James Rodriguez

[jamrock]

No way. You can't minimize Cristiano's work since he's been there.
But Di Maria was probably the second best offensive player, I agree.

Yeah i meant second, my mistake

 

[Sumlit]

Madrid sense?

 

[ViscaBarca914]

Meh. I'm not even worried.
Bale's transfer made more of an impact for me last season.
They get rid of their most important players two seasons in a row and then splash out ridiculous money. It's pretty disgusting tbh.
But overall I'm of the belief that now with Kroos and James it's going to be hard to find balance in the mid field.
I won't be surprised if they look great at first but suffer towards the later half of the season.
I have a really good feeling about this season. Something that was missing in the last.

I did like James though =\.....sorry kid.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Sumlit, where did you get your numbers?

 

[Flavia]

Well, after Barça snatched Suarez from them, it was obvious perez would get someone else.

 

[ViscaBarca914]

Very true.
That being the case though, I'd rather them have James than Suarez every single second of every day of every week
Suarez is one scary mofo on the pitch even without his fangs. I remember crossing my fingers last season that they didn't get Suarez as well.

 

[Sumlit]

Sumlit, where did you get your numbers?

I couldn't find a compendium of all number in the 3 major season tournaments for all those years, so I got them from Di Maria's wiki page. Might not be accurate, it is wiki, but I tried to find other sources and didn't.

 

[DonAndres]

I expect that he'll be a hit at Madrid as an individual but the change in the squad associated with his transfer (and Kroos) will ultimately be a negative one.

James is a great player. South American flair, speed, wicked left foot, and his movement/fluidity is generally aesthetic. Teams and fans love a classic #10 and that's what he is. Not to mention that he appeals on a marketing/popularity basis as well with his good looks and 'Colombian prodigal hero' aura. You can't not like him both as a footballer and a person. I expect he'll put up great numbers and have some notable performances to cement his place in the Madrid team. He is a textbook Galactico signing but I don't think he'll be one of the ones they kept on a conveyor belt a la Ozil, Isco, Illarramendi, etc. who just come in and are disregarded after a few years.

The negative aspect is what this means for Di Maria. It's not just his goals/assist numbers that were significant, he was intangibly crucial for the team. He was the attacking engine, the transition player, the defensive workhorse, and his output engaged guys like Ronaldo/Benzema and Messi for Argentina. RM will be defensively weaker and not as deadly of an attacking unit. Good news for us.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Transfermarkt had this:
13-14: 11 goals 26 assists
12-13: 18 goals 6 assists
11-12: 17 goals 7 assists
10-11: 19 goals 8 assists

Which seems really weird to me, I don't think that's true. Whoscored only has La Liga and UCL, but it had

13-14: 7 goals, 22 assists
12-13: 7 goals, 10 assists
11-12: 7 goals, 16 assists
10-11: 9 goals, 14 assists

Squawka had only La Liga and CL in 13-14, but nevertheless

13-14: 7 goals, 22 assists

Either way, there's a general agreement that Di Maria's inconsistent (just look in his thread back before last season), and I don't think he could replicate last season again

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

I want to see him cry again after he loses to Neymar.

 

[xavisionary]

I've decided, this is the day that football finally died. In ten years time, your club will perish if it cannot spend £100 million in every window.

 

[GoobiePls]

I've decided, this is the day that football finally died. In ten years time, your club will perish if it cannot spend £100 million in every window.

But they have spend 100m+ only once more than Barca have

 

[Luftstalag14]

I've decided, this is the day that football finally died. In ten years time, your club will perish if it cannot spend £100 million in every window.

But they can afford to do that. Real Madrid, relying on its huge marketability (No.1 football club or sports club in the world), will awlays be able to get the money/funds/investment they need from their investors to keep spending like this. That's just the nature of that club.

 

[Sumlit]

Transfermarkt had this:
13-14: 11 goals 26 assists
12-13: 18 goals 6 assists
11-12: 17 goals 7 assists
10-11: 19 goals 8 assists

Which seems really weird to me, I don't think that's true. Whoscored only has La Liga and UCL, but it had

13-14: 7 goals, 22 assists
12-13: 7 goals, 10 assists
11-12: 7 goals, 16 assists
10-11: 9 goals, 14 assists

Squawka had only La Liga and CL in 13-14, but nevertheless

13-14: 7 goals, 22 assists

Either way, there's a general agreement that Di Maria's inconsistent (just look in his thread back before last season), and I don't think he could replicate last season again

I delved into Marca archives, and they too have different stats. Sometimes less than Whoscored, sometimes more. Really hard to quantify assists stats through the years when everyone has different criteria for what an assist actually is.

Di Maria is definitely and up and down type of player, but his contributions to RM have been pretty steady in his 4 years. He just had his very best season and was paramount in the team's success, perhaps more so than anyone else. To replace him with as of yet, lets be real, a pretty much unknown quantity outright in James is very very risky.

 

[DB10]

Don't think Barca can hold the moral high ground concerning transfer fees. Both teams have paid out high transfer fees, Real of course more consistently over the years. It's the rest of La Liga who should be weeping.

Real don't act stupid any when it comes to selling players, they make good profit these days from selling ie... Ozil paying for half of Bale's fee. Di Maria will likely do the same for James..Kroos was a bargain.