According to Defensa Central, Everton playmaker James Rodriguez is becoming unsettled in England and may be increasingly unhappy with life on Merseyside.
To compound matters for the Toffees, the article detailed that Atletico Madrid may look to bring the playmaker back to Spain in an audacious summer move.
Having enjoyed a scintillating start to life at Everton, Rodriguez’s productivity has since dropped off over the winter. The Colombian had three goals and three assists from his first five Premier League games, but such productivity has tailed off significantly since October (Transfermarkt).
His overall record is still indicative of his effectiveness in the final third, but the disparity in where those goals and assists are coming from is indicative of a lack of consistency.
As noted by HITC, Carlo Ancelotti has shifted Rodriguez into a more central role in recent games due to a tendency for him to be exposed defensively when deployed on the wing.
In the middle of the park as a creative engine, the support structure offered by more defensively-minded midfield counterparts reduces the defensive responsibility to Rodriguez’ game.
Defensa Central added that the physicality and injuries experienced in the league is a source of unhappiness for the 29-year-old, but bizarrely claimed that the English weather is another key factor in his unhappiness.
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Taken off with an unspecified ‘knock’ against Fulham, Rodriguez has certainly learned firsthand that English football’s robustness and aggression towards creative dynamos (think of the foul record against the likes of Jack Grealish and Wilfried Zaha last season) is a feature of of Premier League football.
The weather on Merseyside surely pales in comparison to invigorating Mediterranean sun, but given his reported issues with Zinedine Zidane, Defensa’s pro-Madrid links render the source’s bolder claims as less credible.
