When will Sporting Kansas City’s Jake Davis play midfielder again? It could happen soon

Down 2-1 and up a man Saturday against San Jose, Sporting Kansas City’s Peter Vermes made a triple-substitution. It wasn’t necessarily a move he wanted to make, but one he more or less had to.

Vermes didn’t directly criticize the official, but observers could read between the lines:

The yellow cards already doled out, and how the game had been called in general, had the KC manager worried.

“It’s a shame a few of the yellow cards that we received,” Vermes said later, “because it forced us to make changes that we probably wouldn’t have at that time.”

One of those substitutions was for Jake Davis, who was mostly phenomenal at right-back Saturday. Davis has played at right-back for each of the club’s first four games this season, but it’s not where Vermes prefers to position him.

Davis broke out as a right-back in 2023 and it’s where he spent the first half of the 2024 Major League Soccer season. But a mid-year move to the midfield became Davis’ second breakout.

In 12 games as a midfielder, Davis recorded a goal and four assists. Sporting KC played 45 games across all competitions in 2024, winning just 13 times. Davis played as a midfielder in five of those victories.

Vermes praised Davis’ ability to thrive in the 360-degree, chaotic environment commonly found in the middle of the field.

“I think if you just play a conservative game all the time, you don’t get the reward for the risk,” Vermes said. “He’s a guy that takes it upon himself to turn a 40/60 ball into a 100% tackle that he wins.

“Those are the kinds of risks that you want and can take in that part of the field. I think he feels a lot more comfortable there.”

So why not play him there yet in 2025? Vermes said circumstances ahead of the team’s 2-1 loss to the Earthquakes led to Davis’ playing right-back instead.

“It’s never the intent as a coach to move a guy’s position when he’s better somewhere else,” Vermes said ahead of last weekend’s game, “but we were in need, and we’ve been in need.”

Khiry Shelton missed the start of the season due to injury. Jan Jurcec was in preseason camp with the team as a trialist, but Vermes said they weren’t able to strike a deal.

So the club signed Andrew Brody. But Sporting KC has yet to have a full training session with him since his acquisition.

In fact, on Tuesday, Vermes revealed the team hadn’t held a full training session since starting CCC play on Feb. 19. Some of their work to integrate such new additions as Brody, Manu Garcia and Shapi Suleymanov has been carried out in hotel ballrooms on the road.

Full training sessions took place this week, however, and Shelton’s health is said to be improving. He was listed as questionable against San Jose and was a full participant in training Tuesday.

So Davis may soon move back to the midfield. But he will never say publicly that he doesn’t want to play right-back. He just wants to play.

And he’s focused on training and playing wherever he’s asked.

“As of right now,” he said, “I’m focused every day at training this week to be the best right back I can be. And then if next week that changes, then I’m shifting gears. I don’t want to over-complicate that.

Up next: Sporting travels to the nation’s capital this weekend to take on DC United. Saturday’s match is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. Central Time.

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.