Analysis: Why James Rodriguez will be the man to watch for Colombia against Greece

Colombia’s World Cup hopes were dealt a huge blow when Falcao was ruled out of the World Cup through injury. Any side would miss the quality of the clinical Monaco forward, but the South Americans are far from a one-man team. Even without Falcao, they possess an array of attacking talent, including James Rodriguez – a target of Spurs and Man United.

In the absence of Falcao, much will be expected of Rodriguez, who also plays for Monaco at club level. The 22-year-old emerged as one of the most exciting young players in Europe during his time at Porto, and his outstanding displays in Portugal convinced Monaco to pay around £36 million to sign him last summer. Rodriguez starred in Ligue 1 last year, ending the season with 12 assists, more than any other player in the league.

Colombia begin their World Cup campaign against Greece in Belo Horizonte today, and Rodriguez will be key to their hopes of victory. Greece have a notoriously tight defence, and only conceded six goals in the whole qualifying campaign, but Rodriguez will be confident after a great first season in France.

He generally starts for Monaco centrally behind two strikers, but he’s allowed the freedom to roam across the pitch, as the above Pass Map shows. Greece’s main strength under Fernando Santos is their defensive organisation, but Rodriguez is clever enough to dictate the flow of a game and draw their defenders out of position. His range of passing allows him to retain possession, switch the play, or split defences when the opportunity presents itself, and only Mathieu Valbuena played more key passes per game in Ligue 1 last year.

With the likes of Juan Cuadrado, Carlos Bacca, and Jackson Martinez in the Colombia squad, Greece can’t afford to allow Rodriguez time and space to find his teammates. Greece can’t afford to let Rodriguez probe and move them around, so they may have to play a more proactive game than they normally do – pressing the Colombian midfield, winning possessing and then making sure they hold on to it, in order to minimise Rodriguez’s impact.

Colombia’s players will need to spread the goals around in Falcao’s absence, and as well as providing creativity, Rodriguez can chip in with goals as well, scoring nine in 30 Ligue 1 starts last year. Most impressive was the variety of his strikes, with direct free-kicks, tap-ins and long strikes among his collection, highlighting how dangerous he can be from all over the pitch.

No defender likes to face quick attackers, and Rodriguez forces defenders to make mistakes with his skills and clever movement, averaging 1.54 successful take-ons and drawing 2.35 fouls per game last year. Once defenders give the foul away, he tends to make them pay with his excellent set-piece delivery as well.

Group C is one of the toughest to predict in this year’s World Cup, with four good sides, all from different continents, competing against each other. Whichever side wins tonight’s clash will give themselves a great chance of progressing to the second round, and Colombia will be hoping Rodriguez can inspire them to victory.