James Rodríguez Completes Move to Everton

[Mpache]

7 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The El Hadji Diouf comparison isn’t that far off. The height of both players’ careers has been a World Cup tournament. James has never once, regardless of the stats, looked like the player he was in that tournament ever again, imo.

Myth, 2014-15 and 2017-18 James was one of the best playmakers in the world. James was brilliant at Porto, Banfield and Monaco as well. He had a great tournament but to say he was an El Hadji Diouf (you said it btw) is simply ridiculous and just a blatant lie.

[Spike]

1 minute ago, Mpache said:

Fair enough, but just keep in mind and this is from experience, that stats are VERY important for people in charge of football. 

Because the people in charge are concerned with money and stats look like money on a spreadsheet

[El Profesor]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The El Hadji Diouf comparison isn’t that far off. The height of both players’ careers has been a World Cup tournament. James has never once, regardless of the stats, looked like the player he was in that tournament ever again, imo.

I disagree. He was great at Banfield, Porto and Monaco.

Having said that, I think it's fair to say that since he moved to Real, he's been better with Colombia than he's at the club level.

He's always good with Colombia, 2014 is the rule, not the exception. 

In my opinion, this is due the fact that at Colombia, the team is built around him. He is the focal point of almost every offensive action. On the other hand, at Real Madrid this is not the case. 

This is why the Everton move is great for him, in my opinion. Ancelotti will give James a much more relevant role than he's been given at Real Madrid and this is exactly the context where James can shine.

 

 

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

3 minutes ago, El Profesor said:

I disagree. He was great at Banfield, Porto and Monaco.

Having said that, I think it's fair to say that since he moved to Real, he's been better with Colombia than he's at the club level.

He's always good with Colombia, 2014 is the rule, not the exception. 

In my opinion, this is due the fact that at Colombia, the team is built around him. He is the focal point of almost every offensive action. On the other hand, at Real Madrid this is not the case. 

This is why the Everton move is great for him, in my opinion. Ancelotti will give James a much more relevant role than he's been given at Real Madrid and this is exactly the context where James can shine.

 

 

 

Fair enough, my view is obviously blinded a bit by me not following football outside of England all that much and mostly just seeing him (or not seeing him) in the CL since that World Cup.

[RandoEFC+]

Again, it's Everton. We just finished 12th. If he can get 3 goals and 3 assists all season that's literally better than any of our current midfielders. I couldn't give less of a toss that he was "only a fringe player" at Bayern or Madrid. We just finished 12th. 12th. Got that? 12th. Bang average would be a stunning improvement for us.

[LFCMike]

21 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Again, it's Everton. We just finished 12th. If he can get 3 goals and 3 assists all season that's literally better than any of our current midfielders. I couldn't give less of a toss that he was "only a fringe player" at Bayern or Madrid. We just finished 12th. 12th. Got that? 12th. Bang average would be a stunning improvement for us.

The one thing I would say though is that signing these fringe players/back ups from European giants hasn't exactly worked as a transfer policy for you. 

[DeadLinesman]

17 hours ago, Spike said:

I read the fucking stats, I don't give a shit if he averages a goal ever 3.28 seconds

That’s pretty special tbf 

[DeadLinesman]

Just now, LFCMike said:

The one thing I would say though is that signing these fringe players/back ups from European giants hasn't exactly worked as a transfer policy for you. 

I think Rodríguez is a different level than some of the past signings they’ve made.

[Chaaay AFC]

Could be a sneaky good signing if the wages aren't to astronomical and he is up for playing for Everton. If he is turning up for a paycheck he probably won't do a lot. His best football at Madrid was when Ancelotti was in charge so maybe he can get him going again because his quality is clear. 

[RandoEFC+]

1 hour ago, LFCMike said:

The one thing I would say though is that signing these fringe players/back ups from European giants hasn't exactly worked as a transfer policy for you. 

Who have we ever signed of a comparable calibre though? Regardless, Mina, Digne, Gomes haven't been our problem. Kean wasn't great in his first season but he was only 19 playing in an absolutely shambolic side with no creativity to be fair to him. The ones that have shafted us are the shite we've signed because of their "proven Premier League experience" - Williams, Schneiderlin, Delph, Bolasie all complete garbage. Sigurdsson and Walcott not as bad but not worth £45m or £28m. Then the ones we've tried to sign "on the way up" from Europe have been even worse - Cenk Tosun, Davy Klaassen, Sandro Ramirez. This signing along with Allan are of a different profile than what's failed us so far.

[Mpache]

2 hours ago, Chaaay AFC said:

Could be a sneaky good signing if the wages aren't to astronomical and he is up for playing for Everton. If he is turning up for a paycheck he probably won't do a lot. His best football at Madrid was when Ancelotti was in charge so maybe he can get him going again because his quality is clear. 

Yeah pretty much this. He wasn't truly frozen out til Rafa Benitez arrived and then Zidane hated his attitude. Ancelotti got the best out of him though and that 2014-15 season was arguably the best in his career. I reckon he'll be a very good signing.

[Mpache]

Oh I should also mention his other best season after the World Cup was 2017-18 at Bayern. Guess who the manager was? Carlo Ancelotti. He will know how to use him.

[LFCMike]

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

Who have we ever signed of a comparable calibre though? Regardless, Mina, Digne, Gomes haven't been our problem. Kean wasn't great in his first season but he was only 19 playing in an absolutely shambolic side with no creativity to be fair to him. The ones that have shafted us are the shite we've signed because of their "proven Premier League experience" - Williams, Schneiderlin, Delph, Bolasie all complete garbage. Sigurdsson and Walcott not as bad but not worth £45m or £28m. Then the ones we've tried to sign "on the way up" from Europe have been even worse - Cenk Tosun, Davy Klaassen, Sandro Ramirez. This signing along with Allan are of a different profile than what's failed us so far.

Don't think much of Mina or Gomes to be honest. I accept that Rodriguez is a level above the three you mentioned though.

To be honest, all the names you mention there just shows how scattergun Everton's approach to transfers has been.

Signing two players who will command a big wage and be 30 next year would be a concern if I was an Everton fan too

[RandoEFC+]

I'm more concerned about Allan than Rodriguez on account of how much each of their games do or don't rely on physicality. Ideally you want to buy players in their early 20s to act as an understudy then take over from the established player you already have. Unfortunately we don't have the established players to start with though. I'd be pissed off if we were signing a 29 year old left back for example because that would be dumb when we already have Digne but our midfield is so below par I can see why we're just going straight for this finished product in these positions even if they are likely to be at the end of their prime years.

[Bluebird Hewitt]

Expected to have a medical at Everton. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53995695

[Stan]

Done

 

[RandoEFC+]

Two year deal with an option for a third dependent on the number of appearances. Fee under £20m apparently.

For the benefit of the "Everton making the same mistakes again, Brands is no improvement on Walsh" crowd, Steve Walsh's last Everton signing was Theo Walcott for £28m, he was given a four year contract just before his 29th birthday. He was also Theo Walcott.

Even though James Rodriguez will definitely either be shite or do quite well before having both of his legs broken in a freak goal celebration incident, at least we won't be backed into paying his wages long past his worth like we have been with so many of the infamous Koeman/Walsh cohort.

[El Profesor]

Great signing for Everton. Not only James is a really good player who will make them better on the pitch, he also is very marketable. 

James is huge in Spanish America. Everton should make the most of it as well.

[The Artful Dodger]

Really hope this works out, capable of absolute brilliance. Just the feeling that it'll be a disaster but not for any other reason than its Everton.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I think Ancelotti’s going to build the midfield around him and that’s what any playmaker wants. As long as he settles in England, I think he’ll probably be a hit. He knows the manager, the manager believes in him - it’s the right environment for him to finally get his career back on track.

Everton’s midfield has been so poor for so long, it’s understandable that the manager wants to completely rebuild it.

[Dr. Gonzo]

So... a season on and... what do we think?

Particularly my bluenose pals on here: @RandoEFC, @Whiskey, @Robbie.

I looked at the stats and... my belief that he'd get his career back on track this season being the man Everton's midfield was built around... I'm not sure that really happened with the 1 assist from open play he managed. And I can't really remember too much notable that's really happened other than that one screenshotted WhatsApp rumour that was flying around a few months ago 

But the Evertonians will know better than me how he's actually been. From a rednose looking in... it seems like a pretty uneventful season from him.

How old is he now? I feel like his career has really just been one good World Cup, a move to Real Madrid where he was bombed out of the side... a loan to Bayern where was bombed out of the side... and then the chance to go to a "smaller club" to be the main man came around with Everton... and it's not really amounted to anything.

I know at the tail end of the season, he wasn't playing - and I'm not sure if that's due to injury or not. Everton did have a pretty miserable second half to the season - was that because of missing him in the side? Or unrelated to James entirely?

I remember once I called him overrated, for how he flopped at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, but I was told by some people on here that I was wrong and being ignorant about him as a player because of the injuries he suffered (or some shite like that). But looking at the statistics... he does seem a bit overhyped compared to how he performed.

[RandoEFC+]

He did pretty well when he played. The stats don't tell the full story because he played a lot of defence splitting passes which were like the pass before the assist.

He missed a lot of games. This was expected and we knew from the start of the season we'd need other players to chip in when he wasn't available. Sigurdsson actually did a very decent job of this. Iwobi, Bernard and Josh King very much didn't though, especially as the season wore on.

I think he can be devastating when he's given a free role. The biggest problem is we don't have 10 other players to put on the pitch to allow us to do that. As a team we can't press well enough to avoid asking him to do more defensive work than he's really capable of. As a team we don't have the pace and physicality to get up and down the pitch fast enough. We're far too ponderous playing the ball out of defence which results in him dropping into stupid number 6 positions just to get a few touches on the ball. With these problems, there's no point in having him on the pitch, because you have to put up with defending as if you've got 10 men without actually getting the benefit of what he does with the ball.

Overall, we got about what you could reasonably expect from a player with his abilities, drawbacks and injury record. If we want him to really excel we need better and different types of player around him. We saw earlier in the season how good he can be when we played as a functioning team for those first 6 games or so. He might not live up to his early career hype but he also came in on effectively a free transfer. Probably on massive wages but it's been a net success so far and there's room to get more out of him. If any of our fans are disappointed with what we've got from him this season they probably need to accept that their expectations were a bit unrealistic. He was still among our top few players this season and if there's anything James-related the club should be worrying about it's getting better players behind and in front of him to enable him to play the number 10/free role where he excels.

[Dr. Gonzo]

30 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

He did pretty well when he played. The stats don't tell the full story because he played a lot of defence splitting passes which were like the pass before the assist.

He missed a lot of games. This was expected and we knew from the start of the season we'd need other players to chip in when he wasn't available. Sigurdsson actually did a very decent job of this. Iwobi, Bernard and Josh King very much didn't though, especially as the season wore on.

I think he can be devastating when he's given a free role. The biggest problem is we don't have 10 other players to put on the pitch to allow us to do that. As a team we can't press well enough to avoid asking him to do more defensive work than he's really capable of. As a team we don't have the pace and physicality to get up and down the pitch fast enough. We're far too ponderous playing the ball out of defence which results in him dropping into stupid number 6 positions just to get a few touches on the ball. With these problems, there's no point in having him on the pitch, because you have to put up with defending as if you've got 10 men without actually getting the benefit of what he does with the ball.

Overall, we got about what you could reasonably expect from a player with his abilities, drawbacks and injury record. If we want him to really excel we need better and different types of player around him. We saw earlier in the season how good he can be when we played as a functioning team for those first 6 games or so. He might not live up to his early career hype but he also came in on effectively a free transfer. Probably on massive wages but it's been a net success so far and there's room to get more out of him. If any of our fans are disappointed with what we've got from him this season they probably need to accept that their expectations were a bit unrealistic. He was still among our top few players this season and if there's anything James-related the club should be worrying about it's getting better players behind and in front of him to enable him to play the number 10/free role where he excels.

Yeah that's one of those things I was thinking. I caught more Everton matches in the first half of the season than the second half of the season and when I saw the stats earlier, before making that post, I was surprised because the numbers didn't match up with how I remember him performing earlier on in the season.

And what you're saying matches up with that - the stats don't tell the full story (and tbh, in football while stats can tell you an awful lot.. they can also be misleading and might not tell as much as you'd think when you look at them). 

The few Everton matches I remember watching in the second half of the season... were pretty late on in the run in... and in those matches you just looked like a side starving for creativity. Like I don't know what the hell a player like Dominic Calvert-Lewin is supposed to do as a poacher in a side that doesn't create chances for him. So from that perspective, it looked like you were really missing him.

[Devil]

Just out of curiosity has anyone heard the rumour about James Rodriquez that was going round a few months back?

[Dr. Gonzo]

5 hours ago, Devil said:

Just out of curiosity has anyone heard the rumour about James Rodriquez that was going round a few months back?

Hahaha yes. I laughed so hard when I saw that