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2020/21 James Rodriguez

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Groucho said:
I’ve seen some loons on twitter give him dogs abuse today.

Some people need their wifi shutting down.
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Social media is awful like 90% of the time. I get why athletes are on it. The attention must be wonderful and you almost have to for brand building and financial reasons. But I can’t help but think I’d just stay away if it was me.
 
We need the central midfielders to be confident on the ball and play forward passes and Hamez in the final third so he can do what he does best.

Pointless him dropping deep to get it off the centre backs. You can see him when we are defending waving them to push up the pitch, must be frustrating for him.
 
jazzy said:
What you get with James is world class creativity. However you have to accept that he wont chase back, or have any form of work rate.

Therefore you have to build a team around him to accommodate his lack of work rate or ability to perform any defensive duties.

All the other 9 outfield players must put on a shift , the midfield must be mobile, aggressive and pacy and assuming that he starts at RW and drifts the RB must be defensively strong .

Now all that is fine if he has a good fitness record and plays 80/90 % of the matches.

However if he is only available for half your games it is a big ask to build your whole team around him.

I've got a feeling that he wont be here for long so enjoy his talent whilst you can.
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He really would be fine if we were a pressing team. He knows how to cut angles and force players into bad positions, but he isn't fast or a tackler so he's not actually going to ever win it back. Or at least not often. So if we had a functioning press with actual ball winners in midfield we wouldn't notice this issue at all.

But instead we drop way off forcing him to run 50 yard sprints repeatedly to cover back and also putting him in situations where he's being forced to defend 1v1 against players way more athletic than he is.

Basically like with most of what Everton does we've not had a real plan for how it was all going to work out and so instead of having this great creator who turns this team into a real threat we've got a great creator being put in terrible positions that limit his impact on games.

As I like to say, the good players are not the problem.
 

TheBigIguana said:
He really would be fine if we were a pressing team. He knows how to cut angles and force players into bad positions, but he isn't fast or a tackler so he's not actually going to ever win it back. Or at least not often. So if we had a functioning press with actual ball winners in midfield we wouldn't notice this issue at all.

But instead we drop way off forcing him to run 50 yard sprints repeatedly to cover back and also putting him in situations where he's being forced to defend 1v1 against players way more athletic than he is.

Basically like with most of what Everton does we've not had a real plan for how it was all going to work out and so instead of having this great creator who turns this team into a real threat we've got a great creator being put in terrible positions that limit his impact on games.

As I like to say, the good players are not the problem.
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Allan and Duke are the key that unlocks James.

Thats it.
 
TheBigIguana said:
He really would be fine if we were a pressing team. He knows how to cut angles and force players into bad positions, but he isn't fast or a tackler so he's not actually going to ever win it back. Or at least not often. So if we had a functioning press with actual ball winners in midfield we wouldn't notice this issue at all.

But instead we drop way off forcing him to run 50 yard sprints repeatedly to cover back and also putting him in situations where he's being forced to defend 1v1 against players way more athletic than he is.

Basically like with most of what Everton does we've not had a real plan for how it was all going to work out and so instead of having this great creator who turns this team into a real threat we've got a great creator being put in terrible positions that limit his impact on games.

As I like to say, the good players are not the problem.
Click to expand...


Allan and Duke are the key that unlocks James.

Thats it.
 
Managers are judged on whether they can get the best out of their players. Right now, Carlo is not getting the best out of his forwards. He seems to be caught between two stools at the moment. In September, he was getting the best out of DCL, James, and Richarlison (in terms of general play) - and also Digne who is really a forward in all but name (let's face it, he can't defend). Then, we shipped quite a few goals so the defence was suffering. He reversed the emphasis so that his "wall" got the plaudits but the goals dried up. So he sacrificed the forwards for the backs. Right now, however, we're shipping goals and not scoring enough to compensate. Worst of both worlds.

This tells you that he's got an unbalanced squad, which is every bit as much a problem as having a shallow one. Until we back him big time, we'll have to settle for a hotch-potch season and...9th place.
 
Drico said:
Managers are judged on whether they can get the best out of their players. Right now, Carlo is not getting the best out of his forwards. He seems to be caught between two stools right now. In September, he was getting the best out of DCL, James, and Richarlison (in terms of general play) - and also Digne who is really a forward in all but name (let's face it, he can't defend). Then, we shipped quite a few goals so the defence was suffering. He reversed the emphasis so that his "wall" got the plaudits but the goals dried up. Right now, we're shipping goals and not scoring enough to compensate.

This tells you that he's got an unbalanced squad, which is every bit as much a problem as having a shallow one. Until we back him big time, we'll have to settle for a hotch-potch season and...9th place.
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Digne is like James a front foot player. We're a team that sits back. It really shouldn't be surprising that they are struggling to play this way.
 

TheBigIguana said:
Digne is like James a front foot player. We're a team that sits back. It really shouldn't be surprising that they are struggling to play this way.
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It isn't a surprise. All of our attackers are suffering right now. My point is that when most of your better players are forwards, the team is going to struggle if the emphasis is too much on the defence (simply because they cannot hit the same levels as the forwards on a consistent basis). Carlo is playing whack-a-mole and it's diminishing returns now. As for James, we're just not set up to maximise his immense ability. Carlo needs to prioritise his better players and get rid of the detritus who are dragging the team, and our forwards, down before he himself is dragged down by a frustrated fanbase.
 
No point looking at James during a bad run where everyone is playing below par. He's there to enable goalscoring opportunities at the other end. The rest of them bar Richarlison and maybe Digne have to defend well, win the ball and keep possession for Rodriguez to have a positive effect for us.
 
marsh said:
We need the central midfielders to be confident on the ball and play forward passes and Hamez in the final third so he can do what he does best.

Pointless him dropping deep to get it off the centre backs. You can see him when we are defending waving them to push up the pitch, must be frustrating for him.
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agree, we have talent going forwards but we don’t have the possession or control in midfield to allow them to exert themselves.

I’m desperate for Allan back, will his return also see the good football that got us top of the league coming back?

All of these threads miss the fact we haven’t been able to field our first XI since the derby, that’s four months. In that time we’ve had to go back to pragmatic football, judge this team once we’ve had Allan back for 5 games. Even better, let’s allow Carlo another window to address the flaws he clearly sees, he’ll put it right.
 

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