Official: James Rodriguez to Real Madrid

The Franchise wrote:

  

i don't think we can have a 4 2 3 1 formation with modric and kroos as the holding midfield pairing...a major reason for an extra man in carlo's 3 man holding midfield style formation, was to make up for the lack of a defensive midfielder (among other things). The team did not have the muscle to hold the middle and add extra defensive cover but the work rate of modric, di maria, and alonso was able to make up for that.

Using a double pivot midfield of modric and kroos, strikes me as suicide. in a doble pivote, one of the two holding mids plays a primarily defensive role, whilst the other dictates the pace of the game. Subjecting one of kroos or modric primarily to a defensive role won't work.

And whilst they both can add that work rate that is needed to help add some muscle in the midfield they'll be outnumbered and out-muscled, unless James (based on the franchise's formation) drops deep to play the di maria role in the center of the park; which I don't think he can and thus another reason i'm skeptical about us making a move for him.

but it seems the franchise is a barcelona fan, so i guess he's formation is hoping for the worse and filled with elements of sarcasm

yeah he is definitely hoping for the worse, i only just spotted the "laugh" smiley right now before i sent the message.....i initially thought it was a madrid fan that posted that formation...My mistake guys

@ valkyrja; first and foremost, just for the record, I don't have an agenda, i'll support any player that we sign unless such a player becomes a scrub and starts playing rubbish. I'm not against the signing of James because I like another player or anything like that. I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of what system the team has adopted. If he comes, i'll welcome him and hope he doesn't succumb to the pressure

with regards your point about bale, its a little different; Bale isn't playing in the center of the park, he's not playing central midfield so what is expected in terms of workrate from him would be totally different from what is expected from James, if indeed James is coming to fill Di Maria's spot in the center of the park. Bale's work-rate is limited to his offensive duties, and assisting the full back. If James is to play in Di maria's position in a three man midfield, he'd have to run like a madman on offense and defense for 90 plus minutes in a span of 60 plus games

secondly, with bale, for me at least (i can't speak for anybody else on here), we saw what he was capable of at spurs, not ust the year before he joined, but since the time he destroyed maicon, he practically ended his career (maicon has not been the same since that game, he was worth like 30 million prior to, cos remember mourinho was keeping tabs on his situation with inter...after that game he wasn't even worth 5)....James on the other hand, @ least for me, has had a wonderful worldcup, but its almost like he's become an overnight celebrity. Before the world cup we weren't strongly linked with him, now monaco's asking for 85 million?

thirdly, one must look at the casualty, the person(s) who exited due to bale's arrival; ozil, whose workrate or lack thereof is well documented on these forums and even among the spanish tabloids; compare that to the casualty that's due to occur with James arrival, Di Maria, whose workrate in central midfield has been something of a revelation, he was a hardworker even on the wing but his decision making sometimes clouded his tenacity.

James is a good player (based on the 5 games i've seen), my fears are his position and the person we are giving up to get him.....if he comes i'm sure he can eliminate such fears of mine, considering we have a good team and a good coach who is probably aware of the deal and has given the 'okay'. For all i know carlo might not even play him in the center of the park and di maria could somehow still stay, thus removing all my worries...we'll have to wait and see