This team can be very dangerous once James builds some sort of cohesion with Vinicius and Hazard. Assuming he continues to get the starting nod of course.
Well then. The good news is that James was active and was pretty good for a full 90 minutes in a victory. The bad news: Could he be on the bench in Paris on Wednesday? He looked awfully tired out there today. We shall see.
That Madrid defense is insanely leaky Way too many offensive players out there. As long as he plays once a week we should all be happy As long as he is in good form and healthy when we need him come copa America and qualifiers. I don’t care if Real or what ever team he goes to gets demoted. Same with all our players. Like we all wouldn’t have jumped on the Atlético Madrid or Ac Milan bandwagon if he had joined them
Not a very special assist but he did his part and 90 minutes is great. I can't complain with this playing session and hope that this will be consistent.
I'm glad he went 90 and played well. I'm still skeptical because Modric played two games over the international break and Madrid play PSG on Wednesday and he wasn't even in the squad, neither was Valverde. I'm glad he started and went 90, but Zidane literally had no other options, with Isco and Ascensio injured James is going to get some kind of minutes but I won't trust it until everyone is fit and he favors James which is doubtful. James can play and get minutes and hopefully things change, I'd still think he should have a plan to leave if Zidane is still there and I still can't fathom how Zidane let Ceballos go out on loan. Hazard is a big pick up, but this squad seems poisoned with Zidane pissing people off and they are half in a rebuild and half in holding on to an old coach and aging stars. Zidane could be gone within a year and whoever the new coach is should a midfield with James/Ceballos and ease out Modric and then Kroos.
James Rodriguez vs LevanteAssists - 1 (41st for Real Madrid)Shots - 3Accurate Passes - 53Pass Success - 81%Chances Created - 6 (Best)Key Passes - 5 (Best)Crosses - 7 (Best)Tackles - 3 (2nd Best)Recoveries - 4 Excellent performance. Comeback is ON! pic.twitter.com/229gwbjQY4— Ashish (@RMadridEngineer) September 14, 2019
I doubt it; James has been very involved and his teamup with Bale has been the closest they have to scoring.
Hazard has really had difficulty getting adapting to Real Madrid...and now both he and James were subbed out. Zidane apparently giving up or realizing that James and Hazard are tired. I see this as a for sure loss since James won't be there.
Madrid got completely dominated by PSG. No Neymar, no Cavani, no Mbappe and Icardi's first game. Its not James fault, but every time something like that happens when James is playing you can't help but feel like Zidane always wants to scapegoat James and pull him first chance he gets.
His biggest priority is to win; scapegoating is not something that he could afford against PSG and clearly James was a good choice. Hell the fans and announcers were claiming how good he was today and clearly James was gassed out as he played a full match a few days ago. No this team was not prepared overall and no one is actually blaming James as far as the media goes.
All that is logical but the Media was fairly positive on James and so where the fans in the past, that's not really what I'm talking about I'm only talking about Zidane who imo had it in his head that James isn't a player he likes and people tend to find reasons to validate their pre-determined beliefs. I hope he's changed, but Madrid not getting results is good for Zidane getting fired but imo probably bad for James' playing prospects.
Di MAaria showed up for the first time in a long time. Must have been inspired against his former team.
Zidane's biggest fear right now is not finishing the season with RMA. As long as James keeps working hard, like he has so far, Zidane will be ok with him. I wouldn't be surprised if he benched Kroos for example when more midfielders are available. The beef between James and Zidane will be reactivated when Zidane is more relaxed.
There's a lot of missing parts in this RM team. And Hazard is not looking like 1/2 the player we all know him to be. They had their chances on net yesterday but defensively, wow, they were a half step behind.