James Rodriguez Leaving Everton?

[The Palace Fan]

 

[RandoEFC+]

Honestly not arsed. Showed his class multiple times last season but he's 29, injured half the time, not really suited to the Premier League and needs legs all over the pitch around him to allow him to purely focus on creating which is something we simply don't have enough of in our squad. He's a real luxury player for us but we have bigger problems than worrying about whether or not he stays.

I wish him well if he goes. When he played and things went well, he was at the centre of it, and when things didn't go so well, he didn't hide, always looked for the ball even if he had to drop into a number 6 position and was visibly arsed unlike some of our other players in the same circumstances. I can confidently predict that the assessment of his time at the club will be harsher than the reality, which is that he's a quality player when fit, genuinely seems to have a good attitude, but is limited in his physical attributes and dogged by injuries. The story of his time at Everton doesn't really deviate from this so even though I'm saying we won't miss him terribly, I don't think his time with us should be labelled an individual failure on his part.

[Stan]

I'm surprised he hasn't left already after Ancelotti walked. 

[El Profesor]

James can be a very effective player in a less physical league. The likes of Roma and Napoli should try to get him. 

I also think Everton should get rid of Richarlison while his value is high. They can get some good money out of him and improve the squad, Richarlison´s value will eventually drop. Very overrated, at least here in Brazil. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Honestly, doesn't it seem a bit weird he's being offered around to other clubs before a manager's been appointed?

[Whiskey]

Not arsed - outstanding player but just can't ever get fit. Was insane in the first 3-4 games but was a total passenger for most of the season.

[RandoEFC+]

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Honestly, doesn't it seem a bit weird he's being offered around to other clubs before a manager's been appointed?

Not really. He openly said he wouldn't have come to Everton if not for Ancelotti so anyone other than Ancelotti doesn't give him back his original reason for being here. Also it's his agent offering him to clubs, not Everton, in case that wasn't clear.

[Spike]

Everton should tell him to fuck off. Outstanding my arse - maybe in 2014, Colombia even told him to fuck off. Everton need their scouts to find more Calvert-Lewin and Godfrey and less washed up rejects from other clubs. I have faith in your guys, That's Everton's DNA for as long as I can remember, picking up less known players and have them be absolute studs, Coleman, Baines, Cahill, Jagielka, etc.

Also how Everton is it to have a player be elite for three games and then be shit forever after?

[Dr. Gonzo]

38 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Not really. He openly said he wouldn't have come to Everton if not for Ancelotti so anyone other than Ancelotti doesn't give him back his original reason for being here. Also it's his agent offering him to clubs, not Everton, in case that wasn't clear.

Ah - I didn't read anything other than the tweet, so I assumed it was Everton shopping around. Makes more sense than his agent & that makes more sense.

For some reason, I thought it was the club looking to get rid... although they don't have a manager yet and I thought that'd be weird since if the new manager is going to be in charge of a rebuild he should get a say in if he wants to keep any of the current squad.

Anyways, in another thread - I asked you, @Whiskey, & @Robbie how you felt of him - because I remember his performances (mostly in the first half of the season, because that's when I caught more Everton matches) were really good... but then I looked at his stats at the end of the season and they did not look so good. But it goes to show that stats don't tell the whole story and your descriptions of him don't make him seem like a bad player at all - just maybe not the best fit for this league.

Tbh though, I've always thought he's been kind of massively overrated after that one world cup. I know his early stats at Real Madrid and his performances at Everton say otherwise. So in reality he's probably somewhere in between as good as he was at that World Cup and as bad as he was at clubs like Bayern Munich (where he looked abysmal in the few matches I saw).

Hope he gets a move to a club where he can show his quality in full, like he did at that World Cup... because he was brilliant to watch back then.

[Viva la FCB+]

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Ah - I didn't read anything other than the tweet, so I assumed it was Everton shopping around. Makes more sense than his agent & that makes more sense.

For some reason, I thought it was the club looking to get rid... although they don't have a manager yet and I thought that'd be weird since if the new manager is going to be in charge of a rebuild he should get a say in if he wants to keep any of the current squad.

Anyways, in another thread - I asked you, @Whiskey, & @Robbie how you felt of him - because I remember his performances (mostly in the first half of the season, because that's when I caught more Everton matches) were really good... but then I looked at his stats at the end of the season and they did not look so good. But it goes to show that stats don't tell the whole story and your descriptions of him don't make him seem like a bad player at all - just maybe not the best fit for this league.

Tbh though, I've always thought he's been kind of massively overrated after that one world cup. I know his early stats at Real Madrid and his performances at Everton say otherwise. So in reality he's probably somewhere in between as good as he was at that World Cup and as bad as he was at clubs like Bayern Munich (where he looked abysmal in the few matches I saw).

Hope he gets a move to a club where he can show his quality in full, like he did at that World Cup... because he was brilliant to watch back then.

I havent watched any of him since he left but I can say his first season with us was fantastic full stop. There where talks about buying him outright even halfway through the first season he was that good. But as his career has seemingly always been he faded into the abyss in the second season, looked very disinterested when he did play and was a shadow of his former self. Then came all the rumours of how he wanted to go home and be with his family, how he wasnt settled, wasnt integrating into the team or city. I try to forget most of that year/ year and a half with Ancelotti but Kovac was probably worse.

Anyways im rambling now but the long and the short of it is James always struck me as an enigma. Clearly has all the talent in the world but maybe his head isnt all that right. 

[Machado]

James Rodriguez should have been regarded as one of the best midfielders of the last decade. He is more talanted than most, but something went wrong somewhere... not sure what. His play style doesn't suit modern football too well I think. I see him as a classical number 10. Where do you see those these days? 4-3-3's like work horses. Number 10's are luxury players.

Decent piece on this:

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/tactical-theory/tactical-theory-the-death-of-the-number-10-tactical-analysis-tactics

[Inverted]

10 hours ago, Machado said:

James Rodriguez should have been regarded as one of the best midfielders of the last decade. He is more talanted than most, but something went wrong somewhere... not sure what. His play style doesn't suit modern football too well I think. I see him as a classical number 10. Where do you see those these days? 4-3-3's like work horses. Number 10's are luxury players.

Decent piece on this:

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/tactical-theory/tactical-theory-the-death-of-the-number-10-tactical-analysis-tactics

I don't think it necessarily requires complete workhorses but it does set a minimum baseline of intensity required. 

David Silva managed well in the middle of a 4-3-3 and he is physically slight. Thiago also has played centrally for several pressing teams. Physically weak, technical players can survive if they have the will to run and a fairly basic level of physical endurance. 

I say "basic" in the sense that I think any professional athlete should be capable, if they are determined to do so, of developing a decent level of stamina and endurance. I don't know if James just lacked that drive, or if he had physical issues which really limited his capacity for intensive running. 

[RandoEFC+]

James would typically keep running further and longer than Sigurdsson or Gomes though. Might have been a different story if we'd had three Doucoure's in midfield all season with James able to play a free role. There's a role for him but you have to build the team around him to a fairly sizeable extent and that approach falls down when you can't trust him to be fit for more than half the season.