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2020/21 James Rodriguez

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Egil Olsen said:
Yes. My hypothesis based on my limited football knowledge is that it is strategically wrong to sign JR (and corresponding player profiles), but if the data contradicts my hypothesis, I must admit that I was wrong. The question is where to set the limit. If we do not qualify for Europe, I do not think my hypothesis has been refuted.
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Was it a mistake to sign James or have injuries to others as well curtailed the season and ask yourself are his team mates up to his level. His numbers in the games he has played are fine and he always creates chances, why on earth would you not accommodate a player like that? bearing in mind once again that the chances of him being here if he wasn't a sick note are virtually zero.
 
UptheTofees said:
Man we act like we were winning trophies and qualifying to the CL before James.

Signing James for free is apparently holding the team back from the great glory it was achieving without him

Amazing
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welcome to Everton my follow “James is life” buddy. Our fan based are amazing at being ironic.

We are too good for James Rodriguez apparently, I never thought I would see the day that some so called fans stooped to all new lows

it’s a sad day indeed
 
Egil Olsen said:
Yes. My hypothesis based on my limited football knowledge is that it is strategically wrong to sign JR (and corresponding player profiles), but if the data contradicts my hypothesis, I must admit that I was wrong. The question is where to set the limit. If we do not qualify for Europe, I do not think my hypothesis has been refuted.
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I don't agree with your conclusion, but if it helps, I do actually understand the point you're making, which seemingly puts me in a minority based on the replies you're getting.
 

The only thing I agree with is that the team should not be dependent on James, but that has more to do with the squad than with James himself. When you have quality available for cheap, you take it.

Reminds me of Quintero for River Plate and Colombia. Neither team could possibly depend on him, but both benefited greatly from having such talent available whenever he was.

To simply say signing James for free was a mistake when we've endured years of signings like Iwobi is just plain stupid no matter how you paint it
 
Allan and JR were signed because the club has ambitions to qualify for Europe. These are the ambitions of the owners, and Ancelotti's ambitions. The fact that some fans have less ambition does not change this fact. We can discuss indefinitely whether this is realistic, but the club has considered it to the point that this is possible, and has therefore invested in players who will give immediate success.

Personally, I think this is a risky strategy, and would rather think more long-term, and gone for other player profiles, formed a foundation that we could gradually build on season by season. The club considered it differently, and has invested in JR and Allan to achieve this as soon as possible.

These are the two top players in Everton, and who will give us the necessary quality. Both are unfortunately frequently injured, and their curve is pointing downwards. Yes, I'm skeptical of the strategy until it is disproved. This means that we qualify for Europe, which is the club's goal. If you do not achieve the goals you are aiming for, then you have failed.
 
Egil Olsen said:
Allan and JR were signed because the club has ambitions to qualify for Europe. These are the ambitions of the owners, and Ancelotti's ambitions. The fact that some fans have less ambition does not change this fact. We can discuss indefinitely whether this is realistic, but the club has considered it to the point that this is possible, and has therefore invested in players who will give immediate success.

Personally, I think this is a risky strategy, and would rather think more long-term, and gone for other player profiles, formed a foundation that we could gradually build on season by season. The club considered it differently, and has invested in JR and Allan to achieve this as soon as possible.

These are the two top players in Everton, and who will give us the necessary quality. Both are unfortunately frequently injured, and their curve is pointing downwards. Yes, I'm skeptical of the strategy until it is disproved. This means that we qualify for Europe, which is the club's goal. If you do not achieve the goals you are aiming for, then you have failed.
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Who says this is only a short term project? Didn't Carlo inherit someone else's team and is trying to clean it up?

James and Allan were brought to remain competitive while we can get rid of the luggage left from previous administrations.

Also, who said you can't do both? We signed Ben, Nkounkou is young too. James cost $0. He is not the one preventing the club from signing young promising players.

Btw, you might be putting too much on the injuries to the other signings. Many teams in Europe have been bitten by the injury bug but you seem to think we are special and it was all due to poor transfer policies.

Only James is truly injury prone. The rest is just sports. It happens
 
Egil Olsen said:
Allan and JR were signed because the club has ambitions to qualify for Europe. These are the ambitions of the owners, and Ancelotti's ambitions. The fact that some fans have less ambition does not change this fact. We can discuss indefinitely whether this is realistic, but the club has considered it to the point that this is possible, and has therefore invested in players who will give immediate success.

Personally, I think this is a risky strategy, and would rather think more long-term, and gone for other player profiles, formed a foundation that we could gradually build on season by season. The club considered it differently, and has invested in JR and Allan to achieve this as soon as possible.

These are the two top players in Everton, and who will give us the necessary quality. Both are unfortunately frequently injured, and their curve is pointing downwards. Yes, I'm skeptical of the strategy until it is disproved. This means that we qualify for Europe, which is the club's goal. If you do not achieve the goals you are aiming for, then you have failed.
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I do get the point you are making, but as someone else has said, I think your conclusions are wrong.
Your conclusion appears to be that if we miss out on Europe, the only possible reason is the strategy of signing world class players who may have passed their peak.

What I, and several others, are trying to point out is that if we miss out on Europe this season, it is more likely to be down to the rest of the team not being good enough.
 
WA Toffee said:
I do get the point you are making, but as someone else has said, I think your conclusions are wrong.
Your conclusion appears to be that if we miss out on Europe, the only possible reason is the strategy of signing world class players who may have passed their peak.

What I, and several others, are trying to point out is that if we miss out on Europe this season, it is more likely to be down to the rest of the team not being good enough.
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He can correct me if i'm wrong but I don't think that is the point he's making. I think what he's getting at is that it was only worth signing players with the profile of James and Allan if we get a tangible reward from it. Not that they're the ones holding us back, but that it wasn't a good use of resources to bring them in if they don't bring short term success (relatively), and the funds committed to them would have been better used elsewhere. I'd agree with that really, but I like watching James play so...
 

UptheTofees said:
The only thing I agree with is that the team should not be dependent on James, but that has more to do with the squad than with James himself. When you have quality available for cheap, you take it.

Reminds me of Quintero for River Plate and Colombia. Neither team could possibly depend on him, but both benefited greatly from having such talent available whenever he was.

To simply say signing James for free was a mistake when we've endured years of signings like Iwobi is just plain stupid no matter how you paint it
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That's literally the only negative to James. You can't build a team around a player who you have no idea if he's going to be available. Build a team with him in mind to get the most when he IS healthy but take that as a bonus, not the norm. Make the norm not be dependent on a world class player that we got for free on probably not obscene wages.

Don't know if this is coming across correctly, not a moan about James in the slightest. Just that he can't stay healthy so we need to make sure we have a Plan A and have him be the Plan B when healthy.
 
The squad was always going to take more than one summer window to rebuild. As long as our signings were good, it was going to take 2 summers, in my opinion.

Half our first team signings last summer were also players who will miss 1/4 to 1/3 of the games this season, in James and Allan. This season was always going to be painful and disappointing if we were hoping we were going to be the finished article when we're only half way through the rebuild.

James and Allan are good players, but can't be relied upon to be available. We need an actual squad that can absorb a month-long injury to these two. When the window closed last year, that became the job for summer 2021 and top 4 was confirmed as a pipe dream for thus season.

We now need players that are reliable like the Doucoure and Godfrey signings of 2020. No more James and Allans. My faith in Brands and to an extent Ancelotti will take a nosedive if they're signing more non-PL players with bad injury records this summer, but I don't think they will.

If we get those signings, we will take a big step up next year and won't be as worried about injuries as we have been this season.
 
Firstly, personally I think the club should have waited at least 1 year before they started talking about Europe. Precisely because the squad needs to be revitalized. We need to bring in players with speed and who can perform many high intensity sprints.

The club assessed it differently. The owners hired Ancelotti, signing players like Allan, AD and JR. Precisely to speed up the process. Do not think JR or Allan was lured with 8-9 place during the negotiations. So let's agree, if we do not qualify for Europe, the season has failed based on the club's own ambitions. What we mean is irrelevant.

So to the second point, if we had Modric, Casmeiro and Kroos, this would have been easy, but we have not. The club has assessed the squad, and then assessed that the squad is good enough to compete for a European place if we get 2-3 quality signings that can lift the team. In line with the fact that you want to speed up this process, you get well-established players. Ancelotti wants JR and Allan.

At its best, very good players, but the curve has pointed downwards in recent years. Allan was at his best during Sarri in Naples, and JR has lately struggled with playing time and injury problems. None of them will get much better over time, most likely the opposite will happen. They also come to the world's most intense league. Both are generally doing well when they play, and JR has been exceptional in some games. Still, both have only played about 50% of the total playing time in the league.

When you know that these are two of the three that have been bought in for us to qualify for Europe, it is significant. When you know the story of both, I think it's too great a risk. If we do not qualify for Europe, it is not because JR has played poorly, on the contrary, when he has played he has often been one of the better ones, but he and Allan have been too much with the physiotherapist.

Many here call for stability, and say we need continuity. I agree with that, but where it matters most is on the field. Then the strategy is wrong to sign players, who will make the team better, but who at the same time are frequently injured and where the career is heading downwards.
 

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