We finally saw Raul Jimenez play yesterday, but we wanted to wait until today to make a more in-depth analysis on his true form. With the loss yesterday and really the lack of juice that we saw from Raul it was easy to pounce on him and second guess Tata Martino’s decision. That’s not to say that 24 hours later Martino is looking like a genius, but we just wanted to make sure we were offering a fair trial.
The first thing that we have to admit is that Raul looked like he was supposed to look. That’s what virtually any player without notable on field activity in 3 months is supposed to look like. It’s not only that he hadn’t been able to play in games, he hadn’t been able to train in a full capacity throughout this time as well. Which makes it fair to question what his physical condition is heading into the World Cup. The nature of the injury did not allow him to run or jog for the better part of 3 months! It’s virtually impossible to build stamina for soccer like that.
Time Is Not His Side
Right now Raul is a player that needs time. The reality is that time is not on his side. That’s the main reason why it doesn’t make much sense to take a player like that to such a quick tournament. Oddly enough at World Cups, at least in the modern era, we do usually see the best team at the tournament win it all.
The Euros though are a perfect example that the team who can adapt to a quick turn around time and play at a high level will win the tournament. Italy, Portugal, Greece, Denmark and other nations have won the Euros without necessarily being the best roster at the tournament. They mostly featured fit rosters with players who played their best in key moments. You can’t take a player who needs about a month to reach top form to a tournament that’s going to be over in less than that. For Mexico, it’ll potentially be over way before that month mark!
Henry Martin Does Not Look To Be In Sync With The Rest of The Team
This is perhaps the scariest thing for Mexico heading into the tournament. Raul is probably not going to be able to contribute much. The players who are fit though, like Henry Martin, don’t seem like they’ll be able to contribute either. His game against Sweden showed that at his height and skill level he’s going to have a hard time with bigger stronger defenders. There was a start floating around yesterday that indicated Raul touched the ball 70% more than Henry did in an equal number of minutes. Raul at least has an excuse to look bad, but Henry is supposed to be fit, and heading into the World Cup in peak form. Overall though, he’s a limited player.
He’s A Break In Case of Emergency Player
We said yesterday that we kind of expect to see Raul in dire situations. Let’s say that Mexico needs a goal, or they are going to be ousted from the tournament. Henry Martin and Funes Mori did all they could do, that’s when we expect Raul to come into the game. Expecting him to be effective for 45 minutes is probably not realistic, and it’s doing him a disservice to put him out there that long. Twenty minutes against a defense that’s tired, that could be a spot for him. Especially because it’s hard to see Henry Martin being too effective. That issue may be a bigger concern for Mexico at this point because that’s really going to affect the team’s chances. Whereas Raul is just there on the roster out of pity even!
