2020/21 James Rodriguez

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But being rational he'll be off next season as he's out of contract and he'll likely be missing half of this season with injury.

So people are advocating the manager build his entire system, transfer recruitment and tactics on a player for half a season before needing to rip it up all over again next summer when he buggers off to the MLS.

Its crazy.
I don’t think a lot of us are advocating that the manager builds his entire system around James but it is crazy that Benitez can’t find a spot for him the upcoming season.
 
league goals alone he was involved in over 20 % I think , so we better get with replacing him and them goals .
You posted my exact thoughts. I can’t see any new signups, even @ForeverBlue92 Coutinho being as effective as James scoring goals and assist. Even if James can’t play a full season he can be very helpful to Everton that way. If Benitez can’t see that then it makes me wonder who in his mind will be the one scoring those 20% of goals/assist.
 
@roy vernon I'll be honest mate im not too fussed on what type of football we play providing we are winning games and not just relying on set pieces like at times last season.

Both Ancelotti and Benitez have looked at this squad of players and decided they aint good enough to play open expansive football yet the fanbase think they know better than two of the most decorated managers of all time.

Since Moyes we've played a few different styles and the fans moan regardless:

Martinez- possession based - fans moaned

Koeman - mixture and more pragmatic - fans moaned

Alladyce - hoofball - fans moaned

Silva - expansive football - fans moaned

Carlo - counter attacking without the pace to actually be able to counter attack - fans moaned.

I think we moaned because we were supposed to play those styles, but didn't really. I.e. defensive, traditional italian football would have been perfectly acceptable last year, if we were actually getting somewhere with it. Silva - we didnt' really play expansive that often did we? 1-2 times? I'm more frustrated that whichever manager comes in, we try to have a new style, but we don't get there - back to the idea yes the players aren't good enough to play or adapt to anything really! every team has a new bounce with a new manager and many managers are able to come in and work with what they;ve got and improve them. I hope this is the one that clicks!
 

James must look around at training, see the likes of Crab Iwobi and Snail Keane and wonder to himself what dystopian parallel universe he is living in....and how to escape it ASAP!
it may not be the crab or snail that push James to escape... must be the pig... and i don't mean to demean pigs they are cute creatures... yes, i'm sorry im being too personal with the manager..
 

For me, he starts every game and honestly I'd stick the captain's armband on him so show him how valued he is.

He has experience, talent and the voice that everyone in our squad looks up to..

He is such a versatile player too in a 4-4-2 (diamond), 4-3-3 or 4-5-1.

Madness that we are even thinking of selling
 
I think most would be made up if James stayed. But we really don't know what is happening behind closed doors. It's all assumption based on small fragments of info.

Benitez seems to be getting a lot of stick for this, but I don't think it's all deserved, especially without knowing the full picture. He may have assessed the squad and thought that while James is indeed a great player, maybe he is weighing up whether he can count on him long term, and this window is essentially the last chance to cash in.

The noises coming from James side are that he is happy to stay for a year, but that doesn't really do us any good in the long term. But while he may be happy to stay, this doesn't mean he is desperate to, or that he wouldn't jump at the chance to leave if he could, and let's be fair, who could blame him?

Perhaps the "it's Complicated" aspect of his position is that the club as a whole see the benefit of having him, the exposure, the increased following and new fans who were turned on to us purely because of James. And knowing they have the option of the extra year, maybe they would like to extend that.

But James might not be open to that. And in return, it's not beyond reason that the manager and the money men would then start to look to the long term instead, and put whatever fee and wages we could recoup back into the team now.

The alternative is we have him in a world Cup year, he does great, forces his way back into the national side and next year we watch our best player walk away for nothing.

From James perspective, signing on for another year with those exact same prospects, and coupled with a new manager who may or may not think he is the answer, and you can start to see where it is indeed "complicated".

So, in a summer when he has been nailed on to leave, then likely to/happy to stay, and then back to surplus to requirements, there is still the outside possibility of the M Night Shyamalan twist.

The new contract extension, if/when there is no serious interest shown.

It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen this summer, which shows what a mental few months its been.
 
We have tons of crap earning around what James does. Brought in both before and after Brands was hired. He has failed in that remit, for years, of getting high earners off the books.
It's hard to get high earning, underperforming players off the books.

Because they are high earning and underperforming.
Dont be silly.
Does Pep build his entire system around DeBruyne ?
Kloppe build his entire system around Salah ?
Even Tuchel , does he build his entire system around Kante ?
They are their best players yet good managers can get a team to function with or without them in the side.

Good teams and more specifically good managers dont get shut of their best players.
Another post that picks 3 top players from the 3 top teams.

It doesn't apply to Everton. Those teams are packed with quality. We have 1 absolutely top quality player (James) and 3, maybe 4 very good players.

No point at all building a system around that one player who misses 40% of of our matches. When he does play we have a high chance of seeing the system fail because we have several players who can't do the basics right.

When you factor in his wage (200k per week according to todays Echo - who knows?) he's a luxury item that we can't fully enjoy because of those around him.

He'll leave, for pretty nominal fee but we're free of his wage drain.

Gutted I haven't seen him.
 

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