The Good news over the weekend is that Arias seems to be slowly getting healthy again. The Bad news is our up and coming winger Sinisterra is injured for a long time as first mentioned by Azucarero in the player abroad thread. We are running out of winger options who have experience within the Queiroz system. I guess Villa will most probably be integrated back into the fold. Maybe this will be a golden opportunity for someone like Ibargüen who has been called up by CQ before and has been getting a lot of playing time in America and could hypothetically play both flanks if need be. We are hoping Berrio does not get called up. (And he should not since he has not played much at Flamengo but still, he called him up in the Fall when we all did not want him to.)
Cuadrado, Muriel, Roger, Villa, Diaz and considering CQ played James as a winger who drifted in when he was healthy you can probably add Quintero and James into that. I think we're pretty stocked up if need be, it sucks that Sinisterra is injured but he was a luxury in a sense since he wasn't really integrated yet. I like Villa and think he'll do well, Cuadrado is back to playing as a winger lately for Juve but I prefer him and James as first choice with Cuadrado as an 8, then if Quintero gets up to speed Quintero in that same James roll.
I hear ya, but within CQ's system Cuadrado has been more of an 8 and not a wing. Roger has not played a minute in 2020 so he may not even be an option. Villa has not been called up since March of 2019 but I hope he gets a chance again. James has not played much for club or country and we do not know if JuanFer will get called since he has played limited minutes off the bench at River. It is all a bit cloudy and March is coming up really quickly. Hopefully by June things get better. But I am concerned about March.
Agreed. And I wouldnt be shocked if neither JFQ or James are called up. In fact, I would expect that to be the case and justifiably so.
What do you think of Ibarguen? He’s been playing regularly for America and has a bigger role for them than Roger does.
It is what it is. He may be the best option right now off the bench at left wing. He can also play behind the Striker and some right wing. His shooting on goal is still pretty bad though but he is fast and can set the pace on the wings which is what CQ seems to like.
Speaking of James: https://www.futbolred.com/seleccion...y-temas-para-hablar-con-carlos-queiroz-113251
I'm all for knocking some sense into James, that said the Qualifiers are so difficult and getting as a good a start as possible is super important. It's not the time to send messages, if James is fit imo he should be starting, Quintero has been out for a long time and isn't back to playing much so it makes sense. Even if James is barely playing at Madrid he's been in that same boat and performed for us in the past. If he's fit we should revert back to our prime lineup this summer before injuries of: Muriel-Duvan-James Uribe-Barrios-Cuadrado We go with guys who have played in big games and in qualifiers before and who are familiar and as the qualifiers go on we continue to re-evaluate. Diaz/Villa/Morelos as the attacking 3 replacements. I would love to see in our upcoming games Cantillo/Agudelo/Alzate/Villa get into the squad, I think they all can cantribute a lot. If we do drop James I think moving to a 4-4-2 might make sense. --------Duvan--Morelos Diaz--Uribe--Barrios---Cuadrado This lineup could be a beast pressing opponents but I worry about our lack of creativity and someone to dictate on the ball, which is continuously a problem for us without James/Quintero.
Well if they're meeting with James, I'm going to assume this is the attempt to knock some sense into him. Quieroz took heat for James' absence in the last qualifiers when it was later revealed James himself requested the time off. This and the fact they're (Quieroz and Yepes) meeting with him are signs that Quieroz does rate him highly, despite what his play style and preferences seem to indicate. Basically, I'm assuming they'll tell him we can't start the qualifiers without you, but you NEED to get the hell out of Madrid if you want to be a part of the squad after the summer. If not, what else would it be? Meet with him to tell him he's out until next season? Nah, that meeting would've taken place before the transfer window...
I think they're likely they're to knock some sense into him and see where his head is at. We need him, he's our most influential player and we need him at the beginning, the fact they're going there is most likely that they're desperate to get the message across and to get 1) get him out of Madrid and 2) feel out how ready he's likely to be and sort through what's bullshit coming out of Madrid for the first round of qualifiers.
why didn’t he do it in December when he could have left. Only place to go is the MLS now till the summer
Yeah IDK, not sure there is anyway he can leave now after the winter window has closed or if he would want to, there is absolutely nothing that has changed James knew the situation and didn't do anything. I really wonder where his head is at, its just a big head scratcher at his age with WCQ's and his history with Zidane that he seemingly didn't even try to move in the winter.
James is like the naive guy at the strip club “I think she (Zidane) really likes me. If I stick around until the end of the night (season), I may have a chance to score...”
I honestly don't think it's just about him not wanting to leave. I think he's been ready to go. The issue is the market place. It has to be the right fit for the purchasing/selling club and mitigating risk for a player that has had a 2-3 year streak of injuries. This for a player that will be turning 29 this summer and commands high wages. With all this being said, I think at this summer's transfer window he (and his agent) will likely have a true awakening as to what the market will bear, which will need to be a lot less than the reported $45-$50mil that RM is likely commanding.
I'm gonna disagree with this, Zidane made it clear he didn't want him in order to sell him if they were prioritizing making as much as possible they would have played him more and show cased him. This is for sure on James, he didn't even try to stay at Bayern and announced he was leaving when they could have bought him, they could have bought him and sold him at a profit if he didn't want to go back to Madrid. If he was motivated to leave this summer and it didn't work out then he should have absolutely done the same thing he did at Bayern and announce he's leaving. A deal could have been made easily, his price is dropping rapidly at Madrid, if all he cares about is maxing his wages then sure letting your contract run down further is beneficial, but he's then wasting prime years sitting on the bench when he's got massive commercial money that will be on the shelf as well.
He makes 20 million a season no one is going to pay him that if he leaves no big team is going to give him that much money or a shot age, salary, transfer fee, injury history and diva status all hurt him he would be perfect in Italy but no one there will pay him more than 5-7 million a season
I'd really like to see someone like Borre have a go from the start at the front line because he checks all the boxes : creativity, speed, goal, defends and attacks. Uribe and Cuadrado also have the capacity to fill the holes as creative midfielders that can score. Then you bring in a James/JFQ in the second half to possess and create counter-attacking positions. Since we open up against Venezuela at home I think it's totally doable.
He may not get to walk into any big club in the world for sure, but you're smoking crack if you think the 4th biggest Instagram followed footballer who when last given a real chance at Bayern dominated his old team Real Madrid and was superb wouldn't get paid well. His commercial appeal alone is worth a shitload in jersey sales and opens up markets like Colombia to teams. There is a reason when he was at Bayern they always had him front and center on social media, because James even though he's ********ed up a lot still has a ton of star power as a player.
The media speculated a lot on James and Bayern but it still came down to Bayern not wanting to exercise the additional buyout clause. Having a Kovac as DT didn't help his cause either as James wasn't clearly his player of choice + all the injury/downtime. By the end of that 2nd season, James didn't look too happy at Bayern but Bayern wasnt necessarily enticing the player to stay either. I'm not saying James's poor planning and decisions haven't had the best of him but I'm just responding to the fact that he hasn't had any reported official offers from any club for which we can confirm that he's denied. So right now he's gotta stay put. What other options does he have? I feel his 'prime' years are sort of behind him at this point. He can be influential and I hope he gets back on his footing so he can contribute to our NT but I don't ever foresee him commanding a franchise player type of purchase (maybe in MLS).
I don't know what it is, but it seems that many of our players have a tendency to be in situations where they are on teams where something goes wrong for a variety of reasons. I feel like something must be awry with the business talks between the players' agents/reps and the teams. Maybe part of it is on the player but i feel like we have too many instances where players get frozen out of teams or the players freeze themselves out of a team. James - Real Madrid (how much is on James for his situation?) Roger - Club America Zuniga - Napoli (injury related or frozen out?) Armero - His last few teams he was anonymous Ospina - lost his place at Arsenal and except for this past month, he's been anonymous at Napoli Quintero - Prior to River, his career was about to fall to the wayside Mina - situation at Barca was disastrous Zapata - the guy averaged 20 games a season at Milan - content with being a P/T player? Abel - didn't he have some drama at one of his club teams early in his career? just to name a few
almost all those guys you mention played at top teams in top leagues. The problem almost always has been the players, they just don't really have what it takes to be at a top team and be at a consistent level. More is expected when you are at the highest level. Colombians are not there yet and that doesn't necessarily have to do with their football quality
Changing gears a bit... ...I have been wondering what domestic players could be called up next month. I heard that Osorio is really pushing on behalf of Gustavo Torres from Nacional. Has he really been playing that good??? I saw Munoz scored last week but has not played lately. Is he injured again? How about someone like Ricaurte. I like the way he played in the Libertadores but I am not sure if he has played consistently at a high level all season. Any other candidates?