Somehow Coutinho is viewed as a saviour and James Rodriguez as a flop - and I can't see why
The idea of replacing Mesut Ozil has been floated long before his troubles with Emery this season.
It's nothing new - the German hasn't really produced since signing a bumper deal in 2018. The wages are not his fault and you can see why he doesn't want to leave, however, that's a subject for another piece.
Rather, I wanted to talk about two popular choices as Ozil's replacements: Philipe Coutinho and James Rodriguez. Somehow, the former is viewed as the messiah and the latter as a washout and I can't see why.
Neither are doing particularly well at the moment and look surplus to requirements at Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. Both have been shipped out on loan, ironically, both to Bayern Munich.
However, Coutinho's admittedly most productive spell was his time at Liverpool, where he averaged a goal or an assist every other game. Even then he didn't pass the eye test for me: erratic shooter and not a good enough creator to be a mercurial 'ten' in the Ozil category.
Since joining Barca his numbers have taken an almighty tumble: just 26 goal contributions over 68 games. Better than one in three but not by much.
Rodriguez, in the meantime, has managed to keep his numbers at Coutinho's best level (read: Liverpool level) for five seasons straight (3 at Real and 2 at Bayern Munich).
We don't know how well he'll do in the Premier League of course, if he ever joins one of the teams there but it's not even a contest for me as to which player of the two should replace Ozil. Coutinho looks spent and his best level was viewed as expendable in an admittedly very good Liverpool team.
James looks like he needs a coach to give him regular game time to shine. He still manages to be decent despite not getting that in different measure for the last five years.
Comments