2020/21 James Rodriguez

[AussieToffee11]

Tbf he's only been out 3 1/2 weeks.

Only seems longer due to the busy schedule.

Just hope he's back for the Wolves game.

Spot on and a calf injury (of which he has had around 9 times in his career) are at least a 3 week injury, if not 4-5 weeks.

 

[Ruairi77]

It's a tough one. His passing range and vision in the early part of the season were another level but with the exception of the spurs game, that team were leaking goals to beat the band. He doesn't do much defensive work, no where near as much as Sig which is crazy. Also When Digne is back, we'll be a far more attack minded team.
When James and Digne are back our defense will come under a lot more pressure. Lets just hope Carlo has figured out the balance. I'd love to see him back but not if it means we're relying on beating teams by the odd goal in seven.

 

[bring the ghost on]

I wonder if there will ever be a point in time, in which people think our team might be stronger without him? Or is that just too crazy to even contemplate?

We’re certainly not stronger in an offensive sense and we miss his creativity massively going forwards.

We’ve had to grind out a few results where we’ve sat deep and attacked on the break. That is a style/system which probably doesn’t suit his game, so it just happens that we’ve had a good run of results without him.

In the long run though, we don’t want to have to scrap for points and have lots of players behind the ball. We want to be able to utilise James’ creativity without having to worry about him tracking back in every passage of play.

Thats the challenge for Carlo; to make sure he is not just a luxury we can’t afford.

 

[mill]

That's a harsh stat because of how busy this period has been for the amount of games crammed in

Tbh it’s not massively beyond what I expected from him which was 25 games in a season.

 

[Goat]

Its a shame, but we all knew this, this is the reason he plays for us and not a good club.

Just to see him once in blue was enough for me.

 

[BlueToff]

Its a shame, but we all knew this, this is the reason he plays for us and not a good club.

Just to see him once in blue was enough for me.

with the angels now

 

[BlueToff]

there is something they not telling us

they give us no info every week

Ancelotti has consistently said the same thing - the club are taking it day by day.

We've got two training sessions this week - today and tomorrow.

They were clearly hoping he could join in with the team today. Turns out he can't. So he can't be involved against West Ham.

Today's training session will have been the first full one since, at least, last Monday (21st).

 

[Toffeeslam]

Some of the hyperbole on he is ridiculous here with people writing his obituary.

He will be back next month I’m sure, why would the club mislead everyone if it was serious ?

 

[Goat]

We should retire the number 19 in his honour.

 

[DanEFC92]

Get out of my club!

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

He's robbing us of a wage.

 

[Zezti]

Wonder what @BarryThompson1 makes of this

 

[Dymak]

It's mental to think we're better off not playing a world class player

The league table may beg to differ.

 

[Zezti]

The league table may beg to differ.

With James = 1st
Without James = 2nd

 

[Dymak]

With James = 1st
Without James = 2nd

The conclusion would be that his inclusion has been negligible if that's true? Have you got any proof of that?

There was a period when we had some very poor form, when our right hand side was being targeted. I don't want to see that happen again tbh.

I just want Everton's form to be maximised, whatever it entails. I don't want our form to suffer for any reason, and that includes people falling in love or nepotism.