After a flying start to life at Everton, things have hit the buffers slightly for James Rodriguez in recent weeks.
An injury picked up courtesy of a heavy challenge from Virgil van Dijk in the Merseyside derby appears to have scuppered his momentum and taken the shine off an excellent first few weeks on Merseyside.
The international break, then, should have provided the Colombian star with the chance to kick off and get things up and running again.
That, though, has not been the case. Instead, Rodriguez has found himself at the centre of the criticism for his country’s failings.
A 6-1 defeat to Ecuador last night was another low blow and the Everton man, who captained the side and scored their only goal in the game, is receiving most of the attention.
Gol Caracol start us off, saying that James’ talent was ‘conspicuous by his absence’ and that he ‘ended up being an easy reference for rivals on duty’ in the game.
El Tiempo go even further, describing this game as potentially the worst that Rodriguez has played for Colombia ‘by far’.
They ask ‘what is James’ problem?’ claiming that the Everton star, ‘does not adapt to the system’, before giving him a score of three for his performance.
Then there’s FutBol Red, who have decided to run a poll among their readers to decide what is going on with the midfielder.
They asked ‘What do you think happened to the left-hander in Everton and the National Team?’ and the results make for damning reading.
53% of their readers say they expected more, although 58% also said that his performance is normal, labelling him a player ‘of sparks that has not been consolidated for years’.
23% believe he no longer cares and ‘is no longer motivated’ by sports.
Only 11% now think he’s a key player, with half of the respondents saying he should still be called up but demanding he improve in future.
All in all, it makes for pretty grim reading for the Everton man, who is probably looking forward to getting back to Liverpool and the warm, welcoming arms of Carlo Ancelotti.
