Analysing Atletico Madrid's Reported Interest in Pedro Rodriguez
You all know Pedro Rodriguez, right? He’s the quicksilver wide man who served as an able deputy to Barcelona’s various attacking talents over seven years in the Catalans’ first team.
He was Mr Dependable, the guy you wanted on your side in a crisis and a hugely valuable squad member for a club always on the brink of something great. As indeed was the case with Spain, for whom he started the 2010 World Cup final victory over the Netherlands.
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But that was all before his move to Chelsea in the summer of 2015.
Having spirited him away from Catalonia last summer, the Blues thought they were getting a proven performer, with a man who finished one shy of a century of goals for Barca almost certain to be a marquee addition, right? Erm…maybe not.
It just hasn’t happened for the 29-year-old at Stamford Bridge so far, and he only appeared as an 80th-minute substitute in Chelsea’s 2-1 victory over West Ham United in the Blues’ first game of the new Premier League season on Monday night.
A new addition to a championship-winning squad last summer, the 56-times capped international didn’t know it at the time, but he was walking into a situation manager Jose Mourinho was losing control of.
Chelsea’s season was a shambles—for a variety of reasons—with Mourinho sacked in December and the club trailing in 10th place under Guus Hiddink. It just didn’t seem like a great place to be.
And Pedro struggled within it all.
He actually scored on his debut for the club in a 3-2 victory over West Bromwich Albion last August, but as everyone rushed to place him in their fantasy football teams, he would score just one more goal in the Premier League in the next six months—a strike coming in a 3-1 win over Sunderland in the days following Mourinho’s sacking.
Was it a conflict between manager and player, then? There were no reports of it at the time, but it was more than likely that Pedro—who would have had such high hopes when joining the English champions—was becoming weighed down by everything around him in what seemed to have become a pretty grim place to work.
By October, just two months into his Blues career, there were already articles regarding his potential exit, with the Daily Express's Adam Skinner citing a report from Spanish outlet Fichajes claiming that he wanted to return to Barcelona.
Now, with Antonio Conte attempting to lead a revolution at Stamford Bridge and doubtless targeting his own players, Pedro’s future has again come into question.
In the Daily Star, James Benson noted a report in Sport that suggested Atletico Madrid are exploring the possibility of bringing the five-time La Liga winner back to Spanish football, with Valencia also thought to be interested in his services.
Such a move seems unlikely, especially given that Atletico have already spent heavily on improving their attacking ranks this summer with the captures of Nicolas Gaitan and Kevin Gameiro, but it is certainly worth considering a switch for a player who, while seeming to have lost his way a little, does still have plenty of talent in those quick feet of his.
Indeed, Atletico manager Diego Simeone has already shown that failure at Chelsea doesn’t mean he won’t consider signing a player, as evidenced by his capture of Fernando Torres. In addition, defender Stefan Savic didn’t set the Premier League alight during his year at Manchester City, yet he still finds himself in the Argentinian’s squad.
England’s top division is, as we are often told, a relentlessly difficult one for players, and one in which plenty more foreign imports have struggled than prospered, but what has it been about Pedro’s time in London that has so underwhelmed Blues supporters?
As the renowned tactics expert Michael Cox noted for ESPN FC in January, it has largely been a case of the wrong player at the wrong club at the wrong time, with Chelsea’s awful 2015/16 form making it possible to feel sorry for the wide-man.
Cox wrote:
"It's tough to come into a new team in a new league and inspire a lacklustre, unmotivated squad seemingly at war with its manager.
Nevertheless, it's difficult to remember many great performances. A particularly notable aspect of his experience at Chelsea is the fact he's collecting the ball in such deep positions out wide having been protecting his full-back. At Barcelona, he was accustomed to playing most of the game in the opposition half and running in behind opponents to collect through-balls.
The difference between a wide forward and a wide midfielder is subtle and the 4-2-3-1 formation arguably offers a compromise. But Pedro is unquestionably a wide forward and Chelsea's system doesn't suit his talents. It's sad to see such a talented, likeable player struggling in a role—and a team—that doesn't suit him.
"
It remains to be seen whether this will change under Conte, but the signs are not looking good following pre-season and the West Ham game. However, with those words from Cox in mind, surely a move to Atletico Madrid wouldn’t quite work out either?
We all know about the disciplines and duty to the team that Simeone instils in his players, even if that will probably change slightly in a coming season in which the manager is likely to encourage his team to go on the attack a little more.
Pedro, a player used to playing on the front foot in excellent Barcelona teams and who—in truth—wouldn’t be anywhere near as highly regarded if he didn’t have players such as Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi to play with throughout his career, would certainly add a few goals to the cause. But even with the best intentions in mind, Atletico are closer to Chelsea in their DNA than they are to Barcelona.
A move just doesn’t seem to make sense, even if you were to take into account that Pedro would doubtless improve just by being in the familiar settings of Spanish football.
As a player who has seemingly built a career on being a bit-part player and an understudy, he could easily go back to Barca and be happy to sit on the bench as cover for their stellar front three, even if that would suggest a lack of ambition late in his career.
Wherever he goes, or even if he stays at Chelsea, he is a player who will need to have a good season if he is to stay in the plans of new Spain boss Julen Lopetegui. He made two appearances at Euro 2016, one for nine minutes and one for eight.
And that, sadly, seems to be what he’s confined to at the moment.
This summer you get the feeling that Atletico would be better off saving their money, as you’d suspect Chelsea would have been last summer, too.
Pedro seems to have lost his way a little, and whether he'll ever find it again is open for debate.
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