in the back, and having Sigur be a sub fullback/midfielder. But that depth is troubling…
We are going to miss P David in a big way. What i liked about Flores is his ball handling ability and his nack for making stuff happen up front. Buchanan is the same. I think we’ll need that to break down defenses. Wonder if A Davies would fit as a midfielder? With his range and playmaking ability he could be a real nice asset both ways. Not sure he has ever played there and if not then not sure why not.
Back in the early 80’s, an aging Italian star named Roberto Bettega finished his 14 year career playing for Juventus. At that point he decided that he wanted to play a bit longer, so he came to Canada and played for a couple of seasons with the Toronto Blizzard of the now defunct NASL.
After playing here a while, Bettega was asked in an interview if there is any difference between European and North American players. His response was literally exactly what you wrote in your post above. Bettega said that North American players take an extra second to decide what they are going to do, and at that point the defenders can close in.
However, watching this version of Team Canada now for the last few years, I’ve noticed that they compensate for their lack of creativity, with sheer physical aggression and tenacity. Often times, they simply “will” their way to a goal or victory.
This Canadian team is not to be taken lightly, and have a very good chance of at the very least advancing through some rounds.
I’m fairly new to soccer so what i tend to do is transfer my knowledge of hockey and it’s tendencies over to soccer for better or worse. There does seem to be much in common beneath the surface. Anyway, thanks for the inights.
I do agree that they tend to try to force mistakes and preferably penalty mistakes in the box through pressure as a means of compensating for their lack of creativity. If healthy then Canada can do some damage but i do have concerns about our goal scoring ability. We will need goals to finish first and play our playoffs in Canada rather than the US.