Official: James Rodriguez to Real Madrid

Zealous wrote:Not false 9, a number 10. In that formation most of his time will be in midfield, not in the box.

Some kind of Messi's Argentina role   

why does madrid always feel the need to sign whatever hyped up player at the moment  regardless of whether they actually need him or not ?

remember  when they signed beckham just to play him as  a DM/deep-lying playmaker ?

i love u Z, but that formation is a wreck. it's clutching at straws to the highest degree.

CR is not going to tweak anything to fit anything. CR will continue to be CR, meaning, a guy you give freedom to do everything he wants. he likes to starts on the outside left to end up on the middle. it works for him this way and why change.

Things change for CR, CR doesnt change to accomodate others.

another reason why this idea of letting Di Maria leave is disastrous. We found a winning formula, and now we should break it up again to try something new. who does that?

so you guys are trading off
Benzema for James
Di Maria for Isco
Xabi for Kroos

and are left with 4 physical players (ramos/pepe/bale/cr7) rather then 7... there goes your biggest advantage over barca please make it happen

The Franchise wrote:

  

That entire top half of the team has the work rate of messi

Pls sign him Madrid

Not like Real had any real advantage over Barcelona. They lost both home and away in the league. Also, Atletico is the defending champions, both clubs have more to worry about than each other honestly...

clowns how can some of you even claim to be footy fans, and think cr-bale partnership makes sense? benzema gets dropped why? for not being hyped enough? posting that garbage formations , followed by the garbage logic, fifa is turning noobs into idiots

name one single time madrid looked good without a striker playing? 1 time any poster, cr failed at striker EVERY TIME, yet people pretend it didn't happened, casual fans logic he can dribble and score he can play false 9, like kaka,bale and isco

matter a fact other than messi(and cr ), how many players in world football are dominating at false 9 right now or last couple seasons?, its sounds incredibly stupi.... i mean easy the way some poster are making it sound

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

tito any formation with james makes the team weaker , so its ok

chad4401 wrote: clowns how can some of you even claim to be footy fans, and think cr-bale partnership makes sense? benzema gets dropped why? for not being hyped enough? posting that garbage formations , followed by the garbage logic, fifa is turning noobs into idiots

name one single time madrid looked good without a striker playing? 1 time any poster, cr failed at striker EVERY TIME, yet people pretend it didn't happened, casual fans logic he can dribble and score he can play false 9, like kaka,bale and isco

matter a fact other than messi(and cr ), how many players in world football are dominating at false 9 right now or last couple seasons?, its sounds incredibly stupi.... i mean easy the way some poster are making it sound

After reading a few of your posts.. I've noticed you have a distinct likeness to Holden Caulfield.

I just want to hold you close and tell you everything's going to be OK

Wasn't everyone saying that Bale has 0 workrate ? Now, one year later they're saying the same about James

from the 5 matches you've seen of james whats your opinion?

@ 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

Peccadillo wrote:
After reading a few of your posts.. I've noticed you have a distinct likeness to Holden Caulfield.

I just want to hold you close and tell you everything's going to be OK

swing and a miss, not gonna answer the question go sit in the corner and practice your routine more scrub, then again its argument none of you can win, so keep the skits coming champ

Mr Nick09 wrote:i love u Z, but that formation is a wreck. it's clutching at straws to the highest degree.

We had a midfield of

----Di Maria --------Modric------
-------------Alonso--------------

If I suggested this before last season I would have been laughed at. We were able to make it work fairly well.

I am clutching at straws though I agree but like I said just trying to put something together on paper.

Mr Nick09 wrote:CR is not going to tweak anything to fit anything. CR will continue to be CR, meaning, a guy you give freedom to do everything he wants. he likes to starts on the outside left to end up on the middle. it works for him this way and why change.

Things change for CR, CR doesnt change to accomodate others.

another reason why this idea of letting Di Maria leave is disastrous. We found a winning formula, and now we should break it up again to try something new. who does that?

In my formation he can still do that though and besides I think you are not giving CR enough credit. He's smart and takes care of himself so I don't doubt that he would consider making minor tweaks to his play style in coming seasons.

Our "winning formula" was a counter attack 4-4-2. It really wasn't what Carlo promised before last season and even then our biggest asset were Bale long dribbles and Ramos set pieces when it was gut check time.

Donuts wrote:
so you guys are trading off
Benzema for James
Di Maria for Isco
Xabi for Kroos

and are left with 4 physical players (ramos/pepe/bale/cr7) rather then 7... there goes your biggest advantage over barca please make it happen

Barca have their own issues that they should worry about instead of what Madrid is doing.


These were just suggestions anyway lol.

According to EC, Benzema extended until 2019 with an annual wage of 8 mil net (17,8 mil gross roughly) per season. So you can all leave him out of this discussion now lol.

I'm against this move...
Only reason it could make sense is if he's a direct replacement for Morata (which he obviously isn't, coming in at 90m).
Our attack is perfect. Have you forgotten the BBC already?
James had an amazing tournament in Brazil, no doubt. But just because he's the flavour of the week doesn't mean he has the quality to be a world-class player over the course of a 50+ game season.
And, yes, he's 23, but just because he's young doesn't mean he will rule the world at 27...

This is starting to turn into a galatico party like it was in Perez's first term.
Bringing in James is completely unecessary. He adds no balance to the team and Benzema is a far better option for the withdrawn striker role that gets the best out of Bale and CR.

This isn't FIFA. Football doesn't work like this...

Instead of spending ridiculous sums of money on James, we should renew Di Maria's contract...

sportsczy wrote:According to EC, Benzema extended until 2019 with an annual wage of 8 mil net (17,8 mil gross roughly) per season. So you can all leave him out of this discussion now lol.

lol yeah, that's a long term commitment for sure.

We'll have to wait and see if it happens though.

James or no James... that is the question.

I know i've watched him more than all of you here since i live close to Monaco and i went to see them 6 times live last season + saw almost all their games.

Here's the thing with James... if he faces opposition that let him play, he's great. But if he gets squeezed and pushed around, he disappears. He's very similar to Hazard when he was in Ligue 1, except Hazard was better imo: More influence and better stats by Hazard.

As far as his position... he's Ozil with a better scoring touch. But he's not a scorer. Don't let the WC fool you. He scored 10 goals in 32 games for Monaco and he was the primary ball handler in the attack. Had over 100 shots combined too. That's about what i expect from him.

He has room for improvement obviously since he's 23. But he's not 19-20. He's not a diamond in the rough. He'll never, ever be Messi... just not the same type of player. He's much closer to Iniesta if you had to compare.

So if you guys are expecting James to be a striker or a false 9, think again. That's not him. He never played that for Monaco or Columbia for that matter.

It would be a very odd signing for Madrid if we're sticking with a 3 man mid. There is no 10 role in that setup. Are we going to switch to a 4231 just for James? That would be pretty stupid if we did.

I will add that, if we didn't have Bale, James on the right side is absolutely lethal. He did that a lot at Monaco too. He would cut in on his left and either shoot or create. Very hard to handle.

One last thought... here's why we're pursuing James.  Barca made a huge signing and Flo doesn't want to get outdone.  May sound ridiculous, but it's nonetheless true.  When Neymar was going to Barca, we had to sign Bale regardless of pricing.  Barca signs Suarez?  Same thing with James.  It's a game of perceptions.

The only hope for sanity is if Barca quiet down

Yeah it's all pretty weird atm.

I have a good feeling about this summer though, so hopefully things work out for the best.

Spanish media have gone completely amok this year too... The amount of rubbish that's published is unusually large even for them. Feel like i'm reading tabloids, not newspapers.

With Spain NT flopping in WC, the focus has returned on Madrid in the capital... we're CL champs. All that extra attention = extra rubbish to sell papers or get clicks.