The early impact of James Rodriguez at Everton
By Adam Bakr
The Columbian international would make his home debut against West Bromwich Albion. He built on everything he did against Spurs, again showing up all over the field to connect play. This game, however, he added his first goal involvements for the club.
He would score his first goal with a well-placed shot on the stroke of halftime. Richarlison found him on the edge of the box, and Rodriguez elected to take the shot instead of playing the one-two, finding the bottom right corner from outside of the area. It put Everton up 2-1 going into the break.
Rodriguez would set up Everton’s fourth and fifth goals. For the fourth, he found Richarlison with a perfectly placed, weighted pass over the top of the defense. The Brazilian would square it to Dominic Calvert-Lewin who just had to tap it into the open goal.
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Calvert-Lewin would be on the end of his first assist for Everton as well. Rodriguez’s out-swinging corner found the English forward on the edge of the six-yard box, and he would head home the cross for his hat-trick.
Despite the production, Rodriguez may feel he should have had another assist and pre-assist. He found Calvert-Lewin in the first half off of a corner, but it was headed wide on this occasion. Not to say it was a bad miss, but it was a chance there for the taking.
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In the second half, he found Lucas Digne with another perfect through ball, this one on the ground through three West Brom players. Digne’s first touch let him down on this occasion, and West Brom recovered.
With his performances improving with each passing game, Everton could have easily pulled off one of the best summer signings in James Rodriguez.