October Friendlies (Chile & Algeria)

Yeah of all the people James should get the benefit of the doubt to be called for the NT since he's played well in the past when he wasn't playing in Madrid and always seems to be a better player with the NT. That said I think there's a very good argument that James is ********ing himself over by being stubborn in Madrid, so it could be smart for CQ to send a message at this time to try and nudge James towards the door at Madrid by not calling him because he's not playing. In a vacuum its a bad move since James is consistently our best player but in the bigger picture someone helping James see what he's blinded by would actually be a good thing if it pushes James to leave Madrid and be in an environment better for him going forward. Especially considering Valverde has played very well Isco is coming back and Kroos and Madric could have a broken leg and still be favored ahead of James with Zidane as coach.

What is somewhat scary though is CQ has been fairly consistent in dropping CAM's for a system that defends really well, I don't think he's crazy enough to completely phase out James, but if he is he's gonna be doomed, the Colombian public and FA wouldn't stand for that even if he's winning games imo.

 

It is going to be a Novela if that is the case.
I am ready to bring out the popcorn.

That said, that last part about winning games is really all that matters to Queiroz and he has been known to be stubborn in the past so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

My thoughts were always Falcao was going to be the first to go under CQ, he doesn't fit his idea's at all and Duvan is a slam dunk. He handled it well at the CA rolling out Falcao and giving him a chance and saying the right things then moving on from him. Doing it that way shows he knows he has to say and do the right things, he has to be a politician about stuff like that and he's been around long enough to know how to do that. With James its really off limits, no matter what he does James is going to need to play or he's got no chance, I also think it would be ludicrous from a playing perspective to drop James, maybe some games you can use him as a sub and be more defensive but that's a fair tactical approach.

The guys CQ has phased out never had the clout, ability, or status that James has rightfully earned with Colombia, my money is squarely on him not phasing James out or being too stubborn but him sending a message or actually being in conversation with him and deciding together to leave him in Madrid and allowing him to build fitness and try and get past his injuries and secure his PT. These are the reasonable reasons for his not being called and everything I've seen from CQ up to this point is he's a smart and reasonable manager. If I had to bet I'd put my money on James and CQ talking and him covering for him by saying no one asked not to be here.

 

This is another option I wanted to put out there when pertaining to this situation but with Queiroz mentioning in the past how he wants to be transparent as possible with the media it would be contradicting to be covering for him in a secretive way.
Then again it would not be that surprising as many good managers deal with these sort of things internally they may just want to put up smoke screens out in the public and media.

 

¡Plop! ¡Recontraplop! Carreta eso de que James pidió no venir para quedarse a pelear puesto en el Real Madrid. Queiroz no puede decir que James no está porque Valderrama no está. Lo que dice parece una burla. ¡Estamos habando del mejor jugador de Colombia HOY! ¡RECONTRAPLOP!

— Gabriel Meluk (@MelukLeCuenta) October 8, 2019

 

Queiroz made this a bigger issue than it needed to be.

 

Yeah

Could have easily said "James did not ask to not be called up. We know what we have in James and we would like to use these friendlies to see what other players offer and get them incorporated with the team with the hopes of building a 15 to 16 men base"

Instead he goes on to suggest James is not there because he called better players lol

 

If I had to guess I´d say Queiroz is irritated by the fact James chose the bench of RMA over a smaller team. Also Queiroz seems to be the kind of guy values humility. James' decision to stay at Madrid is arrogant in the sense that he must have thought that his NT spot is self-evident.

Queiroz could have said that he doesn't want his team to rely on a player that isn't playing.

What I don't understand is why the media keeps talking about Falcao so much. The guy is almost middle aged and there are better strikerd available.

 

I am still sticking with the notion that he was impressed with what he saw that first half in Miami Gardens against Brasil.
The more Muriel---Zapata----Roger play together the better they can get. .

If James gets called up and is benched there would be even more controversy in my opinion. Everyone would be asking why isn't he starting and if he is in Queiroz's dog house.
This way without James in camp he can just focus on his tinkering of the three striker formation and integration of the younger players as he said in the press conference when pertaining to the future.

 

Well, he did say "I hope to have the best players ready for when we'll be competing for three points."
That to me implies that if James is in form and is playing like one of the best players when official matches start up he will be called.

 

I guess we'll never know for sure, but I find it hard to believe he left James out only because he doesn't fit into a certain formation. Queiroz isn't afraid of the media.

 

I am not saying that is the only reason.
I am just saying it is a good reason.

If the team would have looked like crap last month in attack then there would be more incentive to bring James in.

 

Hopefully CQ is putting pressure on James either in the press or behind the scenes to get out of Madrid, the more people that make it clear to him that he needs to leave permanently the better. Realistically the guy has a few more years left to make the best of his career and Colombia needs him at his best, we need to be thinking about the next 2-3 years as a golden opportunity for Colombia, we're going to have a chance to make the next step to consistently compete with the best in the world.

Duvan, James, Quintero, Mina, Barrios, Davinson plus a bunch of very good players who are either hitting their peak or still rapidly progressing (Diaz, Roger, Muriel) and a system that maximizes the type of player and talent we have is going to give us a real shot, but we need guys like James at their best and they can't stall out. If James is ********ing around in Madrid or still continuously hurt at minimum we're going to need Quintero back healthy and firing, but having them both gives us great options.

 

dont believe that your idea is the same of queiroz....quintero and james that will be fiction regardin queiroz style

 

Yeah I'd be super surprised if they both played under CQ, but I really hope at least one of them is always playing. I'm all for CQ's style but if we played that style at the expense of world class creative players like Quintero and James it would be a mistake imo, we can use all those guys and have one of them at all times, the defensive workrate and pressing can cover for James and Quintero if we have a whole team committed to it. For example I could imagine starting James/Quintero and the starter goes 70 with the other replacing him, if we're down bring both on etc. but I wouldn't think he'd start with them both no.

I think with Cuadrado playing more RB that will be really beneficial for us because it translates easier to him for the skillset of playing as an 8 and it also allows us a lot more width if we played 4-3-3.

You could play Cuadrado at RB, and James in the midfield 3 and allow James to drift into the center with Cuadrado playing inverted and helping out or overlapping and providing width if James played higher as a false winger. I doubt we'd see it but an ultra attacking lineup could look like:

Muriel--Duvan--Quintero
-----Uribe---------James
--------------Barrios
X--------X--------X--------Cuadrado

Cuadrado in this case can provide width if needed and can also move in and cover the right side as an inverted fullback. If we play one of them then play Cuadrado as the 8 and James or Quintero as the false winger. Also you can simply sub in Roger or Diaz in the Quintero spot and go for more direct attacking lineup with Cuadrado still doing the same thing from RB.

 

Link to view the team in training. Don’t know how long this will last

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=458706991412220

 

because queiroz said was a technical decision...........i think he wasnt honest and all this was made

 

This is what I don't get about this situation. If this is really Queiroz not calling James up because he is not a starter, as a lesson, then why was Muriel called up?

James has played 320 minutes this season compared to Muriel 200 minutes.

If this is not about James trying to win a spot in Real Madrid, and not wanting to be called, then I don't understand what Queiroz is thinking.

 

You are applying logic to what has always been an illogical process

 

Queiroz's character/personality is very similar to Zidane's. Both are very stubborn. Queiroz probably hates the fact that the Colombian media and Colombian fans talk about James all the time. If Queiroz was 100% honest about his reasons to leave James out he would be fired.

I don't care that much wether James is in the team or not, I just think Queiroz is lying about the reasons. Us human beings are not as rational as we pretend to be.

This might actually be good for the NT and James.

 

Could be true.
I just take people at their word no matter how egotistical or stubborn they are.
Makes life a lot easier.
And as long as we look good these next two matches and hopefully win then all the better. (Even if we do not win and the experiments in tactics look encouraging then it is like a win in my book.)

 

That Explains a lot.

In The short term, maybe. I n the long term you may ended been screwed up.

 

Yup.
Speculating and trying to figure out intentions based on anything other than their word would make anyone go crazy. Like many people on the left who believe in dog whistles and secret codes for instance. Makes them look like morons trying to decode everything without applying common sense.