How much of an impact can James Rodriguez have at Real Madrid?
By Hasan Karim
With news circulating that Colombian international James Rodriguez will remain at Real Madrid this season, we look at how the attacking midfielder could impact a side he hasn’t played for in over 700 days.
At his best, James Rodriguez is quite easily one of the very best in the world of attacking midfielders. With many weapons in his arsenal, the player is a capable long ranger shooter and dead-ball specialist. Alongside this, his creativity is fantastic as he is capable of playing dangerous crosses or pin-point passes to split a defence – we’ve seen it all from James when he was playing at Real Madrid and during his loan spell at Bayern Munich.
James has long been a fan-favourite at the Bernabeu, even after leaving for two seasons on loan. During his initial stint in the Spain, the midfielder enjoyed some very impressive campaigns. His debut season saw him produce 13 goals and 13 assists in La Liga, his second season saw a drop in appearances although he still produced 15 goal contributions in 17 La Liga appearances and in his final season before departing on loan for Bayern, he scored/assisted 14 goals from 13 La Liga appearances.
Despite not seeing as many minutes under Zinedine Zidane, the Colombian still showed what a player he can be. His final season in Spain saw him play an average of 3.4 key passes per 90, the most of any player at the club that year. His form continued over to Bavaria where James continued to show solid output under both Carlo Ancelotti, Jupp Heynckes and Niko Kovac. Across his two year stint with the Bundesliga champions, James was averaging a goal contribution every 99 minutes in all competitions.
Next. James Rodriguez could stay at Real Madrid. dark
Whilst the Colombian did encounter issues with fitness towards the end of his stint in Germany, his statistics certainly did not take too much of a hit. Despite being limited in his game time, he still lead the way in some aspects. In the Bundesliga, no player in the league was able to match his key passes per 90 number of 4. This was again a common trend during his time in Germany, the season before he had the best assist frequency of any player in Europes top 5 leagues with 1000 minutes or more played, he made more final third passes than any player in the Bundesliga in 17/18 with 449.
For comparison with the current crop at Real Madrid, James boasts a superior goals/assists ratio per game than both Isco and Asensio. Even with his stats from last season, in which he barely got any minutes, his 7 goals and 3 assists would have ranked as the third highest goal contributions in terms of league play at Real Madrid. Benzema leading the way by far with 21 goals and 6 assists followed by Bale on 8 goals and 3 assists, James would have been just behind with 7 goals and 3 assists ahead of Sergio Ramos with 6 goals and 1 assist.
Considering just how much Real struggled to create chances and also score last season, James’ output both in the way of goals and assists should be welcomed back with open arms. Real endured their worst scoring drought ever as well as one of their lowest scoring seasons to date.
Not only do Madrid needs his output but with Marco Asensio seemingly out for the entirety of next season, James could very well slot right into position on Madrid’s right-hand side. This is something that if often debated as many feel that Rodriguez cannot play on the right, however, that is not necessarily true.
In fact, between the years 2015 to present, James has bolstered solid numbers when utilised on the right hand side. His goals per 90, expected goals per 90, expected assists per 90 are all higher when he plays on the right wing than any other area he’s played in. Whilst the sample size may be small, the Colombian has shown capability to function off of the right and puts up more than good enough numbers to back that up. (Per UnderStat.)
Given the need for goals and the injury issue of Marco Asensio, Zidane is in need of the Colombia international. Whilst he may have tossed him aside before, the Frenchman would be foolish to do so now. Few players in the squad can match his output when he is at his best and he has shown even away from the Bernabeu, he is capable.