Davies: My Role Doesn’t Change w/ Agudelo Back
- Updated: February 13, 2015
Photo credit: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com
After stringing together strong performances during last year’s postseason run, it appeared that Revoluton forward Charlie Davies had essentially locked up the striker’s spot going into 2015. Then, out of the blue, the club welcomed back Juan Agudelo.
But even though the Revolution brought back one of the best players to ever fill the forward’s spot in Foxborough, Davies doesn’t feel that his playing time is in jeopardy.
“No, the same stuff applies for me when I’m on the field doing whatever I can to help the team win,” Davies told nesoccertoday.com. “I think it’s great when there are so many players who can offer so many different skills and technical abilities, and it gives Jay (Heaps) a lot of options.”
Some of the options that Davies alluded to is the possible mixing-and-matching of the front three in Heaps’ preferred 4-3-3 formation. Davies, Agudelo and Teal Bunbury have each seen time up top and on the right under Heaps, who has never turned down the opportunity to tweak his lineup if he feels it gives his club a matchup advantage.
Plus, with Kelyn Rowe and Diego Fagundez both showing themselves as dangerous on the left at various points over the course of the last two seasons, there’s even more flexibility afforded to the coaching staff – which is just fine by Davies.
“We’re making Jay’s job difficult because he’s got Teal, Juan, myself, Kelyn, Diego – a lot of different options for those three attacking positions,” Davies said. “So it’s great. That’s what you want: you want your team to be successful, you want players that give the coaching staff good options.”
One option that doesn’t appear to be on the table: scrapping the lone-striker system in favor of a two-forward formation in order pair Davies and Agudelo next to each other. Heaps mentioned at the start of camp that he wasn’t contemplating deviating from the 4-3-3, and that probably isn’t going to change even with Agudelo back in the fold.
But even though Agudelo’s return means that Davies will have to fight that much harder for playing time, and perhaps force him to play on the wing again, the competition hasn’t created any animosity in the locker room.
“We’re all excited,” Davies said. “We’re all good friends, and we just want to win.”
Winning – and winning often – is clearly at the forefront of Davies’ mind this winter, especially after he told the media earlier this winter that it took him two weeks to get over the team’s extra-time loss to the LA Galaxy in the MLS Cup final in December. Even so, it’s clear he’s not willing to loosen the grip on the spot he made his own last season.
In the first scrimmage of the preseason against Real Salt Lake, Davies took advantage of a defensive error inside of seven minutes and promptly scored the first goal of the winter for the Revolution. So while team success is important, it’s abundantly clear that the Revolution striker is just as eager to prove that he’s part of the winning formula.
With the Desert Diamond Cup tournament on tap, Davies, who missed much of last year’s edition due to injuries, is anxious to do everything he can to make Heaps’ lineup decisions as difficult as possible.
“I think when it’s all set, and the three (attacking) positions are chosen, our team is going to be very dynamic,” Davies said. “There’ll be a lot of different ways Jay can play our team.”
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