From Colombia With Love - The James Rodriguez Welcome Thread!

This season in the League: started 9 (subbed on 8) 17 appearances
Champions league: started 4 (subbed on 2) 6 appearances
Spanish Cup: started 3

26 appearances and if i remember correctly he had 1 or 2 injury issues throughout the campaign. He would have had more time on the field if it wasnt for asensio's great form and his injury.

The squad is deep and we should welcome that. He can see more time next year if he keeps up this level.

 

Has this guy ever scored an ugly or an ordinary goal in his life ?

 

His first goal in a RM shirt

Joking even that one was worthy!

 

Our club needs depth, asensio and kovacic are getting enough time and will get more next year. They offer different attributes than james does.

I don't see how selling james improves this team. We need high quality players to rotate through the many games we play each year. Its better to have a team of 19 starters than 11. Are we going to replace him with a squad player?

Zidane's job is to keep them all ready to play when needed which he has. James has proven that he needs more minutes and he seems happy to stay if zidane can provide that. But even james knows he can't start week in week out at madrid at his current level.

 

If you follow what zidane has been doing this season you will see older players such as R7 and modric being left at home for midweek away games. I expect this trend to continue next year such that asensio and kovacic get more playing time.

Bale with his frailness will also be protected from over exertion and benzema decline in form will see him play less minutes next season. Zidane is currently conditioning players to accept rotating roles more as the season go along and based on this season's performances the minutes for next season will be affected accordingly.

Its not far fetched to see asensio kova james and isco playing more next season. If each can start 20+ games next season they will be content.

 

ronaldo played 25 games out of 33 in league thus far. At this rate he will play at least 3 more so thats 28 out of 38 (73%). Compared to 36 out of 38 last season (95%). CR will probably continue at this rate of 22-28 league games next season.

Asensio has already started 15 games this season and will start maybe 2 more to make it 17. It will be easy to see him starting 25 games next season in all competitions.

Also, James started 16, Kovacic started 19 and Isco 20, each should start at least 2 more games before season's end making it 18, 21 and 22 respectively.

Benzema numbers indicate he will see less time next year with only 9 goals in 25 appearances, its not hard to see him starting 15 league games next year instead of 25.

Modric is on course to start 22 games in the league this year don't be surprised if he also starts 17 next year

casemiro is on course to start 19, but we have seen that he can also be rotated for most fixtures and the team will be ok. It can be expected that he will start less next season 10-15 league games.

Kross will complete 28 starts this year i expect him to do similar numbers next year.

Bale started 17 he'll probably do the same next year as well.

Lucas will finish with 30 (10 starts) appearances in the league this season. This can easily drop to 15 ( 0-5 starts) - starting only when the team is in injury crisis..

With just the above adjustments their would be 40 more opportunites for asensio, james, isco kovacic and morata to start - all these players can easily start 25+ games next season without having to sell anybody.

 

The same happens if Bale leaves instead of James. Asensio would battle easier with James for minutes, than with Bale and his untouchable status.

Bale is hyped, injury prone and with BC makes us tactically limited and one-dimensional. Keeping him and selling James from my point of view would be a mistake. Also in regards to Lucas, i have no problem parting with him. His workrate can be provided by Morata.

Cr7 / Morata - Mbappe
James/ Asensio
Modrić / Isco - Kroos / Kova
Llorente / Casemiro
​

If the plan is to play Isco deeper, and it is, then we have zero problem with Asensio getting proper minutes next season.

 

James has a goal or assist every 74 minutes this season

 

His last goal (for Colombia) against Ecuador was kind of a lucky bounce and I guess could be considered ugly.
(Yet not ordinary.)

 

I'd also like to point out the significant fact that Bale played at a high intensity level for the whole of last season including the summer with Wales, at the Euros. He was one of the two driving forces of that team and got to the Semis after a long season.

 

With cristiano 100% fit you cant see him starting more than 30 games in the league next season under zidane.

With bale 100% fit you'll be lucky to get 27 league starts (his average league starts for the past 4 seasons is 23). Bale started 30 and 29 games in the league, his first and second year respectively. Last year he started 17, this year he will start only 10 - their is a clear trend here, i'm not banking on him being injured its just highly unlikely you will get 29 leagues starts from bale for the rest of his career here.

With both players 100% they are still 27-30 additional league starts to share between isco james asensio kovacic and morata equating to at minimum 23 starts (35+ appearances) each.

Morata was mentioned. But in detail he will end up starting 17 games (34 appearances) this year, with bale and cr 100% he can easily see 25 starts (40+ appearances) next season. But if both aren't 100% he can see 30+ starts (40+ appearances).

Llorente coming back will be an issue, if he does come back then either casemiro gets reduced to a reserve player role or we are going to have the same issues we are having now. If casemiro assumes that reserve player role then llorente can come in and start 10-15 league games (25+ appearances) with isco james kovacic and morata still seeing 23+ starts (35+ appearances) each. Casemiro on the other hand will probably only make 10-15 appearances instead of the 38 he will make this season.

 

I addressed these numbers in my last two posts bro, dont expect me to keep writing long ass responses to spell it out for you, your a moderator man.

 

He is saying the bbc will get even less mins from what they've already gotten this year and that Lucas will see less minutes as well.

Not sure if this will happen but that is his argument in a nutshell with the numbers.