Alex Alejandro "A-Rod" Rodriguez Gorrin

So, WSW just resigned Dimas for another year. Another Spanish DM/CM in the A League, good enough for a team coming 3rd to renew his contract. Here's a bit of a comparison between Dimas and A-Rod:

Minutes played:

Dimas - 1676

A-Rod - 1315

Passing accuracy:

Dimas - 84.9%

A-Rod - 83.2%

Passes per 90 mins:

Dimas - 64.9

A-Rod - 56.5

Tackles:

Dimas - 30

A-Rod - 27

Tackles won %:

Dimas - 65.2%

A-Rod - 84.4%

Interceptions:

Dimas - 41

A-Rod - 40

Assists:

Dimas - 1

A-Rod - 2

Chances created:

Dimas - 29

A-Rod - 15

Fouls committed:

Dimas - 41

A-Rod - 19

Dimas is 33yo, A-Rod is 22yo. Dimas is a slightly more accurate passer, passes the ball more often, and creates more chances. A-Rod concedes far less fouls, is more successful at tackling, makes more interceptions per 90 mins, and has created more goals, but overall on stats alone it's not like there's an obvious gulf in quality. In fact, defensively A-Rod appears to be the superior player. And he's only in his second year of senior football with plenty of time ahead of him, while Dimas is in the twilight of his career.

But if you believe some people on here, A-Rod isn't good enough for the A League.

If Dimas was available for us, would we sign him ahead of A-Rod ?

Im happy to have A -Rod re-signed

I don't think anyone genuinely doesn't think A-Rod isn't good enough for the A-League - please direct me to those nutters.

The question is around whether he's a good use of an import spot. That is debatable, imo, but I'm fine with him re-signing as we already have half the team to re-build; i'd like to keep our midfield consistent.

A lot of WSW fans also questioned the Dimas re-signing.

The Robot!

Awesome

Watto with a bad miss though. Couldn't finish a sandwich and all that...

You won't convince me he meant to flick that one on to Bonevacia

Fudge - wrong thread

I just said he has ranged from crap to average. Crap as in in some games it looked like he didn't know what shirt we play in. Other times I have seen some talent in the guy. The fact he can't make our starting line up at times tells the story. Sometimes you don't even know he is playing. Ideally an import needs to be playing. However, if he ain't soaking up a chunk of $ then I don't have a problem with keeping the lad as it is pretty hard to attract out allotment of even average imports.

I thought first half last night he was outstanding both with ball at feet and defending!
Second half still alright but no one was spectacular with the ball at feet in the second half bit defended well as a unit.

Rodriguez is under-appreciated because he plays that Lia-like role in defensive midfield.

If you're not scoring, assisting, or making last-ditch tackles, people don't notice you.

The stats show that Rodriguez is as good as anyone at his position.

Being only 22, he's still likely to get better.

Given our history of so many of our import signings being rubbish, we should hang on this good one.

Nonsense that you can't stand out playing holding mid

Riera is case and point.

Definitely still noticed Riera more than A-Rod against Sydney, despite Riera in theory supposedly being the deeper player.

I thought last night was another top quality performance from him. Second only to Riera in terms of passes made for us, best passing accuracy for us (2nd only to Tavares on the pitch), most tackles in our midfield, most interceptions in our midfield, 100% duels won, and once again showed the quality of his touch. He started the move that Roly scored off by managing to evade two Sydney players pressing him and threading a pass to Doyle (annoyingly the highlights only show it from when Doyle received it).

In case people can't tell, I really rate A-Rod...

The people who count like them. No I'm not talking about myself, but about the coaching staff.

So is he still in contract negotiations or has been re-signed, but not announced, or has he got a better offer?

If we want to play possession and quick transitions, he seems like a good player for that.

I guess he may want more than is in the kitty- especially if there are rumoured to be some big signings coming in?

We don't really want to end up in a Boxall situation- but that said it's good for NZ football that Boxall and Boyd are in pro-teams overseas.

There is an option for an extension who knows if it how it's triggered.

I hope we had learnt from a Solomon Islander that this is not the way to do business 

Apparently Powel was on that sort of deal and it got extended automatically against WSW.

Surely we knew Tatori's extension was going to happen and played him because we didn't mind invoking it?

Never mind that he didn't actually say that

Stats from Sydney game.

Tackles
Riera – 1
Bonevacia – 0
Rodriguez – 4

Intercepts
Riera – 4
Bonevacia – 0
Rodriguez – 6

Touches
Riera – 62
Bonevacia – 58
Rodriguez – 58

Passing accuracy
Riera – 77.6%
Bonevacia – 65.7%
Rodriguez – 84.4%

Adds nothing.

I would have, but I got no idea what that stat means.

I kinda hate football stats apart from goals scored

Yeah it is 50/50 situations:

http://optasports.com/news-area/blog-optas-event-d...

Vukovic is the greatest keeper the A-league has seen.

Thomas Broich is also an appalling atacking mid with only 17 goals in 150 games

I personally rate but that is just from watching him and forming an opinion. Old school as I have never played Football Manager

All of this is fine, but there is no context here at all.  And you absolutely cannot determine a player's impact purely from statistics.  All of Bonevacia, Riera and Krishna have at times had genuine match winning impact.  I have not seen that from A-Rod and his general all round play does not impress me enough to think that we should not take the chance on signing a better player in that position (given that there is a significant opportunity cost to holding onto any import).  As I have said before I think he is a tidy passer but really he needs to be more than that to make it worthwhile to hold on to him.

I think we can do better with out imports and if we are to start competing again we need to do better.

That only depends on how much the 'Nix are prepared to spend.

Squawka

Bunch of stats in the link above. Can filter also totals, per game and per 90. 

I watched him more than usual yesterday given the recent conversation on here, and was very impressed, thought he was excellent. 

Yes, A-Rod isn't a matchwinner. I don't think anyone said he was. But what he does do is lift the team in general through his ability to pass and read the game from midfield. He helps us control possession and tempo, which is important for the way Ernie wants to play. Just because he hasn't scored or assisted matchwinning goals or made last ditch saving tackles doesn't mean he's not worth an import slot.

As I see it you have a salary cap, a limited squad size, and a limited number of imports. To get a good squad means maximising the value of your salary cap and import slots.  Not all imports have to be the sort of player who will change a game single-handedly if your squad has enough of those anyway. Teams need workhorses, and there's nothing wrong with an import being a workhorse.

Take Kosta as an example. If we had 2 marquee imports and 3 others on decent coin we probably wouldn't have been able to fit him under the cap, but he's a proven A League player and I think we'd all rather have him than Sarpong, for instance. There's a big opportunity cost with every player under the salary cap system, not just imports. The attitude that imports should be the 5 best players in the squad means that you might miss out on a more balanced squad in general.

Just to be clear, personally I think he is better than just a squad player, but even if you disagree with that it doesn't mean he's not worth keeping as a squad player