That's a totally misleading headline. Blanc said he hasn't had the best preparation because he joined late, he was not knocking his fitness or effort...
Today Al Rayyan plays Al Sailiya at 5.20 pm AST, that's actually in approximately 2 hours from now... Sailiya are currently bottom of the table, so a good chance James breaks his duck and gets on the scoresheet here. Fraid to say I'll give this one a miss, but may catch his next game vs Al Gharafa next Wednesday, although that's more to see the 2nd game of the double hearder which is Sadd vs Duhail
⏰ 1' Comienza el partido✅ James Rodríguez 🇨🇴 titular⚽ @AlrayyanSC 🆚 @AlSailiyaclub🏟 Estadio Al-Gharafah 🏆 Liga de Qatar🗓 Jornada 7https://t.co/8ephY1APAJ— Mi Selección (@MiSeleccion_) October 26, 2021
🚨 EL GOL DE JAMES https://t.co/efWveHWHX3— Pipe Sierra (@PSierraR) October 26, 2021 That player was quite generous.
Not sure I've ever seen someone do that, but to be honest it was probably a good play and created a better chance with the defender laying out for the original shot.
Knowing his recent luck he would probably score against Brasil in a loss and then score an own goal against Paraguay making us lose that one too.
Outside of injuries his form was fine at Everton and he looked fine today by all accounts - he is really putting in shifts in the Doha heat so he should be in shape. I never question the value he can add on the field when healthy and in playing shape - the issue has just been fitness for me. On the field of course, we can only speculate about the locker room, but you'd imagine he will be walking on egg shells if he gets called.
We all would imagine that, but this is james we are talking about. Hate to be that guy, but every time we have given the dude the benefit of the doubt he has proven that he is not deserving. Can only hope he proves everyone wrong this time, but I wont hold my breath.
Honestly if you ask me...he shouldnt be called, the matches i ahve watched is a non compettitve league without pressing....lower than any south america just for example...... I disagree tthat oiur lack of goal and offensive game (that we have suffered also with james, for exmaple copa america 2015) is because we miss a 10.....
Good point about the pressing. Uruguay made him look really bad and Ecuador really controlled him too. I am leaning towards a no call myself but with: 1) no JuanFer, 2) Cardona playing like "a has been" and 3) Carrascal not being ready yet it really seems to limit our creative options a bit. Unless EL Rifle gets another chance or the other guy at Nacional Jarlan.
What is this every time you refer to? We lost two games last November over the course of a week where James (and the entire team) played bad. He maybe wasn't "2014 Brasil" James in the years preceding but he was crucial to our qualifying to Russia and the match he played there was our best. He had a solid Copa under Quieroz and then had been motm against Venezuela in the qualifying opener. I'd say the opposite - while he has let his club teams down (by not being available), he has generally shown up for the NT and delivered. That he may have poisoned the locker room last November, I guess we can speculate since Rueda has had him on double awkward probation since but this idea that he has let down Colombia continually I don't understand. I get the criticism from Pep on the level of play in Qatar, but I have watched two of the matches and the guy is running his socks off and sweating like a maniac. He is physically fit and like Homie says with Juanfer in China we need alts. I also appreciate that we might be able to play Cantillo or Atuesta (though the later is hurt) as a bit of a regista and get some vision from deeper in midfield - but ultimately we need tactical alternatives in the call up.
If you call him up for the national team then what about the all important Ooreedoo Cup group stage clash vs Umm Salal next month
I'm not too far from this opinion either. But to me it has to do with what we risk by having him. It seemed like he had sooooo many distractions that he didn't really play with his typical urgency and it showed. If the risk is losing a TEAM chemistry that has managed to stay solvent and trending upward so that James plays than it's not worth it. I mean, if he's called up, I can't see him NOT starting vs Brazil without major attitude/issues. Who knows? Maybe he's now in a happier place. As it relates to play on the field, he surely can't do any worse than what we've been seeing on the pitch.
If we call him up its not like he gets free reign to do whatever he wants, he's under the same expectations and rules as every other player. We can be disappointed with him his career trajectory and wasting his potential to some degree but we are holding him to a standard higher then any other player which isn't fair either, with the NT since 2014 he's been the man and largely has done a good job of that with a team that hasn't been great offensively quite often. He showed up and played well through all types of stuff, and that doesn't mean he gets special treatment but we can also treat him the same as guys like Falcao and JFQ who were called and played without playing club minutes, and James imo is more talented then them both even if he's not at his peak level. We had a really bad window right before CQ got axed and idk about the problems in the dressing room but clearly the whole team was really bad, and James is probably easily one of the most talented players on our team even if he's playing in a weak league. Its on Rueda to manage the squad and how James acts and decide to keep him or if what his playing time is, but James is no doubt still useful on the field, off the field that's gotta be on management to decide if team continuity will suffer because he's gone DIVA.
i prefer what we are seeing ....that the thing we watched a yer ago in novemeber..........that was much worse. yeah i want a more offensive team with creation........but we cannot talk like this the worst of the worlds.....we have climbed 3 positions and we entered in qualification zone....after we began the year out..... this could be worse.....
What I was trying to say is that James has shown over the course of his career that he is not the consummate professional and tends to be immature and make stupid decisions—therefore while I do believe he should be called up, I am not necessarily confident that he will be on “his best behavior” The track record is there, and I think that his ego and lack of maturity have prevented him from having a more prosperous/successful career. When he started floundering at RM he got a pass because Zidane just didnt like him/thought he wasn’t a fit for his system. He gets a great opportunity at Bayern to revive his promising career and does pretty well but has the season plagued by his all too common injury/fitness issues. Despite this Bayern still wants to retain him and the guy decides to walk because of the cold german winters and people. He gets a chance at Everton where he again does okay but is plagued by his lack of fitness/injuries which ultimately cost him a call up to the national team. Then when you expect to get himself on track, he goes off on twitch about not getting called up and a week later drops a bomb about not even knowing who Everton are playing (completely unprofessional). Now the wonderboy is in Qatar of all leagues because man, he really needs that $$ at this point in his career..I dont know, maybe i’m just tired of James and assuming he will “do the right thing”
That's all fair. My point was just that I can count very few games in yellow where he hasn't shown up. IF he gets called and gets a shot I expect him to go bananas trying 100% because the NT is, I think, really the only thing that matters to the guy after his money...
I think you are conflating his off field dumb decisions with his on field ones, although he's made countless errors in judgement for where he played in his club career there just isn't a valid argument that he was generally very professional on he field wherever he played. His injuries we can't really count against him because we don't know if it was due to lack of training, that many chronic calve issues are going to have some connection to your body just having a problem there. The twitch stuff is dumb for sure, Real Madrid was not really his fault that Zidane hated him, and at Bayern, Everton and Colombia throughout the whole time there is no way you could look at his body of work on field and say he wasn't one of our best player in an area that has been our biggest weakness without him over the last 8 years and over the last 3 years if you narrowed it there. He's dumb as hell off the field but the bottom line is he's a genius still on it and somehow 90% of the time has found the level for us. Now maybe all that changes now and he's gone further down a bad path, but the guy still deserves a chance with us and we absolutely need him if we can make it work. We're lucky we're still in qualifying at all, but if we keep going the way we are we're still on a razor's edge to go to Qatar.
No I agree completely, my issue with him is totally off the field. My only worry for the NT would be potential chemistry issues do to his ego, if that can be kept in check then we will be fine.
Not sure if you followed this but apparently Al Rayyan tried to sign Falcao last year as well. Would have been some attack had they managed to get both players on the team. https://www.besoccer.com/new/falcao-tempted-by-qatar-902786