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2020/21 James Rodriguez

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I was angry about the other day and have worries he might be off but it'd be a daft decision and it's the whole Evertonianism of cutting your nose off to spite your face because we're angry about everything and anything - saw it with Lukaku, seeing it with Richarlison and now James. It is massively frustrating but we've got the joint-most league games out of him than any season since 2016, that's not bad.

I'll have a look at full stats for all comps and post them in here in a bit.

Our issue is we are very reliant on him, a near-30-year-old with long-standing injury issues. That's not good enough and that's why it's so frustrating that he misses games and can't get over this calf injury which he's had for 4 years now so it's never going to happen.

We need players who are good enough and different enough to what we have to not only improve us with James playing, but make sure we aren't totally reliant on him. Because when he's fit he more often than not delivers.

He's created five fewer chances than Sigurdsson (our top chance creator statistically) this season (54 compared to 59 in all comps) and played in 17 fewer games.
 
BlueToff said:
FFS.

We clearly need better players. But that doesn't mean we replace our best player. We need to ADD to it.

Adding to it in turn means we are not so reliant on a player that can only play 25 games a season (he's actually played 26 this year).

Only 13 players in the league have created more big chances than James this year, and he's played 23 league games.

For reference, here's the amount of league games he's played over the last few seasons

2020-21, Everton - 23
2019-20, Madrid - 8
2018-19, Bayern - 20
2017-18, Bayern - 23
2016-17, Madrid - 22
2015-16, Madrid - 26
2014-15, Madrid - 29
Click to expand...
How much time do we realistically have to add players to suit to James style? Hell be 30 in two months and with his injury record everything point to him having 2-3 competitive years left. We got a taste of what could happen when you over rely on one player. He left us stranded with 5 pl games to go in our best chance at Europe.
 
BlueToff said:
FFS.

We clearly need better players. But that doesn't mean we replace our best player. We need to ADD to it.

Adding to it in turn means we are not so reliant on a player that can only play 25 games a season (he's actually played 26 this year).

Only 13 players in the league have created more big chances than James this year, and he's played 23 league games.

For reference, here's the amount of league games he's played over the last few seasons

2020-21, Everton - 23
2019-20, Madrid - 8
2018-19, Bayern - 20
2017-18, Bayern - 23
2016-17, Madrid - 22
2015-16, Madrid - 26
2014-15, Madrid - 29
Click to expand...

He'd got away with all backlash until the last month, where he's took the piss.

Ahead of the season, most of us would have accepted 25 games or so out of him. We knew he was made of glass. But its the manner he's decided to go AWOL which irks here - he's just decided not to play IMO. Which you can't excuse.
 
To add, saw him play in the rain in a terrible game against Sheff Utd and said out loud "he won't play again after this."

And so it proved.

I'm no Nostradamus - it simply fits a pattern. Didn't fancy it over Christmas, didn't fancy it now.
 
I feel like this was always the most likely scenario.

Sign an injury prone but world class 28-9 year old who is mad about playing for his country and not so bothered at all about who pay his wage.

The question is whether we got value for money. I think we probably did. He has made a good contribution when fit and helped out a lot with the club marketing.
 

Tubey said:
He'd got away with all backlash until the last month, where he's took the piss.

Ahead of the season, most of us would have accepted 25 games or so out of him. We knew he was made of glass. But its the manner he's decided to go AWOL which irks here - he's just decided not to play IMO. Which you can't excuse.
Click to expand...

It does and I agree, but we look at the management for that too no? Like a lot of us have said, he should have been on the bench the other day even with no intention to play him. He should have been made to turn up. I'm not as miffed as I was about him not being with the squad because none of the players that weren't in the squad turned up for that lap of appreciation - COVID regs apparently - but IMO with nine subs, we should have had him there.

So I see the frustration and understand it. But... that frustration comes because without him we literally can't pass a ball to each other which I think says more worrisome things about previous recruitment, the state of the side, the coaching etc. That's why it irks. And that's what needs to change. Not say this player has to f off because he's a bit of a wimp if he feels his calf niggle - because the player happens to be exactly the type of player that doesn't grow on trees, that aren't readily available for anything less than £80/90m in the current market. Whereas fast, direct wingers and powerful midfielders can be found all over Europe, and that's what we need to compliment and improve the squad and give us more than one way of playing.
 
Tubey said:
To add, saw him play in the rain in a terrible game against Sheff Utd and said out loud "he won't play again after this."

And so it proved.

I'm no Nostradamus - it simply fits a pattern. Didn't fancy it over Christmas, didn't fancy it now.
Click to expand...

He was poor v Sheff Utd as they all were.

Still laid up two great chances which were both missed and would have won us the game.

Add quality around him, not instead of him. Better players - less reliant on someone who can't stay fit. Albeit that someone being a player who we've got the same amount of games out of, if not more, than Bayern and Madrid did out of him.
 
Super annoyed that James won't be playing the final game against City. If he can't be fit to play with Everton then he shouldn't be playing for Colombia either for Copa America. If fitness and his calf is the real issue then he needs to concentrate this summer on getting fully recovered instead of risking more injury ffs.
 
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Sassy Colombian said:
Super annoyed that James won't be playing the final game against City. If he can't be fit to play with Everton then he shouldn't be playing for Colombia either for Copa America. If fitness and his calf is the real issue then he needs to concentrate this summer to getting fully recovered instead of risking more injury ffs.
Click to expand...

And that's why it irks. It doesn't make logical sense.
 
americanblue94 said:
How much time do we realistically have to add players to suit to James style? Hell be 30 in two months and with his injury record everything point to him having 2-3 competitive years left. We got a taste of what could happen when you over rely on one player. He left us stranded with 5 pl games to go in our best chance at Europe.
Click to expand...

What do you mean suit James' style?

He's a magnificent playmaker who can pick an eye of the needle pass, whether over 10 yards or 60. He can play anywhere behind the strikers as we've seen this year. He can run games and find space without having to sprint.

Good players, of that level, fit into any 'style' of play more often than not, other than in certain games (Leeds away being a good example where it's about man-marking).

You don't think James wouldn't benefit from having a winger with actual pace and tenacity to pick out, and for us to stretch teams? You don't think we'd be better with James being able to ping balls to either full-back and those full-backs know they can get up and down? You don't think he'd benefit from being able to play upfield, like he did at the start of the season, and have a ball-carrying midfielder to get the ball forward to him so he doesn't have to drop back to the centre circle.

Issue is, we have a load of other players who can't run, can't carry the ball, won't pass anywhere other than backwards, rely entirely on James to create if he's there and if not it's give it to Digne or try win a set-play - and that falls on the manager too.

We got him on a free, and he's not relatively on massive wages for a PL club. We have Bernard earning about as much and he contributes f all, Iwobi on 70/80k a week to fall over, Gomes on 100k a week to pass back every time he gets it.

We've got a sprinkling of star dust which hardly any other teams outside the established scum six have. There's pretty much Grealish and that's it, and he's at Villa because they produced him - their once-in-a-generation academy talent. We now need the other quality around the lad so that when he is fit, he can be even more productive, and when he isn't, we aren't totally inept.
 

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