Player Focus: James Rodríguez - Chief Creator of Ranieri's Monaco

Last summer, the two biggest arrivals in Ligue 1 were Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao. Both were courted by the best teams on the continent, but were lured to PSG and Monaco respectively, helping re-establish France’s top tier as a point of interest in the eyes of the neutral.

While the duo were very much the focus of the media and the public, Monaco also spent big to land João Moutinho and James Rodríguez from Porto in their bid to challenge PSG for Le Championnat. While Falcao has succumbed to injury, Rodríguez has exhibited the qualities that saw him attract so much interest during his time in Portugal.

After a slow start to life in France the Colombian has begun to live up to expectations, as his WhoScored rating (7.42) suggests. To put that into context, only 6 players in France’s top tier presently better that figure. Evidently, Rodríguez is impressing in his debut campaign at the Stade Louis II and it is undeniable that he will need to play a crucial role if Monaco are to make up the 10-point gap between themselves and 1st placed PSG, or at the very least secure an automatic Champions League berth.

WhoScored.com writer and Ligue 1 expert Andy Brassell wrote at the beginning of the season how both Moutinho and Rodríguez would be competing for one spot in the midfield as the campaign progressed. At the time, Monaco had recently secured the signature of Jérémy Toulalon and were readying the welcome of powerhouse Geoffrey Kondogbia. Furthermore, Mounir Obbadi, a January arrival from Troyes, was unlikely to be dropped from the starting XI having been instrumental in their return to Ligue 1.

Moutinho was favoured in the role behind the striker in Claudio Ranieri’s 4-2-3-1, meaning Rodríguez was either forced to operate out wide or from the bench. However, a change to a 4-3-1-2 allowed for the Colombia international to flourish behind the front pairing, while granting Moutinho the opportunity to operate in a deeper midfield role.

More importantly however, Rodríguez was handed the chance to showcase his talents in a role that would benefit his creativity and vision. Such have been the performances of the 22-year old in the ‘number 10’ role that he’s developed statistically calculated strengths of ‘key passes’, ‘through balls’ ‘long shots’ and ‘passing’ - amongst others - a quartet of assets crucial for a player in the position in question.

In fact, Rodríguez has scored 5 of his 7 goals and registered 6 of his 10 assists in his 15 starts as the AMC, while the overall number of goals he’s provided for his teammates this term (10) is bettered only by PSG’s talismanic frontman Zlatan Ibrahimovic (11) in Ligue 1. There was never any real question whether Rodríguez would succeed in France, rather how he would be utilised by Ranieri to harness his potential.

Starting him behind the frontmen is clearly working, with his WhoScored rating at in that position (7.52) the best of every player in Ligue 1 to have made at least 5 appearances in the role. Though Monaco went 11 games unbeaten at the beginning of the season, it’s possible that draws with Toulouse, Reims, Sochaux and potentially PSG could have been turned into wins had Rodríguez been playing in what is undeniably his best position.

Only Ibrahimovic has played more accurate through balls (9) and created more clear-cut goalscoring opportunities (24) than Rodríguez (8 and 12, respectively), while Mathieu Valbuena is the only player to have executed more key passes (75) than the Monaco star (72) in Ligue 1 this campaign. Evidently, his inventiveness is the strongest asset of his game and it was always imperative to the success of Monaco that Ranieri bring out the best in him.

At just 22, Rodríguez has time on his side to further improve and become a much greater penetrative threat. Once Falcao returns to fitness, and should Dimitar Berbatov continue to adjust to the rigours of the French league accordingly, ‘El Nuevo Pipe’ will likely be able to build on the impressive number of assists he already has to his name this season.

"The position I like most is the No. 10," Rodríguez said following his signing for Monaco last May, so it was apt that his new team handed him the shirt upon his arrival. The likes of Youri Djorkaeff, Enzo Scifo and Glenn Hoddle have all been tasked with providing the creativity for the frontmen during their respective time on the French Riviera; a prestigious list that may have overawed even the best performer.

However, Rodríguez hasn’t shirked from the task set out by Ranieri and the confidence the Monaco boss has instilled in the midfielder has seen the former Porto ace thrive behind the strikers.

How impressed have you been with James Rodríguez in his debut campaign in Ligue 1? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below