What's the problem with James?

Rafa couldn't get the best out of him. Frequent rumors of him enjoying Madrid's bustling nightlife. The police chase incident.

Now reports are coming out that Zidane is not happy with him. Thinks he is overweight and lacking fitness. Toni Kroos too.

What's the deal? We all know what a crack he is. I really hope it's not his attitude.

Could you please share with us those "frequent rumors" and "reports"? Cause for the life of me I can't find anything.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2607797-zinedine-zidane-reportedly-losing-patience-with-james-rodriguez-at-real-madrid

http://www.sportskeeda.com/football/zinedine-zidane-believes-real-madrid-players-not-perfectly-fit

http://www.sport-english.com/en/news/liga-bbva/zidane-shocked-physical-state-real-madrid-stars-4810419

Reading murican medias quoting sport, catalan newspaper, to get infos abt real madrid

i'm not going to say the story is or isn't true. but after one game, its difficult to say whether zidane is losing patience with him or not; unless these reporters have an insight to zidane's training regiments and comments. thing is, every manager has favorites in every position. zidane may just prefer isco, and it may have just been a one game thing

as far as the news, the media is smart; they walk a tight rope between lies, half truths, manipulation. which is why they use words like "reportedly". players may have spoken to one of their media friends off the record, and say "the coach wants our physical condition to improve"; the media in turn looks at certain players who may be out of shape, known for living the night life, controversial, etc and reach the conclusion that the coach isn't happy with said player. or see a coach make his players jog for a long stretch and reach the conclusion he thinks they're not fit

it could be true, but nobody on here knows. after only a handful of training sessions and one game, i doubt the writers of the story are super confident in it themselves. he could just prefer another player, it could have to do with the formation, james may not be a fit, he may just not like james at all, we don't know yet....we'll have a clear view as the season goes on

Well, we do know the love of cars and speed is true!!!!

Mr Nick09 wrote:Reading murican medias quoting sport, catalan newspaper, to get infos abt real madrid

It's getting tiresome really. American media can't even report properly on their own sports.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Reading murican medias quoting sport, catalan newspaper, to get infos abt real madrid

Taking it with a grain of salt given the sources of course, but interesting how you feel the need to ridicule others for harmless things.

Nonetheless, eyes only he doesn't look very fit the times we've seen him with his shirt off recently. Not like the "reports" of him being overweight are being fabricated. Doesn't really matter where they are coming from.

futbol_bill wrote:Well, we do know the love of cars and speed is true!!!!

yup, we can't come to any conclusions based on that though. he isn't the only guy who loves cars and speed on this team. it may have been a one game thing or a tactical decision. if he is trying to promote competition between isco and james ala higuain vs benzema, i'm all for it. competition might help motivate them

h, you need to understand that Madrid-based newspapers, AS in particular, would write until they run out of ink the second they sense the slightest unrest at Real Madrid. Something this big wouldn't go unnoticed if it was true.

Regarding James, I really don't know about the overweight thing, I certainly didn't notice anything the last time I saw him play, which was less than a week ago. About him partying all night, remember that AS and Marca wrote 5 articles about him ignoring a police siren, how do you think they would do if they found out he was partying recklessly? I just read an article saying that he might start on Sunday.

I'm sure you meant well, and I thank you for your effort and time. But for the time being, you certainly don't need to worry. There seems nothing of the sort going on

The Demon of Carthage wrote:h, you need to understand that Madrid-based newspapers, AS in particular, would write until they run out of ink the second they sense the slightest unrest at Real Madrid. Something this big wouldn't go unnoticed if it was true.

Regarding James, I really don't know about the overweight thing, I certainly didn't notice anything the last time I saw him play, which was less than a week ago. About him partying all night, remember that AS and Marca wrote 5 articles about him ignoring a police siren, how do you think they would do if they found out he was partying recklessly? I just read an article saying that he might start on Sunday.

I'm sure you meant well, and I thank you for your effort and time. But for the time being, you certainly don't need to worry. There seems nothing of the sort going on

lol I definitely understand believe me. I'm not trying to incite unrest. He is a little overweight as I said eyes only.

Fact of the matter is he is not performing to the levels we know he is capable of. This could be based on a variety of factors, or even a combination:

- He did not get along well with Rafa
- Playing out of position
- *Potentially* overweight

I'm sure you can't possibly tell me, straight up, that James is performing at a world class level? If so, then we certainly would agree to disagree.

Weight stories are basically always bullshit, well except for the Brazilians.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_pK7QNILJt/?taken-by=jamesrodriguez10

This was posted 3 weeks ago. Wouldn't call him overweight.

hrealmadrid wrote:

Mr Nick09 wrote:Reading murican medias quoting sport, catalan newspaper, to get infos abt real madrid

Taking it with a grain of salt given the sources of course, but interesting how you feel the need to ridicule others for harmless things.

Nonetheless, eyes only he doesn't look very fit the times we've seen him with his shirt off recently. Not like the "reports" of him being overweight are being fabricated. Doesn't really matter where they are coming from.

i am not ridiculing you, i just think it funny with context of another poster in the gen sec who tried to be a madrid historian using murican medias and it did not go very well...

Sport is essentially dramatizing a known madrid story that Zidane found our fitness level was low, and he changed the daily training to include increased physical work in the gym before getting on the pitch. as far as James, he took 3 months off between getting injured, being upset with rafa not playing him etc...

hrealmadrid wrote:
lol I definitely understand believe me. I'm not trying to incite unrest. He is a little overweight as I said eyes only.

Fact of the matter is he is not performing to the levels we know he is capable of. This could be based on a variety of factors, or even a combination:

- He did not get along well with Rafa
- Playing out of position
- *Potentially* overweight

I'm sure you can't possibly tell me, straight up, that James is performing at a world class level? If so, then we certainly would agree to disagree.

No, no. You must've misunderstood what I said. I didn't talk about him performance-wise. I only talked about the logically implausible points you raised in your original post:

1. Being at loggerheads with Zidane
2. Partying all night
3. Being overweight and lacking fitness

About his performance, I wasn't happy with him under Rafa most of the time (World Class? dear god no, he wasn't even close), especially post-injury. But last week he played well, though not as good as Isco, but still. Let's hope he carries on and hopefully he'll regain the form he had under Carlo.

James was marginalized by Rafa and his form/confidence is low. Pretty simple. It takes time to build up form for guys who are technical/require rhythm. He needs to play. If after 6 weeks of playing he's not up to form, then there's a real problem... as Wenger rightly said a few years back, it takes a player between 4-6 weeks to get himself right after a long period of not playing.

Seen something like this on Facebook and just laughed when I saw Sport.

He's definitely not overweight but it's obvious his form has dropped. I don't believe there is any problem with him with Zidane or any other player with Zidane. Just their media trying to stir up nonsense that isn't there.

Always felt too slow for me and this season even worse, hope the rumours arent true.

Also his problems are pretty simple imo, the 4-3-3 formation and the fact he will never be able to take bale or ronaldo's spot in that formation. Competing with Isco (who does a little more dirty work and pyschicaly a bit stronger than him but much less vision) made everything worse for James.

I think it is a lost war for James tbh, unless he really starts working hard to learn playing as CM. Isco is better suited to the LCM role, better positioning and doesn't go forward as soon as he wants to.

These are images of Zidane yesterday upset at the way james was behaving during the game, not warming up when he should

His attitude absolutely stinks. Such a child ffs

@falcaopunch does he act like this for Colombia too?

No, I'm afraid not. Not sure what his deal is atm but you could say I'm very disappointed with what he's doing both on and off the field.

Disgusting. What's wrong with these people? They get benched a couple of games and all hell breaks loose. Be professional dammit.

Z should've been firm and ruthless after he saw his reluctance to warm up. He shouldn't have let him in.

James is entitled, he is a galactico, he was signed for 80 mil to be a Madrid star, being on the bench is not his natural.

And let this be a reminder that Benitez was mocked and clown for his relationship with James. Sometimes we blame the wrong people ...

James needs to understand that the 80m we spent for him will not guarantee him a starting spot, especially under Z.

As to why people aren't criticizing Z for benching James even though Rafa was criticized for the same thing. It's easy. Z is winning while playing beautiful attacking football, with ten goals in two games. Rafa benched James and still played like crap even against scrubs.