James Rodriguez | joins Bayern Munich | 2 year loan

James Rodriguez - should we go for him?

  • Yes

    Votes: 404 34.6%

  • No

    Votes: 565 48.4%

  • I hate Silly Season

    Votes: 198 17.0%
  • Total voters
    1,167
Status
Not open for further replies.
GM K said:
Can we PLEASE dump this notion that because Madrid does not want a player or a player doesn't do well at there, therefore the player is automatically not good enough for Manchester United????

Let's lay this to rest and focus on other arguments for or against James Rodriguez.


Here's a short list of players Madrid gave up who became sensational in their new clubs:


* Samuel Eto'o

* Juan Mata

* Esteban Cambiasso

* Claude Makalele

* Wesley Sneijder

* Arjen Robben

* Samuel Eto'o

* Walter Samuel

* Juanfran

* Alvaro Negredo


Whatever reasons we give for not wanting James at United, it shouldn't merely be because he has been a Madrid 'flop' or 'reject'. Many great players have been there before.
Click to expand...

1) Certainly agree, you make a great point.
2) Id forgotten Cambiasso ever played for Madrid.
 
GM K said:
Can we PLEASE dump this notion that because Madrid does not want a player or a player doesn't do well at there, therefore the player is automatically not good enough for Manchester United????

Let's lay this to rest and focus on other arguments for or against James Rodriguez.


Here's a short list of players Madrid gave up who became sensational in their new clubs:


* Samuel Eto'o

* Juan Mata

* Esteban Cambiasso

* Claude Makalele

* Wesley Sneijder

* Arjen Robben

* Samuel Eto'o

* Walter Samuel

* Juanfran

* Alvaro Negredo


Whatever reasons we give for not wanting James at United, it shouldn't merely be because he has been a Madrid 'flop' or 'reject'. Many great players have been there before.
Click to expand...

Good post. Add in the fact there are plenty of Madrid 'squad' players who would improve us massively. Isco, Moratta, Varane, Ascensio, James, kovacic
 
He is a good player but I dont want him.

Pogba and herrera work better in a 3 man midfield and getting James makes us getting Pogba look a bit silly imo

Unless he plays wing for us in a 4-3-3 in which case I will look silly.
 
Jose knows the team inside out and might have a blueprint in his mind about how he is going to play next season and the players required to effectively influence the team. If he thinks James will be a good addition we will buy him. If we can get him around 30-35 mil I think he will be a good addition to a side.
 
BigCaine said:
For Madrid that would be a steal, madrid don't want him, we don't really need him especially with so many other more important positions to fill. Anything more than 30-35mn euros is madrid robbing us just like they did with di maria. Best outcome would be we keep ddg madrid keep james.
Click to expand...

30-35m euros ~25-30m pounds. In 2017 you can not buy even Fellaini with that price. Real is just paying 40 million+ euros from some 17 years old brazilian teenager. It's only dreaming if you think you can get James Rodriguez anywhere near that price. I would say 40-50 million euros if Real is desperate to sell. If not, then more. IF he's coming here, i would be little surprised if we get him under 50 million euros. Sometimes i feel people are always 5-10 years late when we talk about transfer fees.
 
I think if we buy James Rodriguez we might need to add a wide player with good movement too.

Rashford
Mkhitaryan - Rodriguez - Silva
​
For the price of Silva you have to play him on the right where he has performed all season. Can Mkhi play wide left to a reasonable standard? We'd also probably sign a striker too since I can't see Mourinho trusting Rashford for the season. We need a minimum of two attackers sadly.
 
GM K said:
Can we PLEASE dump this notion that because Madrid does not want a player or a player doesn't do well at there, therefore the player is automatically not good enough for Manchester United????

Let's lay this to rest and focus on other arguments for or against James Rodriguez.


Here's a short list of players Madrid gave up who became sensational in their new clubs:


* Samuel Eto'o

* Juan Mata

* Esteban Cambiasso

* Claude Makalele

* Wesley Sneijder

* Arjen Robben

* Samuel Eto'o

* Walter Samuel

* Juanfran

* Alvaro Negredo


Whatever reasons we give for not wanting James at United, it shouldn't merely be because he has been a Madrid 'flop' or 'reject'. Many great players have been there before.
Click to expand...

Theres two Eto'o's ?
 
Nick. said:
I think if we buy James Rodriguez we might need to add a wide player with good movement too.

Rashford
Mkhitaryan - Rodriguez - Silva
​
For the price of Silva you have to play him on the right where he has performed all season. Can Mkhi play wide left to a reasonable standard? We'd also probably sign a striker too since I can't see Mourinho trusting Rashford for the season. We need a minimum of two attackers sadly.
Click to expand...

This is where we go wrong as a club. We've tried this far too often. We need players to play in their best positions. If we have too many good players in the same position, then we need to sell some on.

We currently have Mata, Rooney and Miki who play as a 10 predominantly.
 
Zlatattack said:
This is where we go wrong as a club. We've tried this far too often. We need players to play in their best positions. If we have too many good players in the same position, then we need to sell some on.

We currently have Mata, Rooney and Miki who play as a 10 predominantly.
Click to expand...

Well if Mourinho does indeed go for Rodriguez then someone has to be out of position out of the two of them. Although Mkhitaryan played wide right for Dortmund well so maybe he should be there instead.
 
Can James play as the most advanced of a midfield 3?

Herrera
James Pogba
​
I know some might say it's 'unbalanced' - but Herrera and especially Pogba are decent defensively.
 
Nick. said:
Well if Mourinho does indeed go for Rodriguez then someone has to be out of position out of the two of them. Although Mkhitaryan played wide right for Dortmund well so maybe he should be there instead.
Click to expand...

I agree. Hopefully we'll be rid of Rooney this summer which will leave us with Mata and Miki. Miki played out wide well for Dortmund and didn't look limited because of it. If we sign another pure 10, we should probably sell Mata, he's a good player for us, but if we insist on playing 443, I see little game time for a pure 10, let alone 2. At least from what I read James is equally acomplished outwide, whereas Mata does a good job for us, but is wasted out wide.
 
jderbyshire said:
Can James play as the most advanced of a midfield 3?

Herrera
James Pogba
​
I know some might say it's 'unbalanced' - but Herrera and especially Pogba are decent defensively.
Click to expand...

Yes, he did in few games for Madrid, playing in midfield 3 and also as right and left winger too.


https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/8...iga-2014-2015-Deportivo-La-Coruna-Real-Madrid
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/862085/Live/Spain-La-Liga-2014-2015-Real-Madrid-Elche
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/862141/Live/Spain-La-Liga-2014-2015-Real-Madrid-Athletic-Club
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/862125/Live/Spain-La-Liga-2014-2015-Granada-Real-Madrid
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/862174/Live/Spain-La-Liga-2014-2015-Levante-Real-Madrid
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/862155/Live/Spain-La-Liga-2014-2015-Real-Madrid-Rayo-Vallecano
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/862114/Live/Spain-La-Liga-2014-2015-Malaga-Real-Madrid
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/862189/Live/Spain-La-Liga-2014-2015-Eibar-Real-Madrid
 
If Rooney goes, Rodriguez could fill his place as one of the main marketing figureheads in the squad, and he'd be a big upgrade on the guy currently wearing our No.10 shirt. We'd have to pay a reasonably large fee, but his wages would almost certainly be lower than Rooney's so the operation wouldn't be that expensive.

This might well be a marketing signing rather than a football one. South America already has millions of United fans, especially in Colombia, and this might be an attempt to get that market locked down after a few years of poor performance.

I doubt Rodriguez would be our only signing in attack. He'd play a role in the team, for sure, but may be nothing more than a high-class bench-warmer, who paid for himself with shirt sales.
 
PepsiCola said:
Good post. Add in the fact there are plenty of Madrid 'squad' players who would improve us massively. Isco, Moratta, Varane, Ascensio, James, kovacic
Click to expand...
How many of those listed are actual squad players, varane's problem is his injury if he manages to stay fit he will start for madrid.
Asensio is their version of martial or rashford he is a squad player now but will be a starter in 1-2 years time. Morrata is a shitty striker, he is not at all better than what we already have. Is kovacic really that different from someone like perreira, i would not call isco a squad player either, james is the only one who is a squad player who can improve us but again would you rather spend 50-60mn on james or 100 on Griezmann, and the biggest consideration with james is we have to play a 2 man mf, why spend 100mn on pogba and then not even play to suit him best.
 
Hanky panky said:
30-35m euros ~25-30m pounds. In 2017 you can not buy even Fellaini with that price. Real is just paying 40 million+ euros from some 17 years old brazilian teenager. It's only dreaming if you think you can get James Rodriguez anywhere near that price. I would say 40-50 million euros if Real is desperate to sell. If not, then more. IF he's coming here, i would be little surprised if we get him under 50 million euros. Sometimes i feel people are always 5-10 years late when we talk about transfer fees.
Click to expand...

Madrid don't want to keep rodriguez, he wants to come to us, no one else seems interested, we should be setting the price here, if we don't play ball madrid are left with a player who is not wanted and is on decent wages. I think anything in excess of 30mn pounds will be poor business from us.
 
I don't mind him coming IF he comes together with Griezmann and at a good price (nothing more than 50m Euros). It is always good to have more options to call upon, especially if we qualify for the UCL and we need top quality in all positions in our squad. Assuming that Rooney goes, then our front 4 attacking positions in a 4231 will be a pick from James, Griezmann, Mkhi, Mata, Rashford, Martial and Lingard. We also can wait for Zlatan to return, so it is 8 players for 4 positions. That is great in terms of rotation, injury or calling them from the bench to change a game.

Besides, Adidas are most likely licking their lips at our no.10 and no.7 shirts being taken by James AND Griezmann.
 
Redo91 said:
I wouldn't say he was great. Like I said in the above post he didn't start all the time for Porto. As for Monaco he didn't exactly set the world alight in his final season there. He scored 9 and assisted 13 in the league. Maybe I'm being harsh but I'd expect more from a player worth what Real paid for him.

I'm not saying he wouldn't be an improvement on what we have already but considering we could potentially be getting Griezmann I don't see how he would fit in considering he is wasted anywhere except when played as a 10.
Click to expand...

His price tag has zero impact on his qualities as a player. He brings you 20 goals/assists a season even as a squad player which can be pushed to 25-30 goals/assists when part of a high quality first 11. He has fantastic set-piece delivery which means he is quite good out wide. Bear in mind that in the season he was favoured by Ancelotti he was out for 2 months with a metatarsal injury but still managed 13 goals and 13 assists.

He would probably be an upgrade on Mata within Mourinho's system. Mata is a great player but he is not dynamic, when he gets the ball you know that he is going to try to do short,quick passes to try to get through you. Whereas James is more physical and has an eye for a long pass.

I am not particularly keen on James Rodriguez signing, but he has the right profile for a Mourinho system.
 
Successful said:
Thing is they replaced them with even better players. Real Madrid is not stocking players. They want the very hottest and best ones. Players like Sneijder and Robben didn't really perform well at the club and Negredo is nowhere near their standard. That's the truth.
Click to expand...

I get you but it doesn't change the point I'm making: that a player is dumped by Madrid or didn't perform well there does not mean such a player will be bad at any other top club including United. We can't write off James just because of an average spell at Madrid. It's not enough basis to emphatically conclude he will be a disaster at United.
 
Not sure why people are comparing him to Di Maria, this is different. Di Maria wanted pay rise so was told to do one. James is pissed off as he isn't getting game time and he is subbed out in every game. So Di Maria was booted out (sort of), James wants out.
 
Just like with the Mata and Mkhi signings, I'll be very disappointed in this transfer. I didn't see the point in signing Mata when we had Kagawa, I didn't see the point in signing Mkhi when we had Mata, and it's the same for James. We don't need another player of this ilk! We need someone with good ball retention and can dribble in attack. We have enough "weak" players who always want to come inside, can't dribble, and just generally play the same.
 
I wouldn't be that excited about him coming to Manchester, especially as I am not sure if he would have the level of motivation I expect from our players. Nevertheless, I definitely think he could be an upgrade over plenty of our options in attack and there's little doubt we need a major improvement in terms of our set pieces - James could be a solution to that issue. Then again, I can't really see a setup of him, Griezmann, Rashford and Pogba with all four playing at their best positions, but that's down to Jose.
 
Seems like a luxury number 10 who isn't good enough to justify the luxury. Not seen enough of him but that's what reckon.
 
I thought James was overrated when he went to Real and his mixed spell there didn't surprise me. Talented of course, but just don't see him as the kind of player to change our fortunes.
 
Won't any De Gea deal with Madrid involve us getting Rodriguez at a reasonable price?
 
Mainoldo said:
But Lukaku is better than Belotti! Griezmann I can understand.
Click to expand...

He maybe is, But when you are signing Lukaku you are basically using him as the focal point like we have done with Zlatan this year and I think we need to move away from that. I'd much rather play with Griezmann just behind Belotti. Griezmann and Lukaku would not work.
 
Last edited:
Murder on Zidane's Floor said:
Why?
Click to expand...

He doesn't score in the big games and often goes missing which is a huge concern. If we are playing in the CL we cannot afford for the focal point in attack to not impose himself on games. And if we sign Lukaku we will be playing the same formation as this year most likely. I'd prefer we played with Griezmann and another striker next season in a different set up.
 
@JoaquinJoaquin Exactly, when you buy Lukaku you have to cater your whole system to him, and he's not nearly good enough to build a team around if you have the aspirations United supposedly have.
 
I don't follow Madrid so I'm not sure where he plays for them or where he fits in at United.

But surely Jose can't fit both Rodriguez and Griezmann into the same team next season.

I do trust Jose in the transfer market through so it's going to be very interesting to see his team next season.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.