FairWooney Posted November 13, 2020 Report Share Posted November 13, 2020 I felt he's not done much in the last couple of games but think he really missed Richarilson. The key to our success in those first 4 games was Richarlison making runs coming off the left wing and James often picking him out. Even when he wasn't picking him out he was causing a lot of work for their defenders and helping to open things for others. With no Richarilson no one really replaced that running. the Sigurdson & Gomes game gave Rodridugez nothing while against Man Utd at least with Bernard and Digne working together there was something to aim at but nothing like the pacey runs that Richarilson gives. It's pretty clear from these last 3 games how much we need him as we really struggle to produce the same performances without him in the team. No one does a similar job really even to a a lower standard. Gordon could hopefully do that at some point but isn't trusted with it at the moment. Looking forward to seeing him back next week against a shite Fulham side with hopefully a more fit James. StevO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted November 16, 2020 Report Share Posted November 16, 2020 He was fit enough to play 90 minutes for Colombia this weekend and is due to play again tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuffRob Posted November 16, 2020 Report Share Posted November 16, 2020 6 hours ago, Bailey said: He was fit enough to play 90 minutes for Colombia this weekend and is due to play again tomorrow. They played him for 90min, doesn't mean he was fit enough to play that much. Had a poor game by all accounts, so maybe not 100% yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted November 18, 2020 Report Share Posted November 18, 2020 Another 90 minutes despite them losing the game 6-1. What the hell has happened to that Colombia side!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romey 1878 Posted November 20, 2020 Report Share Posted November 20, 2020 https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11671/12136819/james-rodriguez-everton-midfielder-denies-claims-of-colombia-dressing-room-fight The international break has not gone well for him at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palfy Posted November 28, 2020 Report Share Posted November 28, 2020 I haven’t been impressed with him in the last few games, is lack of creativity is highlighting how poor his work rate is for me, you can forgive a player for lack of effort to win the ball back if they are creating or scoring goals but he isn’t doing that. dunlopp9987 and Matt 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjazzbassist Posted November 28, 2020 Report Share Posted November 28, 2020 15 minutes ago, Palfy said: I haven’t been impressed with him in the last few games, is lack of creativity is highlighting how poor his work rate is for me, you can forgive a player for lack of effort to win the ball back if they are creating or scoring goals but he isn’t doing that. He was creating plenty today and had a goal disallowed, I think he’s fine. The issues been with defense for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted November 28, 2020 Report Share Posted November 28, 2020 He is still creating some moments but they are well down on before and he isnt dictating games anymore. He is giving the ball away more too, probably as he is under more pressure. His work rate going the other way is becoming a liability though. Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted November 28, 2020 Report Share Posted November 28, 2020 Having Digne out doesn't help him. He may not be suited to this system the most either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palfy Posted November 28, 2020 Report Share Posted November 28, 2020 43 minutes ago, markjazzbassist said: He was creating plenty today and had a goal disallowed, I think he’s fine. The issues been with defense for me. It has been about defence undoubtedly and he has his part to play in that, but he seems to not put much weight into that, which as I said would be acceptable if what he was doing going the other way was winning us games like in his first few games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted November 29, 2020 Report Share Posted November 29, 2020 Thought he was very poor yesterday, still looks as though he can't get through a full game. How they can make 3 sub's and still leave him on the pitch is a mystery to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shukes Posted November 29, 2020 Report Share Posted November 29, 2020 He is what he is. He is never going be a hard working player unless an opponent is standing on him. But I would say that for the most part, when he had the ball he looked like he could create things. He did put in a few sublime balls that didn’t end up as anything, more because of decisions from others than himself. We need him on the pitch as he can create in a second. We don’t have others that can do that. What’s more important is putting the right players around him. markjazzbassist, Sibdane and Romey 1878 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete0 Posted November 29, 2020 Report Share Posted November 29, 2020 He was the problem against Fulham but not this week. Their keeper made 8 saves so he at least helped us make some of those chances. Found space and opened them up a few times. Our best chance fell to Doucoure who should have scored. But I'd lay more blame on Richarlison who was their best defender fucking up our attacks by over running it, snapping at his shots, or in general just making bad decision after bad decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevO Posted November 29, 2020 Report Share Posted November 29, 2020 There is a big difference from the start of the season in what we have around him. We had Coleman protecting him from behind, we had Doucoure protecting him from the inside, both of them were giving him options to pass to and link up with. We also had Gomes on the left looking to switch play to him in space. All of this has stopped. Yet somehow, he still manages to show quality. He was involved in goals at Fulham and could have been yesterday too. Right now I’d dread to see us play without him. Matt, markjazzbassist and Romey 1878 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted November 29, 2020 Report Share Posted November 29, 2020 James can't not play because let's face it he is the only reason we have scored as many goals as we have! Romey 1878 and StevO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 13 hours ago, StevO said: There is a big difference from the start of the season in what we have around him. We had Coleman protecting him from behind, we had Doucoure protecting him from the inside, both of them were giving him options to pass to and link up with. We also had Gomes on the left looking to switch play to him in space. All of this has stopped. Yet somehow, he still manages to show quality. He was involved in goals at Fulham and could have been yesterday too. Right now I’d dread to see us play without him. I agree with most of that but he is and always has been a luxury player. We lose half a flank if he doesn’t have someone doing his defensive and that’s not a luxury we can cater for at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hafnia Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 Man city can't carry luxury players. As much as he is exceptional in his talent there does need to be a minimum level of positional discipline... If he isn't doing that then it gives the coach a difficult decision to make Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWooney Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 He provided a lot more this week than against Fulham. He is and will always be a luxury player to some extent. If we had more possession I think he'd do a good job controlling attacks in the middle and we saw that in those early games. When we don't have much of the ball he doesn't have as much involvement apart from to create chances on quick attacks. In that sense he did pretty well: 3 shots (2 on target) 5 key passes 2 dribbles Fouled 3 times 8 Crosses (though only 3 considered accurate - assume that includes corners/free kicks) 4 out of 7 successful long balls He also had 46, more passes than anyone else in the team . On the downside he was disspossed 4 times. He took that offside chance beautifully and also had a few decent bits of attacking involvement. He won't charge around winning the ball back and making darting runs like Richarlison and we have to accept that. I've found as a team we've looked very flat recently, in early games Richarlison seemed to be making really good runs forward that James was picking out, We seems to look a bit short on that at the moment and the balls he's playing have been much more speculative in a lot of instances. pete0, Elston Gunnn, StevO and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 It should be worth pointing out that I believe at least 3 of the key passes were set pieces. That still shows how good his delivery is but I think its important to focus on his open play ability because otherwise he becomes Siggy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 In fact, if you delve a little closer at the quality of the chances. His shots were had a 6% total chance of going in from that position and his open play key passes led to 8% chance of a goal. As a comparison DCL and Iwobi each had 4% chance and Allan 17% chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevO Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 7 hours ago, Matt said: I agree with most of that but he is and always has been a luxury player. We lose half a flank if he doesn’t have someone doing his defensive and that’s not a luxury we can cater for at the moment. I agree, we need the midfield three so that Doucoure can cover James’ side of the pitch for me. As much as he is a luxury we can’t cater for, he also brings creativity that we can’t afford to be without. Wiggytop, Romey 1878 and Btay 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 1 hour ago, StevO said: I agree, we need the midfield three so that Doucoure can cover James’ side of the pitch for me. As much as he is a luxury we can’t cater for, he also brings creativity that we can’t afford to be without. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to drop him but I think for a game or two, having him come on for the last 30 would hopefully give us time to be more stable and comfortable, get some continuity and then he can have a period against tired legs. The opposition seeing him come off the bench would get a serious “oh no, I’m knackered and now I have to deal with this guy!” too StevO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shukes Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 2 hours ago, Bailey said: In fact, if you delve a little closer at the quality of the chances. His shots were had a 6% total chance of going in from that position and his open play key passes led to 8% chance of a goal. As a comparison DCL and Iwobi each had 4% chance and Allan 17% chance. That shows just how good he is. One went in, disallowed for offside. Another was well saved, albeit the keeper should save it 7/10 times. Wasn't another blocked by a very good stretching slide! No idea where they get 6% chance of scoring from. Sometimes I’m sure they are made up by people who have never kicked a football in their life. Probably the same people that control VAR haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Btay Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 Always going to be a case of when we win no ones noticed James defensive efforts but when we lose it’s highlighted. markjazzbassist and StevO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 2 hours ago, Btay said: Always going to be a case of when we win no ones noticed James defensive efforts but when we lose it’s highlighted. Never really noticed him defending either way mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Btay Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 2 hours ago, Matt said: Never really noticed him defending either way mate. Keeps getting selected though so Caro must be okay with it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 Just now, Btay said: Keeps getting selected though so Caro must be okay with it Because of what he brings going forward. When we had some cohesion he wasn’t someone to carry. At the moment though he is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bailey Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 21 hours ago, Shukes said: That shows just how good he is. One went in, disallowed for offside. Another was well saved, albeit the keeper should save it 7/10 times. Wasn't another blocked by a very good stretching slide! No idea where they get 6% chance of scoring from. Sometimes I’m sure they are made up by people who have never kicked a football in their life. Probably the same people that control VAR haha. One was offside so doesn't count as anything. One was a save you would expect the keeper to save every time. The other was the attempted lob which will be expected to save every time. Another may or may not have been blocked, I cannot remember, but it wasn't on the highlights. Either way if there is a shot with another player stood in front of you its hardly a great chance! I only made the comment to add a bit more meat to the bones of the basic stats given. Having a shot doesn't make it likely of scoring and in my opinion, chances from set pieces can paper over the cracks of how well a team performed in open play. It's great to have lots of set piece chances but the best sides in football create plenty of open play chances as well, and again in my opinion, it is a better guide as to how well a side is performing. 3 hours ago, Btay said: Keeps getting selected though so Caro must be okay with it He is and has said as much. The front three all have less responsibility to defend the other members of the team are expected to pick up the slack. I don't think anyone expects James to defend like other players might (not that I think the likes of Iwobi or Bernard in that position would do significantly better) but I think there is slight sloppiness creeping into his game compared to those early games. Sloppiness is relative too because he still uses the ball far better than most of the team but I feel there as been a drop off in his intensity. He isn't the only one either, I think part of the reason he has been singled out is because we all probably expect more of him because he is that good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjazzbassist Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 there are other people that need to be dealt with before we get to James. the CB, FB needs sorted well before we start getting at James. He's creating, scoring goals, and putting in wonderful free kicks. we all knew he wasn't going to defend. so if you're surprised by that you're naïve. sort the defense out and then we can worrry about forwards not defending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shukes Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 Bailey, if James lined up in that same position 100 times, you really think the keeper would save his shot 97 times?. Trust me, there isn’t a keeper in the world that will save 97 of my shots from that position. And if they are getting the stats from the resulting shot, the surely you can see just how dumb they are? Otherwise it would simply be 0% haha. His shot that was blocked wasn’t against a player on front of him, but a very smart lunging dive from a player to block it. I’m only playing devils advocate here, hence the cheeky bit with the offside goal haha. But those daft Fifa stats they are using these days are so flawed. The amount of times i have litter at counted shots on target, only to see SSP or some other media report a lower number. Stats are never a reliable form mate, unless it goals scored and conceded. None of his chances were set pieces were they? Though even there he set up a disallowed goal for Richie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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