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2020/21 James Rodriguez

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PSB1 said:
@KaiserEFC Completely different types of player (as you probably know).



Exactly so.

And it isn't a competition. How wonderful to have had / have these stellar players.
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Indeed. I've always wondered why the media and people in general must decide "who is the greatest" when doing so simply demeans the great players who have gone before.

A great player is a great player, who would adapt in any era to the fitness regimen of the day. I'm going off on a tangent now, but take the Messi versus, say, Maradona "debate." The rules of the game are different, so a comparison is invidious. In the 1980s, the tackle from behind was standard. The great players of that decade were kicked from pillar to post and man-marking was de rigueur. By the time of the 1986 World Cup, the four greatest players in the world: Zico, Rummenigge, Platini, and Maradona turned up in Mexico in various stages of crippledom. Why? They had been kicked out of matches for years by brutes like Andoni "The Butcher of Bilbao" Goicoechea, Claudio "The Gentle Touch" Gentile, and Antonio "Macho" Camacho. The backpass rule and the old offside law meant these players could be squeezed into smaller sections of the pitch and brutalised with near impunity. There is a reason why Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi rarely got injured. They were protected. And good luck to them! But they operated in a much more benign environment that helped them dazzle. The 1980s greats were assaulted.

Some say Alan Ball was the greatest ever Everton player. Some say Neville Southall. Some say Dixie Dean. I'm just glad we had so many players who earned the right to be acknowledged as truly "great". Anything else is personal preference and maybe a touch of sentimentality. And what's wrong with that?
 
Death said:
If he wasn't thinking it already. Gilfy must be thinking he wants a move. Playing in the same side as James badly shows him up. He was bought (for 50 million) to be a slick passer and a dead ball specialist. James was pinging all manner of completed sexy passes all over the shop, hes corners where accurate to perfection. Gilfy hitting passes to soft or hard losing many. Corners from the left side where atrocious by comparison. Almost pity him. The embarrassment of it.
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maccavennie said:
Chalk and cheese compared to James but I wouldn't expect anyone to come close to doing what he does.

His care for the ball, weight of pass, vision of whats around him and how the game unfolds is 2nd to none.

I thought that was Gylfis best game in a while and got involved in quite a lot of the short intricate passing in the final 3rd.
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I thought Sigurdsson had a good game, like the rest of the team, but his passes and corners kicks will never be as good as James. It is not his fault though, James is just a natural talent. He is an expert at taking corner kicks. At 11 years old he was already scoring olympic goals. Two at the final of the Pony football cup, winning the junior title in front of 5000 people.

This video clip has been posted before but it is worth watching again where the magic started it :)

 

Brisan123 said:
You would have to go back to the Vision to find someone comparable

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Great little video of Alex.

I loved those still photographs.

Reminded me of the photis in the Football Annuals my parents bought me for Christmss when I was a boy.

The Topical Times Football Annual....The Charles Buchan Soccer Gift book etc.
 
Jim Hopper said:
In terms of pure class talent he’s the next best player I’ve seen at the club since Kanchelskis for what he does and what his job role is. He’s surpassed Arteta even in a short amount of time. One the younger lads will say they had the pleasure of watching like we did for the other players.
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Strangely both Kanchelskis and Arteta (up to a point) also played on the right...

Bit strange...
 

Sassy Colombian said:
I thought Sigurdsson had a good game, like the rest of the team, but his passes and corners kicks will never be as good as James. It is not his fault though, James is just a natural talent. He is an expert at taking corner kicks. At 11 years old he was already scoring olympic goals. Two at the final of the Pony football cup, winning the junior title in front of 5000 people.

This video clip has been posted before but it is worth watching again where the magic started it :)

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The goalkeeper reaction is priceless.

There's three levels to free kick takers.
One - guys that just float it up and most of them are easy for the defenders or keepers to handle.
Two - guys that look like good free kick takers with good technical ability but are a yard or two off and the attacker has to adjust. Like Siggy
Three - guys that can land it on a dime. How many guys are genuinely in this group? Digne is close.

Also while we're on Siggy - one thing he doesn't have is the lack of fear like James. James doesn't look like he will lose the ball. Sometimes he'll give it up, but othertimes he'll take on the defender, until the defender decides to concede and defend space instead. Whereas I generally never see Siggy take on a defender, if he's being closed down, he'll usually give it up, and that limits part of his creativity.
 
roydo said:
Same.

Passing is one of the football skills that is transferable no matter who the oppo is. Sheffield are no more "easy" to make ace passes against than City are.

edit. In other words, you can either do them, or you cannot.
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I wouldn't say that is true. Against lower league opposition you get far more time on the ball and more space to exploit for runners because they don't have as good a shape as the top teams.

He was still fantastic in the game, if we could get that level of performance consistently then we'd look like such a better team.
 
It's been said to death but honestly we were legitimately awful for long periods after Moyes left aside from Martinez' first season, since then every time we've been decent it's almost always been on the back of one player doing it for us and the rest sort of making up the numbers. Under Martinez and Koeman it was Rom scoring every other week, under Silva Richarlison stepped up, now under Carlo it's a bit different and it is thanks to James. He puts in great performances consistently but not only that, unlike other players I mentioned who had individual brilliance James makes the team as a whole play so much better.

Richie and Rom could score goals and we might win in a scrappy performance and that's fine, with James however he brings everyone else into the game and does all the hard stuff himself. Digne is fantastic in his own right but since he and James have linked up he's gone up a level in my book. Iwobi and Gomes are 2 that haven''t shown all that much in the last year or so but whenever both play with James in the side its no coincidence they play much better, it might be unpopular but I actually think Gylfi plays well with James too, the lad literally lifts a whole team of what was average players last year to his level.

Obviously Carlo's influence can't be overlooked either but my god the addition of James has completely turned us around in my opinion. I sincerely do believe that our full strength XI is good enough to beat anyone else in the league, we're such a joy to watch at times and other times when its time to play more conservatively and nick something we're good at that too. Long may it continue and with a player like James having the team built around him it'll be easy, for Carlo at least. Hoping Carlo goes for it now in the cup and this team can lead to silverware, playing European football next year, playing mouth watering football with James at the heart of it.
 

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