Season › 2015-16 › News Martinez says Rodriguez may need time to adapt Lyndon Lloyd , 9 September, 23comments | Jump to most recent Roberto Martinez has high hopes that new signing Leandro Rodriguez can become a versatile striking presence in the Everton team but suggests it's too early to tell how soon he will be able to make an impact. The 22-year-old arrives from River Plate Montevideo as an unknown quantity to Everton fans but his new manager says he has the ability to succeed in the Premier League once he adapts to the physicality of the English game. While Martinez betrays little hesitance to throw his other South American acquisition, Ramiro Funes Mori, into the action against Chelsea this weekend if needed, he is more circumspect about Rodriguez's need to settle in first, although he predicts the striker will adapt quicker than most. “He is ready now to help the group because, remember, he had to be an important player for his team, River Plate, in Montevideo in Uruguay," Martinez says in the Liverpool Echo and his goalscoring record is very good for someone of such a young age – and he knows how to be effective. “But being ready for the British game is very, very different. We’ve had players who take a month or six weeks and others who take six months, it depends on individuals. What we are doing now is making sure his individual programme helps with his physicality and gets him to the level.” Rodriguez showed his predatory instincts with a goal just 10 minutes into his debut for the Under-21s a few days ago and Martinez says he will offer the senior side something different once he makes the step up. “I think it’s fair to say he is a fox in the box,” the Catalan continued. “He is very, very clever in the way he occupies the space and technically he is really strong and he can fit into a possession team and a team that relies on combination play. But he is a player that can also find two yards of space in the box. “He doesn’t have a specific profile that means he can’t adapt to different ways of playing, and so that’s why he is going to be successful in our set-up and in the British game.” Reader Comments (23) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Pete North 1 Posted 09/09/2015 at 19:07:30 Good luck to Leandro, I hope he's a great success. I just wish Martinez wouldn't talk such crap all the time. The guy is nearly 23; he's only played 72 games in a weak league; 19 goals from 72 games is not a good return for a striker. We require players on the pitch who are Premier League top 6 standard. There is nothing in his record that says he will be. So, if the scouts and RM have watched him live and seen things that others have missed and Bill is daft enough to give Leandro a 4-year contract, then we all hope and pray he's good enough for the squad. But please, please, please, RM, get out of your parallel universe. Dick Brady 2 Posted 09/09/2015 at 19:27:49 Training everyday with the Everton squad will improve Leandro Rodriguez and hopefully he'll be able to make some impact. I remember Count Stracqularsi, he was pretty awful to begin with but he got better the longer he trained with Everton. I mean he was never good enough to win a permanent move but he improved from pretty awful to not too bad over the course of his Everton career and actually is now a cult figure in the club's history. Barry Morrison 3 Posted 09/09/2015 at 20:01:32 What are you talking about Pete, surely this nugget makes tons of sense:" ...he can fit into a possession team and a team that relies on combination play."Huh? Danny Broderick 4 Posted 09/09/2015 at 20:03:38 This lad is probably shite; I hope he is not... but the way Martinez is talking, we have unearthed the next Romario. Fox in the box ffs! This lad's record suggests he is no more a fox in the box then the Stracq, to me. Daniel MacSweeney 6 Posted 09/09/2015 at 20:17:03 Really of little interest in the grand scheme of things. £500k is two weeks wages for one player at a gas/oil owned club. Where's our new stadium? Andrew Presly 7 Posted 09/09/2015 at 20:20:01 I usually try to stay positive but have set expectations on this one to "nil". There's just some very very underwhelming about it all. Prove me wrong please Leandro! Alan Humphreys 8 Posted 09/09/2015 at 22:11:42 Where does this transfer leave Henen, I wonder? Pete North 9 Posted 09/09/2015 at 22:24:52 Barry Hi - if RM was speaking authoritatively about Leandro, he would not claim that 19 goals from 72 games in a weak league is the return of a potential top 6 Premier League player. (I presume that's what 'successful' for Everton means) and in some way that qualifies him to be described as a 'fox in the box'. He then goes on to remark that Leandro will be successful because he can adapt to different styles of play. This is obviously untrue about any top Premier League player. If a player is not top drawer (and Leandro hasn't yet proved he is to anyone but RM) then no amount of versatility will compensate. I find it demoralising to read because repeatedly talks drivel like this, giving the impression he doesn't know how to build a squad which will be top 6 material. Peter Gorman 10 Posted 09/09/2015 at 22:36:25 Mark my words lads, this Leandro has the potential to be as good as Joao Silva. Ian Jones 11 Posted 09/09/2015 at 22:43:12 I haven't seen him play yet. I think I might just comment once I have. Perhaps others should wait and see before commenting. Good luck to him. Barry Morrison 12 Posted 09/09/2015 at 23:03:35 Pete - I'm still hoping that Martinez's first season will be the benchmark and not his second season; I guess we'll find out in about ten games' time. But the man can spout some nonsense! I try to give him the benefit of the doubt with English being his second language and all, but he's is pretty consistent with his madness. I honestly have no idea what 'fitting into a team that relies on combination play' means! Malc Kitchen 13 Posted 10/09/2015 at 01:45:34 As regards Leandro he played well on Monday for the U21's and Unsworth was impressed and said quote "we have a player". Jim Bennings 15 Posted 10/09/2015 at 08:54:38 More than likely a bit part player in the same group as a Vellios type, but that's not the lads fault, we took the punt on him and of course he's going to come here to the Premier League.I am just really concerned to be honest because if Lukaku was to get injured what really are we left with here?It's not really an awful lot of top class proven choices is it? Anthony Dwyer 16 Posted 10/09/2015 at 11:24:00 I can't understand why everyone has already passed judgement on this lad without ever seeing him play! Is Coleman shite too as he was penny's and from a shite league, was Arteta shite because he wasn't playing regularly at Real Sociadad, was Pienaar useless because Dortmund didn't play him? Give the lad a chance first. Go to our Rumour Mill page, go down to Uruguayan forward and scroll to comments 99, 100 and 101. There's a guy there who talks a lot of sense and is well in the know about a lot of the South American league players.You may all be pleasantly surprised and slightly hopeful even. Chris Williamson 17 Posted 10/09/2015 at 12:43:38 So let's hope he gets used regularly .... even if it's just for ten minutes each game every other game. I'm convinced that new young early arrivals should channel their enthusiasm into a competitive game to keep their confidence.Players who arrive and watch, week after week, must suffer a dent in that. Then they get rusty, which erodes confidence further, before being given up on and shipped out. Harold Matthews 20 Posted 10/09/2015 at 18:32:29 Of course he needs time. This is the 100mph, no holds barred, Premier League, where half the fancy signings for Spurs and Brenda's mob couldn't cut it. The fact that Spurs have handed a 5-year contract to Eric Dier, their new young, powerful executioner, says it all. Big physical athletes, courtesy of lenient refs, are starting to dominate. Even our own boy Besic, a World Cup international, has needed time to build up his body.Leandro is technically proficient and mentally able but his build is slight and will require much strengthening.One of our better signings. Andrew Presly 21 Posted 10/09/2015 at 20:07:36 One of our better signings, Harold?! The give the lad a chance / we haven't seen him yet is fine and as it should be. Personally I was just saying how this transfer made me feel. Andrew Presly 22 Posted 10/09/2015 at 20:09:52 ......and that was.....underwhelmed. Good luck to Leandro. Brin Williams 23 Posted 10/09/2015 at 20:21:06 Harold 17 - You have said that a few times now - that we need big, brute, enforcers that will not be pushed around - but that surely is contrary to Evertons history, as to my mind we have never had that sort of thug.In fact I always thought our player were more on the smaller side and possessed skill and artistry and to quote a, perhaps out of date, motto 'Nothing but the best'.Regards. Frank Crewe 24 Posted 10/09/2015 at 20:43:48 Adapt to what? It's football not brain surgery. You buy teenagers for the youth team but 22 year olds are for the first team.To be honest I don't have much faith in RM's judgement anyway. He's brought in players with plenty of premiership experience that have turned out to be totally crap. So stick him on the bench at least. He'll sink or swim but endless prevarication won't get the player anywhere. Paul Cherrington 26 Posted 11/09/2015 at 09:25:22 I would tend to agree with Harold to be honest. I think that the speed & physicality of the Premier League does mean you need some big strong boys in your team (especially CB & CM) to help you compete. Of course you can still have the smaller, more skillful types in there as well but, if you had a whole team of them, you would get walked over. Kristian Boyce 27 Posted 11/09/2015 at 14:09:37 Didn't Martinez say two weeks ago before he bought him that he was ready for the first team? So now that he's been with the club, is he having second thoughts? Ken Pickard 28 Posted 14/09/2015 at 09:26:04 I saw him play for the U21s and he looked pretty good. Lively and quick but not fit enough for the hurry scurry of English football. Puffing for tugs between plays but definitely not a bad first game. 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