Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

Of the current squad, we need to secure A-Rod ahead of anyone

why? 

Riera isn't getting any younger and Alex is the closest we have to him.

He plays football in a very simple way. Simple pass and move, always busting a gut to make himself available for a pass, high workrate and good on the ball.  Still only 22 and he could be the DM to build the team around for years to come.

Quite agree, he is a ready replacement for Riera. I like his simple passing game, although he did try a couple of long range through the gap ones that if they had come off....and they nearly did, we would have been away with one on ones.

We'd have to be confident that we would get a return on that investment either by selling him or by him staying for years. Anyone know if he likes it here or would prefer to return to Europe? If he stays long enough he could help with the AW DM issues as well.

Potentially our version of Sergio Busquets (minus the being a total knobend though). Screen the back 4. Collect ball, draw defender, play simple pass. If a teammate gets into trouble be there to give him an option to pass to. Not flashy but if you want to control possession and dictate the tempo of the game you need someone like that on the pitch.

Watch a Phoenix game at double speed and you see how much A-Rod does.  It's quite impressive.

I think a lot of people have been critical of him as he tends to give the ball away trying to play that cute pass in the attacking third. I love the amount of work that guy does and if he keeps it simple, he's superb!

Hope he likes it here and sign him long term. Gee then he may become an All White!

I think he has better vision than Roly playing higher also.  He doesn't get to show it much and is hit and miss with his little back heels and through balls, but he is looking for them more than Roly is.  I have this probably unfair perception of Roly as the individually skilled Dutch player, with Alex as the interplaying, pass and move Spanish styled player.  Would love to see him get real license to box to box with Riera behind him, but it's been tried and seems to get too crowded with Mcg and Roly fairly narrow in front of him and the chemistry doesn't seem to work too well.

I dunno, I just feel that there is something potentially special there, that's not really gelling.

There's been plenty of our games I'd have rather watched at double speed ....

Whereas with some players you might need to watch at half speed!

I'm undecided on A-Rod. In short it comes down to whether you think his import spot can be better used.

I like a lot of what A-Rod does. He is an okay marker, good supporting and defensive work rate, etc but one of the issues for me is that he basically never plays a forward pass. It seems to be side ways or backwards. Ridenton at least tries to play between the lines or pass into the channels. 

If Lia stays and if Lia doesn't look knacked long term then I would seriously consider ditching A-Rod. We have Rufer and Ridenton who I think are both decent developing options. It might be worth giving them an opportunity to show what they have. An upgrade on A-Rod at CM would be the ideal but I'm not sure how many more Corona's there are available.

I think we've got enough defensively oriented midfielders (although, ahem our defensive record is a bit shark) and we need a few more constructive and attacking options and I would consider sacrificing A-Rods position to get an upgrade in midfield if it was available. 

Also Clapham and Moses Dyer are possibly avaialble ; -)

For a young player with relatively low experience, I rate A-Rod way higher than Clapham, and on a good day also higher than Corona

I am a little surprised by all the a-rod love. 

I am struggling to think of a goal, an assist or for that matter a pass he has made during his time at the Phoenix.

I can think of a pass for Ridenton. Even a goal.

We already have Riera for the no frills, tackling stuff in front of the defence

If we had folded this year you have to ask yourself which foreign players would have been snapped up by rival A league clubs?

I think Roy, Reira and our talented Dutchman would all have had a club.

I doubt A-rod would have been snapped up.

If we are to give the league a decent shake next year, I think we need to do better 

Are we going to find the kiwi who will make a difference? Bloody unlikely

Are we going to find the Ausi, who will make a difference? Possibly but unlikely 

Is A rod, going to make the difference? If he was going to make a difference he would have done so by now

And hard news, I can only assume you taking the piss about watching a-rod at double speed? Even you will be faster then Henry at double speed!!

On the club's website there are very detailed stats for players, including passing direction. A-rod has actually hit a lower percentage of backwards passes than Riera, Ridenton, WeeMac, or Roly. Of our mids only Lia has hit less of his passes backwards. Yet A-rod has a better passing accuracy than any of them, and has played more passes per 90 mins played than any of them as well. He's also made 2 assists, which is 2 more than either Riera or Lia, and the same as Ridenton, and only 1 behind WeeMac or Roly. Defensively he has made 27 tackles and 40 interceptions, which aren't bad numbers in the context of our midfield either - of all these players only Riera has more in both those categories.

I'm struggling to think what more people want from a player in that role. Should he be transmuting base metals into gold while the ball is out of play?

All this from a 22 year old who was not fit at the start of the season and did not get even play a pre season match.

Called it.

Unfortunately I think Rodriquez isn’t going to get the kudos he deserves for the donkey work he gets done.

— Dale Warburton (@Dale_Warburton) October 19, 2014

But my smugness aside, I guess the question is how confident is Ernie of finding a better player within the salary cap constraints. Personally I think it's high risk.

But I'm seeing a lot of A-Rod love.

Seemingly I'm in the minority but A-Rod would be one of my first picks week in, week out.  He does his job exceptionally well and if he continues to develop will be a hell of an asset to the club.  Granted, he's not flashy and in some respects its a shame that he set expectation so when he scored that cracking goal against West Ham (I think it was) in his first outing but he's dependable and does the right thing more often than not.

Has he? He is not a striker, and if he scores it's a bonus in my opinion.  

I rate him and would like him retained.  What I think might be the case here is that people here who would not want him retained would prefer we use a visa spot on someone much better, as we could, arguably, get A-Rod's quality (young, promising, but not yet fully developed) player domestically.  This is of course a fair argument to raise, but I am not planning to get into this. I am happy to see A-Rod to continue, and my guess is that he was not tremendously expensive to acquire or to hold on to. If he was then it would be a different dicussion.

Precisely my point :)  Some people possibly saw that and thought that he may contribute more in a goal scoring sense than he has.  I'm quite happy with his ability to perform the role that he has been and if on the off chance he bags the odd goal, as you correctly say - that's a bonus.

Seemed that before Roly arrived A-Rod was due to play further up the pitch. He also delivered the free-kick that Dura scored from- so seemed to be the attacking goods. Actually Doyle was really good in that series too. 

I remember thinking he was going to be a big scorer for us when I saw exactly this.  But he's awesome at what he does so I'm a happy camper.

I've always been an A-Rod fan but I'm always the old grumpy cod

A-rod has ranged from shark to average. 

Geez Greenie,  Did you miss Jeff's post above yours where HE'S meant to be the old grumpy cod :)

hmmm wildly differing opinions going on here... a-rod = the new manny?

Or new Lia, I suspect though he's the new Brown, people only realise what he brings to the team when he's gone.

A-Rod was the captain in the club before, and when he arrived Dura mentioned that he is very vocal on the field, seem a leader type character. Fits to his job on the field: getting the ball distributing to others, working for the team. A-Rod is not our problem.

Nonsense. In recent months you've shown quite a restraint here.

Kosta is coming back!

https://t.co/vTE5yh5LSj

Kosta Barbarouses step on down!!

get in Kosta... still not a striker though...