god I forgot about Reyes.... maybe they will go with flavor of the month that wins the league. I mean he should be fired for not getting the Colombian channels where he lives
Lerma wasn't needed for this game... If he made a early sun should have kept Barrios and took out Uribe and Lerma.. went to the 4141 with Cardona next James or sitting deeper than James and he should have started an actual full back and play Cuadrado as a midfielder because that's what he is.. He's a right mid that can get to the endline and make a nice pass.. I hope he realizes to play guys in their natural positions James is a Cam not a RW... Maybe LW because of his passing...enough with the 433 unless he's using an actual LW like James or Luis Díaz and an actual RW like Yimmi Chara or Villa but since Colombia don't have that don't play 433...
James at RW was the best midfielder in La Liga in 2015, the Bundesliga in 2018, and the standout player of the start of the BPL this year... He is arguably most effective as a pure 10 when he can play close to the box like he did in Brasil...but most club managers have found he him most dangerous playing inverted. I think the last time he played at LW with any consistency was for Porto? Personally, I think it's a red herring. The key is to give James an extra second on the ball to scan the field - that only happens when we have the right spacing and the guys ahead of him are moving and he has solid action on the opposite side to change the field. When the whole team is just looking for James to play hero ball and crowded around him defenders can just sit on top of him and he eventually starts coming all the way deep into the first line to get the ball and we become way less dangerous.(same applies when we play him as a 10 - you need great fullback play or the same thing happens).
Yeah he can find space really well from that position, he can drift wide where's in the middle if you don't have other good mids and spacing he can get crowded out easily and playing that position allows him less responsibilities defensively. Also Cuadrado's position now is RB, for Juve he almost exclusively plays there, we play him as a CM but he hasn't played there for Juve almost ever so really those two were in their natural positions that they are playing day in and day out.
Here's the way I see it. We know his talent. But I worry James is no longer the end-all to be all. We all know this. Not solely on this bad loss. Even when we play well and James is on the pitch he just doesnt look connected, concerned, engaged. He's a brilliant futbolero but I don't think CQ should start him vs Ecuador. I'm taking a deep breath because no Conmebol team is killing it. Uruguay looked awful vs Ecuador in October. They looked overwhelmed at home vs Chile. But typical of Colombia, we welcome the dead.