Scouting Report: Alvaro Rey according to Toronto FC fans and the stats

Duncan Fletcher of Waking the Red has seen just about every minute Alvaro Rey's Toronto FC career. He provides the book on the Crew's new winger:

[Rey] relies more on trickery than speed. He's skillful and can trick a defender to make himself room, but rarely full on beats him so if there isn't an obvious pass after he's made a bit of room, he'll get bogged down, especially if double teamed.

Rey seems comfortable with passing and possession if there's options for him, which often wasn't the case with TFC. He played both wings but always looked best on the right for Toronto.

He should work well with the Crew's attacking fullbacks, he linked up very well with Mark Bloom as the overlapping fullback down TFC's right side.

Thank you Duncan!

Digging a little deeper on Rey using the league's Opta stats, he fits in well with the Crew's other wingers. Rey was Toronto's most active defensive winger. He averaged 1.7 tackles a game. That is similar to Hector Jimenez's 1.3 tackle average. It's also clear that Toronto's roles for their wingers differs from Berhalter. Rey averaged 0.4 shots per game. In comparison Ethan Finlay doubles that with 0.9. Jiminez and Justin Meram average 1.4 shots per game. Bernardo Anor tops the list at 2.1, Rey will certainly have a chance to add to his career goal total of 1.

In the passing department, Rey was one of the better passing players on Toronto. He averaged 78.4% accuracy. That number would fall to the bottom half of the Crew's roster. Anor and Jiminez both average well over 80% with twice the average amount of passes that Rey attempts.

Rey certainly looks like the player who was in the wrong system. He will get the chance to play a passing game focused on combining and looking for mismatches. That will suit a player who relies on skill and soccer smarts rather than pace and effort.