Former Colombia national team coach Pacho Maturana has said that he sees "no place" for his countryman James Rodriguez in the current Real Madrid setup.
James has not had a good 2015-16 at Madrid, falling out of favour under previous coach Rafa Benitez and now expected to be on the bench for Saturday's La Liga Clasico at Barcelona's Camp Nou, having struggled to impress current boss Zinedine Zidane.
The situation is very different at international level, where the former Porto and Monaco playmaker was again central to his country's wins over Bolivia and Ecuador during the most recent international break.
While back in South America James said the difference was that he had the "support of everyone" when playing for Colombia, comments which reporters close to the Madrid camp have claimed upset the Madrid hierarchy, amid further speculation that club chief Florentino Perez plans to sell the €80 million 2014 signing this summer.
Speaking to radio show El Primer Palo, in comments picked up by AS, Maturana said that when Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema were all available it was difficult to see how James fitted into the starting lineup.
"James is between two stages: Colombia and Spain," he said. "His national team is based almost entirely around him, something which isn't the case when he plays for Real Madrid. At this moment, Madrid have their so-called 'BBC' front line, which is untouchable, and that puts James in a very complicated position. It's not that Madrid don't want him, but he doesn't have a niche in the current setup -- there's no place for him."
Some reports in Spain have suggested that Madrid's hierarchy are unhappy with a lack of professionalism shown off the pitch by James during his second year in Madrid, while both Benitez and Zidane appear to have doubts over his ability to last 90 minutes. And Maturana, 67, suggests that the 24-year-old needs to get out of his comfort zone and fight harder to regain a place in the XI.
"He should take a look back at his career, because he has always been a fighter and now he's reached the ceiling at world football level, he's become too comfortable," he said. "He needs to leave that comfort zone because he's forgotten how to fight. The lad's got talent, but Madrid cannot have a player who only appears for 15 minutes in every game."
Maturana -- an ex-Real Valladolid and Atletico Madrid player, and currently a member of FIFA's technical committee -- said James' position at the Bernabeu was not helped by him being a very similar type of player to Isco, who remains popular with fans and pundits.
"It is very difficult for a coach at a club like Real Madrid when a player arrives, in this case one who plays in the same position as Isco," Maturana said. "[Even though James] performs better than Isco, it seems the Malagueno is seen as the future keystone of Spain's national side. So it might be perceived as the coach conspiring against the future for Spain. A coach cannot be swayed by names or surnames, he has to know all of his players and understand when a certain player fits into his squad or not."