Jose Pekerman feels James Rodriguez Performance better last Season
Jose Pekerman reckons that James Rodriguez could have done with a bit more support from Zinedine Zidane last season.
Zidane chose not to put Rodriguez even in the reserves for the European Cup final which Madrid clinched to remain the continental champions.
Obviously Rodriguez with his form running into that massive contest was not expected to be in the starting XI, but, considering his stature as a player especially internationally, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind of him being there in the match-day squad of the Blancos and possibly getting a few minutes late in the game too.
But he was excluded altogether and wasn’t even on the bench and it wasn’t the first time in the season that Zidane didn’t show trust on the Colombian. Right through the season, the striker played lesser no. of minutes than everyone thought he would.
Pekerman, however, didn’t blame Zidane for ill-treating the player.
As per Pekerman, nobody from outside can say how many games should the coach give to which player and which player he should rotate more or less because that’s something which the coach himself knows the best. He is in that position, he is with the squad and he knows which players to play for how much time.
And even from Rodriguez’s point of view, he wouldn’t say that his Madrid stint has got him nothing. He has become a winner there, getting so many titles under his belt and the titles definitely count for a Footballer and personally also, his contributions have not been disappointing overall. He has had some great games in the last 3 years.
But, during this particular season, if he had been backed by the coach more, he would have been in a better frame of mind and might have performed better than he did.
