The Back Story
Rodriguez started his footballing career at Burnley. He was at the Lancashire club from 2007-2012, scoring 31 goals in 105 league games, spending time on loan at Stirling Albion and Barnsley in that time. Although neither of these loans where anything worth noting. His superb form for Burnley earned him a very high reputation as a top goal scorer, leading to him being linked with a number of Premier League and Championship clubs. After Cardiff reportedly had a bid rejected for the forward, the Saints swooped in to land the forward in a record £7m deal that brought Rodriguez to the then newly promoted Premier League side on a 4 year deal.
Super Saint
Jay Rodriguez came into the Southampton side upon their return to the Premier League in 2012 and was an instant hit with the fans. Putting in strong performances, netting his first two goals for the club in a 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup. Rodriguez finished his first season at the club with 9 goals and 5 assists in all competitions that season. Some fans were expecting more due to his large fee but considering he had never played consistently at this level before (Rodriguez was on the books at Burnley in the top flight but did not feature regularly at all), an adapting period wasn’t too much to expect.
His second season at Southampton is where he really hit his stride. Scoring 18 goals in all competitions. 15 of which were in the Premier League. His blistering performances and sublime finishing ability led to him being touted for a place in the England World Cup squad for the 2014 Brazil World Cup. In March of that year, Rodriguez scored 5 goals in 4 matches in the Premier League to reach his impressive total of 15 goals.
Horror Injury
All was going well for Jay, 18 goals for the season with just over a month left in the season, likely to be going to Brazil for the World Cup and in the form of his life. This was all to change for the worse for Rodriguez. Southampton were playing Manchester City, with Roy Hodgson, England manager, looking on. The game would become a dark day in Rodriguez’s footballing career and personal life. He was stretchered off with an unfortunate injury that later turned out to be an anterior cruciate ligament injury that would rule the Saints number 9 out for 11 months and crush his dreams of playing in that summers World Cup in Brazil.
Recovery and set back
11 months on from his horrific injury against Manchester City and Jay Rodriguez was still injured. His injury had not healed and Jay did not play in any match in the 2014/15 campaign for Southampton. One that was a memorable season for Saints fans as Southampton qualified for the Europa League and were tipped for a Champions League place for most of the season.
Current status
Fast forward to the present and Rodriguez is back in the Southampton side for pre-season. He scored against Espanyol in a pre-season friendly in what was his first game a St. Mary’s in 16 months. And what a goal it was, picking the ball up 5 yards outside the box and firing a shot on the half volley into the top right corner. It was Saints’ only goal and the equaliser after Espanyol scored early on. He also scored 3 earlier in pre-season in a 10-0 drubbing of Quick 20′. The only question now is, can he duplicate his form from two seasons ago? He has to be given time, that is for sure.
Fans cannot expect too much from him in the early parts of the season, with the forward having to try and displace Dusan Tadic, Sadio Mane and Graziano Pelle – a task which will be no easy feat going by their form last season and their performance in the recent Europa League qualifier versus Vitesse Arnhem. Tadic and Pelle both scored in that affair with Mane playing a key role in the first two goals. If Southampton can get a front 4 of Mane, Tadic, Rodriguez and Pelle and have them complementing each other’s game, then Saints will have a really potent strike force. With this, and Saints’ defensive ability, they could well be set for another successful Premier League and, hopefully, Europa League campaign.
Comments.
Loading comments…