As Maurice Edu nears his return for the Philadelphia Union it has led to the question of where he should play when he returns to the starting XI.

There are two positions in which Edu can function for the Philadelphia Union, center back and central defensive midfielder, both roles in which he has played in prior seasons for the team. There have been issues with Edu accepting defensive responsibilities while in the midfield leading to the question, with the current personal is it better for Edu to slot in as a center back?

On the back line Edu would be a significant upgrade over either Ken Tribbett or Josh Yaro who have deficiencies that playoff caliber teams will exploit as we saw in the Toronto game. In that game Giovinco and Jozy Altidore took advantage of Tribbett in space and even though he scored the lone goal, he looked out of sorts.

The person that Maurice Edu would be expected to replace in the midfield is Warren Crevalle who has looked much better next to Bedoya than he did with Brian Carroll as his midfield partner. That’s because with Bedoya in the lineup Crevalle can do what he’s best at which is being an athletic midfield destroyer. He plays a role similar to the one expected from Edu but in a less refined way.

With how cheap Crevalle is compared to Edu it may be in the best interests of the team’s long-term future if they allow him to develop midfield chemistry with Bedoya due to the length of Bedoya’s contract. There’s also the fact that Edu hasn’t played a competitive fixture in almost a year.

Even though he has returned to training for the Philadelphia Union it remains to be seen if he could step in and be the player that he was in the midfield. Jim Curtin has said, “that he’s not putting a hard timeline on Edu’s return” because the Philadelphia Union want to take it slow with him.

Taking it slow doesn’t constitute tossing Edu straight into the fire that is the central midfield and his preferred number six role. Even though center back would offer more physical challenges for Edu, it would have a less taxing effect on his legs during the season. But what we really want to see is more of this:

The major question is which position would Edu offer the biggest upgrade to the Philadelphia Union at?

To me, the answer is to put Edu at center back given the team’s current makeup there. We know that Earnie Stewart likes center backs that are good with the ball at their feet which can be seen in the way that Ken Tribbett and Richie Marquez push up in the midfield and you won’t get much better in that role than Maurice Edu.

With the Philadelphia Union in the thick of a playoff race (I’ve still got to get used to writing this) having a playoff quality backline is a must. No matter what you think of Yaro/Tribbett, they are the weakest links of the backline and will be picked on in the road to the MLS cup. Inserting Edu in their place could be the addition that puts the Union over the top.

Ultimately, the decision is up to Jim Curtin but he’s used Edu at center back before so he wouldn’t be against using him there again. Even though much of the talk has been on using Edu as a central defensive midfielder, that was before the acquisition of Alejandro Bedoya. If the Union want to make a deep run in the Playoffs all roads point to Edu improving the back line.