It’s no secret that things haven’t been going very well with the Colombian national team. In the last international break, they were first defeated 3-0 at home to Uruguay, and then travelled to Ecuador, where they suffered a 6-1 loss.
Several people have been blamed for their poor form, especially their manager, Carlos Queiroz, and their biggest star, James Rodriguez.
So as Colombian legend Carlos Valderrama was interviewed by Win Sports, he blamed the coach for not using the Everton star in the right position.
“I’m going to be direct… James Rodríguez in the Colombian team plays as a right winger. James Rodríguez is not a right winger. When?” started Valderrama (via Marca).
“So he, for respecting a system, for respecting a coaching staff, remains as the right winger. Do you know how many times James Rodríguez touches the ball in the Colombia team? Count them and tell me and then tell me that I know, I have them counted. Count… Watch the game and count.
“It’s that James Rodríguez isn’t a right winger, James Rodríguez is the ten of the Colombian team and not two games ago, two World Cups ago. They missed goals and missed passes to goals, do you know what they missed? He’s the one who creates football in the Colombian team, they don’t create football, why in these two games how many scoring chances did we have? Goal chances, I’m not talking about making crosses, throwing a cross at Duván, no. Goal plays, ‘man on man’, count them and tell me.”
“But not now, now they put him as the right winger. So we have two wingers who generate football, James Rodríguez and Juan Guillermo Cuadrado.
“If the number ten doesn’t create, if the number eight doesn’t create football, we don’t make goal plays and we don’t create football, which is the problem that the national team has now.”
Carlos Valderrama is probably wrong twice. Firstly because James Rodriguez can play on the right side, as he’s been proving pretty well at Everton. Secondly, the heat-maps show he’s been playing centrally for Colombia than he does for the Toffees.
Still, a legend’s voice also draws a lot of attention, and with Carlos Queiroz close to being sacked from the national team, Valderrama’s heavy words will definitely have some weight on the manager’s situation.
