Marco's been playing pretty regularly at Thun, including Europa league qualifiers. Sure, it's not the Bundesliga but it would be ridiculously harsh to paint his European trip as a failure
It has been a massive failure. He has spent the majority of his time injured. He left Australasia as the best player and he signed for a big European club. He hasn't played at all in the Bundesliga, barely played in the 2. Bundesliga and now it is questionable whether he is really in the starting XI in the Swiss Super League. I think we all had bigger hopes for Rojas and I think those hopes could yet be achieved. For now we have to say it was a failure though.
He has been unlucky with injuries but that is football isn't it? Obviously the time in Germany was a failure, but my thinking is that his time at Thun hasn't been. He has had injuries there too but has generally been playing quite often when fit. Thun are a decent side and the Swiss league isn't bad. If anything, he's finally reached a point where it looks like the situation is turning around and he could make a fist of staying in Europe as a professional at a decent level. Why come back to the A League now? It would have made sense after a year of not playing in Germany, but I would think now he'd like to see what his options in Europe are when his contract runs out before coming home.
If TransferMarkt is accurate with Marco's injury history, he has missed 53 games (about 2 HAL seasons) of games due to injuries since signing for VfB
He may missed them here as well.Question is, would you go to VFB/Thun doctor/physio or one here?
Exactly. Also, comparing number of games missed to HAL season length is a bit odd, seeing as Euro teams generally play a lot more games. Time, rather than games, missed makes more sense.
Anyway, I'm not saying Marco's transfer to Europe has been a roaring success because clearly it hasn't. But that doesn't make it a failure either. It can be in between.
He left here as a great A League player but he could have just as easily had injuries and a corresponding drop in form here too if he hadn't gone. And then he'd be getting paid less and be further away from establishing a career in Europe than he currently is.
Yeah, he may have missed games here. I do find it interesting that often players go from the HAL and pick up injuries more frequently than they did here - the amount of games/training intensity most likely the reason. Compared to HAL seasons as context, does 212 days make any difference? (the last injury was 35 days but missed only 3 games due to winter break, Thun had no games from middle of Dec until early Feb, so time can also not make as much sense)
I am no way advocating he MUST come back, he got 45min over the weekend (first since injury) and in that period helped Thun overturn a 1-0 deficit and won 2-1. He is still contracted to VfB and seems fairly settled in Switzerland. Interestingly Marc Janko is top scorer.