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2020/21 James Rodriguez

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Gonna have a guess here, but I don't think he's going to come back for the Man City game, if he wasn't ready for the Sheffield United game, the team would not have practiced and they can play Gordon, Bernard, Richarlison, Iwobi, Sigurdsson in those winger spots or the 10 role. You don't want to go into the Man City game with a half fit player and go down a sub early, or play with basically 10 men for the game.

Secondly I don't think the Man City game would suit James, he'd have to press alot because of Man City's possession. He can get on the ball more for the West Ham game plus they would have at least one training session to assess him. Against Man City I'd go with Doucoure and Davies in DM roles, Iwobi, Richarlison and Sigurdsson in the wingers and 10 role for their workrate.

The Man City game is a free hit at 3 points. Technically its worth 6 points against a title chasing rival, but we won the Sheffield United game, we beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester, get James right for games in January, rather than the Man City game.
 
arbok said:
Gonna have a guess here, but I don't think he's going to come back for the Man City game, if he wasn't ready for the Sheffield United game, the team would not have practiced and they can play Gordon, Bernard, Richarlison, Iwobi, Sigurdsson in those winger spots or the 10 role. You don't want to go into the Man City game with a half fit player and go down a sub early, or play with basically 10 men for the game.

Secondly I don't think the Man City game would suit James, he'd have to press alot because of Man City's possession. He can get on the ball more for the West Ham game plus they would have at least one training session to assess him. Against Man City I'd go with Doucoure and Davies in DM roles, Iwobi, Richarlison and Sigurdsson in the wingers and 10 role for their workrate.

The Man City game is a free hit at 3 points. Technically its worth 6 points against a title chasing rival, but we won the Sheffield United game, we beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester, get James right for games in January, rather than the Man City game.
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Already confirmed no changes to who is available from Sheffield United to City.

Also if it is possession you are worried about 4 of our 5 lowest games in terms of control of the ball were without James. Not everyone has to be a ball winner. Players who can keep the ball and relieve pressure are just as if not more valuable. And when you only have a couple players who can do it like we do they are definitely more valuable.
 
TheBigIguana said:
Already confirmed no changes to who is available from Sheffield United to City.

Also if it is possession you are worried about 4 of our 5 lowest games in terms of control of the ball were without James. Not everyone has to be a ball winner. Players who can keep the ball and relieve pressure are just as if not more valuable. And when you only have a couple players who can do it like we do they are definitely more valuable.
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I see, well I expected as such. lol

If you want more possession, you need to start populating your team with better players, just throwing in James isn't going to boost possession, it helps but we've also been in games with James where we couldn't keep the ball. Against Man City I'd rather press City and play on the counter, that's just my take though.
 

arbok said:
I see, well I expected as such. lol

If you want more possession, you need to start populating your team with better players, just throwing in James isn't going to boost possession, it helps but we've also been in games with James where we couldn't keep the ball. Against Man City I'd rather press City and play on the counter, that's just my take though.
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We aren't going to press City as we don't really press anybody. I mean we didn't really press Sheffield United.

I don't think there is any argument at this point that we aren't a better team with James in the side. Yes we are winning currently but we are making hard work of bad teams and relying on good finishing and set pieces to a greater extent than we should. United shows how it can go wrong. It is a loss that we don't have him.
 
davek said:
I dont like Mondays Decembers....

However, a heavy challenge from Virgil van Dijk in the Merseyside derby soon changed all that, with Rodriguez picking up other niggling injuries and struggling to get back to his best ever since the incident.

He currently finds himself out with another such injury, with recent reports indicating Everton are taking things very carefully as they don’t want him missing for an extended period of time.

It seems, though, that being absent in December has become something of a recurring theme for the Colombian star.

AS Colombia report today that for the last three years, Rodriguez has been ‘absent’ in the last month of the year for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and now Everton.

They explain that in 2018 it was a knee sprain that left him out while on loan at Bayern Munich while the following year a sprained left knee suffered on international duty left him out injured until January 2020.

Going into further detail, they explain that while at Bayern he suffered a ligament sprain in his left knee in training on November 14th and while the recovery process took only ten days, he was given 31 days of ‘rehabilitation’.

Thus, he ended up returning on January 18th 2019, and missed eight games as a result. It was a very similar story the following year.

This time he suffered a strain in his left knee while on international duty on November 15th. That saw him miss 38 days of action in total and another eight games and he seems to be on the same track with Everton.

At this point ‘everything indicates’ that he will be fit for the December 23rd clash with Manchester United but if he isn’t there are still clashes with Sheffield United on Boxing Day and Manchester City on December 28th for him to be fit for.

It’s a situation that Carlo Ancelotti has said they’ll watch day by day, but, if history is anything to go by, expect the Blues star man to be back fit and firing come the New Year.
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Does seem suspicious, and perhaps indicative of a player who just can't be arsed playing when it gets cold - which would be very worrying given it's the UK he's playing football in - but the idea he had it written into his contract that he can have Decembers off is obviously ludicrous.

I personally don't think he's actually injured at this point though, got to admit.
 
TheBigIguana said:
We aren't going to press City as we don't really press anybody. I mean we didn't really press Sheffield United.

I don't think there is any argument at this point that we aren't a better team with James in the side. Yes we are winning currently but we are making hard work of bad teams and relying on good finishing and set pieces to a greater extent than we should. United shows how it can go wrong. It is a loss that we don't have him.
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I'd play him normally, but its a blessing in disguise somewhat, given I think the team is playing really well these last few weeks, didn't give away anything in these games and I think that makes sense to continue playing that way until someone breaks us down (which could well be City), but I think 4CBs is the right way to play City. And also having other players like Allan, Digne, Richarlison also gets more out of James, they're more of a threat which gives James more room to operate. So for me its just weighing up lots of different factors, and not all about putting the best players out there.

Anyways not trying to argue, just putting my view out there.

I agree we aren't that great at pressing, but having players like Iwobi and Richarlison track back all the way to the final third helps alot with defending and also pressing higher at the right moments.
 
arbok said:
I'd play him normally, but its a blessing in disguise somewhat, given I think the team is playing really well these last few weeks, didn't give away anything in these games and I think that makes sense to continue playing that way until someone breaks us down (which could well be City), but I think 4CBs is the right way to play City. And also having other players like Allan, Digne, Richarlison also gets more out of James, they're more of a threat which gives James more room to operate. So for me its just weighing up lots of different factors, and not all about putting the best players out there.

Anyways not trying to argue, just putting my view out there.

I agree we aren't that great at pressing, but having players like Iwobi and Richarlison track back all the way to the final third helps alot with defending and also pressing higher at the right moments.
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I just worry that we aren't actually playing that well despite the results and that if we persist with this type of game too long we will start doing what Spurs are currently doing when they didn't address the issues in their style of play.

But we have an easy fix, get James back in.
 
I hope he's sippin' on coconuts in the Seychelles right now and getting lots of rest for the title run in.
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TheBigIguana said:
I just worry that we aren't actually playing that well despite the results and that if we persist with this type of game too long we will start doing what Spurs are currently doing when they didn't address the issues in their style of play.

But we have an easy fix, get James back in.
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I think the goal is to get Lucas Digne and Seamus Coleman back as proper LB and RB. But they've identified what the problem was which was the half spaces and between the lines. With 4CBs which are closer together they've stopped the goals. When Digne and Coleman come back they'll need to do something similar in defending. There was too big of a gap between the defenders previously. But going forward, Godfrey and Holgate can't hit a cross at all so I don't think the current situation is permanent.
 

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