James Rodriguez has been the big story of the week for Real Madrid.

The superstar, who was on fire last season, representing one of the best players on the club in 2014-15, has taken a few steps back. There have been questions about his attitude and his discipline. Just last week new coach Zinedine Zidane was visibly upset with the Colombian for ending his warmup prior to being subbed into the game against Sporting Gijon.

There have been rumors that his marriage is coming off the rails and the player has apparently taken to partying non-stopped.

In essence, Rodriguez is looking like a bust in his second year at Madrid.

Of course people forget that at 24, he still has some growing up to do. But more importantly, his performance this year has actually not been far off from where it was a season ago.

The scoring is down, but with three goals and four assists in 11 La Liga games, Rodriguez would be on a 10 goal and 13 assist pace if he played a full 38 games this season. He had 13 goals and 13 assists in 2014-15 playing in 29 matches overall. So there has been a drop in production to be sure.

Other damning statistics include fewer passes per game (43.7 this year versus 49.3 a season ago) and a lower conversion rate on those passes. Rodriguez is putting in fewer crosses per game, though he is tied for first in La Liga in that category, and his longballs per game have taken a massive hit from what they were in 2014-15. He is also managing fewer shots per game and his defensive statistics are also lower by a mile.

That said there are some interesting statistics proving that the "decline" is underway. His key passes per game are still on par with last season and he is currently the third best in that statistic in the entire Spanish League, with only Neymar and Nolito besting him to this point. He is also third best in the league in the throughballs per game category, coming in with at least 0.5 per game.

The reason that Rodriguez has looked off comes down to two things - limited playing time and a poor system that never suited his creativity.

Under Rafa Benitez, Rodriguez was often placed in situations that favored him in no way at all. A natural number 10, the Colombian was constantly relegated to the wing. Benitez's offensive system was uninspired with the offense often looking confused about how to rotate. The result? Most players stayed within in their general areas thus making them predictable to defend against. The answer to breaking through these deadlocks was to cross the ball into the box and hope for some luck.

We saw a lot of players struggle under this system with Cristiano Ronaldo and Toni Kroos joining Rodriguez as players who looked lost moving forward.

Under Carlo Ancelotti last season Rodriguez was pushed into the midfield. While not exactly a 10, he had the freedom to move about offensively as long as he tracked back and helped Luka Modric and Kroos on defense. The result? A player that was both responsible on the back end while looking alive and well in the attack.

The rift with Benitez seemed to have caused more issues with Rodriguez than just poor play, but if he gets his head back on straight, he should get his chances to play in a system that certainly suits him better. That he hasn't shown anything in his two games coming on as a sub has more to do with Madrid dipping in intensity with the three points secured. Under that circumstance, Rodriguez is not going to get a chance to be a difference maker.

The reality is that the true Rodriguez is closer to the star we saw last year than the one we are seeing in a slump in 2015-16. Even the statistics back that up.

All stats from Whoscored.com.

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