He's playing on his weaker side, you're going to see a bit of inconsistency.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 4
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
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Inconsistency implies he occasionally produces some end product. He’s a mid table player at best.
It certainly seems he has enough dribbling ability to be employed 'like Salah' to a more limited but not ineffective extent.
It's another thing that James has noticeably stopped doing in the past few weeks; running at defenders with the ball like he did in that first month and winning all those fouls and causing havoc around the area. Maybe they told him to tone it down after all that noise about him developing a reputation for going down too easily, but it's a valuable weapon and we should be looking to use it.
Wheels are starting to come off for James. He started the season brilliantly but it was inevitable his performance will drop to its base level unfortunately. Still a good player, but I'm sure we'll have to upgrade on him for a more consistent starting player with more tools up his feet, as James is very uni-dimensional and he's still just a kid playing his first PL season.
That's the issue, isn't it. James was bought to be an impact off the bench player, you don't sign a £20m winger from the Championship and expect them to be a first teamer straight off the bat. It's just he has no competition for his spot so automatically became a starter and while I love his attitude and work ethic, he is a rather limited player at present. I think defences have got wise to him, as they tend to do and also he does need a rest/break.
I mean 8 goal contributions so far isn't bad. Now the issue is we keep starting him and should be rotating him with mason now (saying that we will have the issue of having to play martial and rashford for every minute of every game due to lack of options)
Agreed, he has good qualities, mainly being workrate defensively and his speed but his general quality on the ball is really quite poor. He’s a great addition to a squad but I kinda feel like that is his ceiling.
Needs a rest. Shame we don't have a right winger to replace him with (how many seasons now?) 
Quiet match, rarely saw the ball, only 20 touches, one key pass for Martial's shot early on, completed 8 out of 13 passes.
Difficult for him when Wan-Bissaka is giving away possession so often.
3 goals and 5 assists in the PL is fine for almost half-way through the season. Elite creative players playing a full season tend to average about 20 non-penalty goals + assists.
Of course tons of room for improvement. Needs better understanding with his team-mates and more composure in the final third.
Difficult for him when Wan-Bissaka is giving away possession so often.
3 goals and 5 assists in the PL is fine for almost half-way through the season. Elite creative players playing a full season tend to average about 20 non-penalty goals + assists.
Of course tons of room for improvement. Needs better understanding with his team-mates and more composure in the final third.
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We are probably also getting to the point where he is no longer an unknown quantity surprising opponents. Teams have had a look and starting to plan for him, a compliment really, the next challenge is for him to adapt.
Nail on the head. He needs more in his locker, which I'm sure will come with time and experience.
I agree. It doesn't help that we have been so reliant on him so quickly. He needs to time to improve his game and there's too much pressure on him to produce at the moment.
He should be rotated strategically with Greenwood. Not every game fits his profile.
Agree. The likes of James and McT are only any good in open games. When a defence is deep both are pretty useless. Greenwood is more use against deep defences because of his ability to scorefrom the slightest opening.
How do we know it’s not crap Management that’s dragged him down and hindered his development. People say Klopp wouldn’t do anything with these lot.... but then I see the start James made and fact that Klopp signed Robertson from Hull for £8m and he has become one of the best FB in the country, I’m sure if he turned to crap people would have easily said well he was a championship level player anyways.
His work rate is phenomenal - always tracking back to do his bit of defending - unlike the other side where our LB is always outnumbered 2/3:1. Mind you AWB was outnumbered when Rashford was switched in the second half....
The lad is looking burnt out. I don’t think he expected to play so many minutes in his first season.
The lad is looking burnt out. I don’t think he expected to play so many minutes in his first season.
Goes back to what many keep saying, how many players actually improve when they join the club? There really isn’t many.
Seems to be trying too hard to just get it on target and not totally feck it up. Needs to stick his neck out a bit
For all the criticism he got. LVG made several academy players who are below championship level look very good. He also made Shaw look good before the injury, Martial was amazing in his first season but Rooney held him back. But also lots of signings flopped Depay, Morgan, etc
He’s a perfect example of the favour that work rate curries you with the British media. He hasn’t scored a goal for three months and I haven’t heard it mentioned by one pundit or commentator. In fact, he’s only spoken of favourably, in the context of our ‘frightening front three’.
Not that I want him to be bashed, but it’s an observation all the same.
Not that I want him to be bashed, but it’s an observation all the same.
True. At one point I think we used 3 academy players in defence and all 3 are now in the Championship.
Hahaha... Blacket, McNair, and Jackson Bocksomething. Remember on another forum people were going on as if we’d produced the next Maldini, Nesta and Costacurta. But fair play to LVG and them during that time they looked good and it was lack of goals that was our issue not crap defence
I agree with you regarding work rate, passion, etc, but regarding the goal aspect I think it's because he's not playing in his natural position. I think his shooting has proven very decent, but Rashford is undroppable of course so he finds himself on the right all the time.
If I'm being 100% honest, I prefer his general play and decision making on the left to Rashford's, but with Rashford's current stats I can't really argue that point.
Truth is we've bought yet another left winger and played him on the right. It was looking good initially but not sure how it will go long term. I think Dan needs to play on the left to develop his good abilities and not lose them entirely.
True our defensive record was very good under him. That’s when everyone thought Smalling was a top class CB. As you say the issue was always creating chances. That last few months where we were having one shot on target every game drove to stop watching us every weekend. Ole hasn’t done that to me just yet, but then my expectations have dropped massively now.
I do think context is important though. I could think of maybe 5 instances in the last few games in which he should have had an assist. Also bare in min he was scoring more when on the left wing.
I don’t know, if you are a part of a front three, you need to do better. His shooting looked good early on, yes - but it’s become poor of late.
Agree, when he played on the left with Rashford up front he was getting good shots in with good technique. Much harder to do on the right, so as a consequence he hasn't scored in months.
He needs to learn how to start shooting and scoring goals from the right, instead of only hugging the line and crossing.
I really like Dan James, he's got quality to his game and will get better. He does need some time out of the team though. I'd play either Greenwood or Lingard for a while and let him come off the bench.
That’s why to me LVG was the manager that needed and deserved the more time. I don’t mean an extra 3 years, but an extra window and 6 months to see if he addressed the key issue of creating chances and stopped his Rooney idolising.
Things LVG did that made sense. He adapted to what he had and got the best out of what he had. He came tried attacking football we got beat by 5 against Leicester so he became more pragmatic.
Despite crippling injuries in his second season in December at times we were only a win away from top spot and in the end of his last season we missed out 4th due to goal difference.
He gave academy players a chance and made many look better then they actually are, as time has proven.
Even when the football became dull as feck and I too was falling asleep, you realised...it was just like watching Barca or even City but with a team without the fullbacks, without the creative CM, and fluid front three.
Would he have been successful if he was given an extra window and got the right extra 3-4 players that he needed... i don’t know. But i think it was worth seeing.
His signings were pretty poor. He didn't deserve any more time here.
I know myself I wanted him sacked and was very happy Mourinho came in. I really thought José would change for United as it was pretty clear he wanted the job for some time. I knew it was never going to work when he was living in a hotel permanently. If you can’t commit to buying a house in the area when you are a millionaire it’s clear he had no intention of being at the club long.
Yeah... I was also very optimistic about Jose. Thought that United would be the perfect club for him. Big club with big budget, but no pressure for instant success (winning title etc) so he’d have time to trust our young players like Martial and Rashford etc, and prove he could be a legacy manager. In the end he just couldn’t adapt.
He hasn't scored a goal as he plays a traditional winger. He has made 5 assists and won few penalties in that time. He made assist vs Liverpool, City, Everton, assist vs Sheffield United to make the score 3-2 and also won penalty vs Chelsea in league cup.
He had few poor games too but he is rated well based on the performance and expectations.
Told you all those months ago that sticking him on the right takes away his goal threat almost completely since he lacks in terms of trickery and dribbling ability to do it in that side and as usual people after few decentish games went over the board to say that we no longer need a RW. It’s critical that we land some left footed RW/RF to this club.
His goal threat already disappeared before he was shifted to RW.
I think we should expect this. A young player played in new league, we will expect inconsistency form and he’s going through it right now.
He was and probably still is very overrated by some on here. Nevertheless, he's been a good signing - considering the fee - and I feel he can be a good impact player from the bench and a good squad option to have. But going forward, we need better quality over that side and he shouldn't be an automatic starter.
A traditional winger does not play in a front 3.
Regarding ‘expectation’, I hold all players to the same standard - which is the standard required to play regularly for Manchester United. There cannot be any ‘considering he only cost x’, ‘he’s a young academy player’ or ‘he played in the Championship’ etc. I mean, the mitigation is not unreasonable, but so what? All that means is that they shouldn’t be there, considering those excuses of course. The only way any player should be starting for us is if they can be held to the expectation of a United player.
Is he playing as front 3 or attacking 3 behind striker?
Daniel James has 8 goals and assists in PL, in 18 games (2nd most by ManUtd player). That's a decent record, not a record that's worth criticism. If he keeps up this form, it will be 16 goals and assists in a PL season and that's a very good record for a winger. This is excluding his penalties, which he has won few of them already.
Purple patch is kind of over but 3 goals and 5 assists in 18 matches are about what you should expect of a winger brought in from the Championship in his first season. He managed 4 and 7 all season last year at Swansea.
Whether that’s good enough or not (it isn’t) is a different debate. He realistically should’ve been a bench player but he’s intended up a key starter. Like most of our side.
Whether that’s good enough or not (it isn’t) is a different debate. He realistically should’ve been a bench player but he’s intended up a key starter. Like most of our side.
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