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2020/21 James Rodriguez

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BlueToff said:
I just think for the final year of his contract, keep him here and see what he can do. For Benitez's faults I do think he'll have a system in place but systems can't do everything and you need sprinkling of talent on top and in James we have a player of the level none of the teams around us now have - since Grealish has gone to City.

So make the most of him. As you say, this obsession with 'build a team around him' isn't needed and can't be done. But the irony is Benitez seems to be intent on using a system that none of our players are really suited to as opposed to one that both James and other players in the squad would seem naturally better fits to.

If - if - we had quality in his position that could come close to replicating his output (and he was way ahead of almost everyone bar GS who played 12 more games than him, fgs James created the 11th most 'big chances' (sitters, in simple terms) in the league last season, and played 10 games fewer than pretty much every other player on that list other than KDB and Grealish) - then I would be more lenient to the club here. But we don't have that quality, and Townsend, Gray and Iwobi have shown nothing on a consistent basis to show they have it in them.

I've run the numbers.

In 26 games in all comps, James created 54 chances. That works out at 2.38 per 90.

In comparison, Townsend created 1.58 per 90 (in 36 games), McNeil (who created 57 chances in total), was at 1.5 per 90 from 40 games. Iwobi down at 1.05 per 90 from 36 games. Gray only created 5 chances but only played 4 times in England (which is what I'm using).

James created 38 chances from open play - more than any of the others. He scored six goals, four more than any of the others and one more than the other four combined in English football last year.

His 14 big chances were four more than McNeil, seven more than Townsend, 10 more than Iwobi and 12 more than Gray.

1,039 of his 1,242 passes were successful (83.66%). He had the best dribble success rate (66.67%) by some distance - Townsend, Gray McNeil and Iwobi all in the 50-60 bracket. He played more minutes than Iwobi, but over less games.

Shooting. He had 41 shots - four more than Townsend (37), 12 more than McNeil (29) and 19 more than Iwobi (22). His shot conversion rate (i.e. getting the shot on target) was at 14.63 per cent, which for a midfielder is bloody good (in comparison all the others below 10 - Iwobi at 9.09 and we know how bad his shooting can be, and McNeil down at 6.9 and Townsend 2.7!

Basically, he's far better than any of them.
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Well said!
 



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