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Bundesliga is Back: Mixing it with the best and keeping pace – Why Bayern gave Alphonso Davies a new deal

Bayern Munich's Alphonso Davies

Alphonso Davies was rewarded for a brilliant breakout season with a contract extension during the Bundesliga shutdown that ties him to Bayern Munich until 2025 on Monday.

The Canada teenager won a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal medal last term, but only made his appearances for Die Roten off the bench.

However, Davies converted to a left-back this season to ease a defensive crisis that has seen David Alaba play mainly as a centre-back for Bayern.

Davies was excelling in the role prior to the suspension of the Bundesliga due to the coronavirus pandemic and will hope to hit the ground running when play resumes, which is expected to happen later this month.

Here we take a closer look at the 19-year-old with the help of Opta.


MIXING IT WITH THE BUNDESLIGA'S BEST

In the Bundesliga, Davies is comparing favourably to his fellow left-backs. Indeed, his four assists can only be bettered in that position by the five of Freiburg's Christian Gunther.

Among all players with at least 100 take-ons this season, Davies has the best success rate (58 per cent) .

His open-cross success rate (of players with at least 30) is the best in the Bundesliga at 37 per cent , while a passing accuracy of 87 per cent is only improved upon by Borussia Dortmund's Raphael Guerriero (89) among left-backs.

Davies also has the most take-ons and has had more duels than any other left-back in the league this term.


KEEPING UP WITH THE PACE

Davies' speed and ability to recover have been a crucial aspect for Bayern and it speaks volumes that he is the only player to start each of the 21 competitive matches since Hansi Flick took charge.

His top speed in the Bundesliga this season is 35.3 km/h . Of Bayern players only Kingsley Coman has clocked a quicker time (35.7 km/h) .

Ivan Perisic is the only Die Roten player with more sprints per 90 minutes (39) than Davies (37) .

In total, Davies has completed 112 take-ons, while he has a goal involvement once every 318 minutes.

Perhaps a little surprisingly, all four of his four assists in the Bundesliga have come away from home. Indeed, his only top-flight goal involvement at the Allianz Arena was his goal against Mainz on match day three.

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