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2019-20 Performances

View full 2019-20 profile

5.6 Season Average Rating
Appearances
46
Goals
4
Assists
6
Yellow cards
4
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He did well for his first month with us. Since then it’s got worse and worse. He will be on the bench a lot next season, then out on loan to a Norwich City. He isn’t good enough for United. I’ve been saying it for months but because he cost just ‘£18m’ his performances are ok for some RedCafe posters. Judge the player not the transfer fee.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
Running fast without the ball is not a special quality.

Forget comparing specific attributes, your squad players should first and foremost be intelligent and technically strong footballers unless we're suddenly turned into Burnley over night and putting a shift in is the real deal now

I think he's been dreadful now for quite a while, and needs to step up if he wants to remain at this football club. All of this "it's his his first year in the top flight.." business isn't the club's business. We need quality rather than sympathy. Maybe he finds that extra gear which has been lacking due to a lack of confidence but I'm not optimistic. It seems having elite pace has become some sort of saving grace offered to James which gives people a strange kind of hope that you'd never give the likes of Lingard and Periera. I mean, if he was able to ever look rapid on the ball, I could still understand. But he's brittle as feck and frightens no defender at all. So, yeah, he needs to show a lot more - dribbling, intelligence, passing, and just all round quality.

Also why on earth have you lumped Rooney Fletcher and Welbeck together?
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His pace is a special quality. He is insanely quick dude and he has created several chances, penalties, free-kicks etc just by getting in dangerous positions. I think however that some teams have realised he is not a threat with the ball at his feet and tries to not give away fouls. Lindelof's way of defending would be the way to go when facing Dan James. However, there is a lot of rash defenders out there and Dan James can be vital in exploiting weaknesses like that. Rashford and Martial is well rounded footballers and almost as quick as him, but his simplicity and directness combined with the pace is what sets him apart. I would always prefer Rashford and Martial, Sancho and Greenwood but they need a break then I'd prefer having a player like James that can create something for the team on his day, instead of just a weaker version of the first teamers who doesn't offer something a bit different.

He has to step up. It is the clubs business because we bought him knowing that. It would be dumb to buy a player from the championship for 20m expecting him to perform as a young Martial.

Rooney, Fletcher and Welbeck. Quite different in quality, which is what separates this stupidity. They're all unselfish players running about doing their job which people like, but everyone would prefer to have 3 Rooney's with the combination of grit and quality if they are better players. Nobody would put Welbeck above Rooney if he ran about a bit more, these fans don't exist so it's no point going on about "fans" wanting workhorse players instead of quality players. It's ridiculous point of view, probably fuelled by something irrelevant. We all want quality players that is strong mentally, leaders, show guts etc. anything that gets us to the top. It's what we've been brought up on. Maybe some ptsd from Di Maria, Mkhitaryan, Lukaku and similar can influence fans to favour these qualities but nobody wants Fletcher level if they could have Rooney level.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
We need to hold our squad players to standards beyond effort and mentality. I have no doubt that page and effort is why we signed Dan James. Because his technical ability is basic to say the least. But that's fine, because he's a 'good boy' who 'works hard'. Same as Lingard. We need to move past having such a simple barometer as to what works for us in a squad player. People think the likes of Park and Fletcher were just players who put in a shift which is far from the truth. Compared to the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo they may have sometimes seemed limited, but they were generally technically very good footballers. And that's what we need from our squad players too (I know Fletcher did start).

I look at our squad at our backup wingers are Dan James (somehow first choice among backups), Mata (turns 70 soon), Lingard (Yong and learnin) and Chong (bang average). Let's start focusing on quality even in our backups rather than mere running and good mindset being the priority. It'll get us nowhere.
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Park carried PSV to a semi final and tore a great Milan defence a new one.

Could James do that? Nope.
 
MikeKing said:
His pace is a special quality. He is insanely quick dude and he has created several chances, penalties, free-kicks etc just by getting in dangerous positions. I think however that some teams have realised he is not a threat with the ball at his feet and tries to not give away fouls. Lindelof's way of defending would be the way to go when facing Dan James. However, there is a lot of rash defenders out there and Dan James can be vital in exploiting weaknesses like that. Rashford and Martial is well rounded footballers and almost as quick as him, but his simplicity and directness combined with the pace is what sets him apart. I would always prefer Rashford and Martial, Sancho and Greenwood but they need a break then I'd prefer having a player like James that can create something for the team on his day, instead of just a weaker version of the first teamers who doesn't offer something a bit different.

He has to step up. It is the clubs business because we bought him knowing that. It would be dumb to buy a player from the championship for 20m expecting him to perform as a young Martial.

Rooney, Fletcher and Welbeck. Quite different in quality, which is what separates this stupidity. They're all unselfish players running about doing their job which people like, but everyone would prefer to have 3 Rooney's with the combination of grit and quality if they are better players. Nobody would put Welbeck above Rooney if he ran about a bit more, these fans don't exist so it's no point going on about "fans" wanting workhorse players instead of quality players. It's ridiculous point of view, probably fuelled by something irrelevant. We all want quality players that is strong mentally, leaders, show guts etc. anything that gets us to the top. It's what we've been brought up on. Maybe some ptsd from Di Maria, Mkhitaryan, Lukaku and similar can influence fans to favour these qualities but nobody wants Fletcher level if they could have Rooney level.
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You grossly overstate the importance of his pace. It's one attribute and it shouldnt matter this much unless it's combined with complimentary ones such as dribbling and crossing. Fellaini for example was a plan B option at United because of his aerial/chest/strength. But that didn't in itself make him a better option than someone more well rounded but less proficient in the air. It's too simplistic a way of looking at things. Do I think pace is useful? Sure. But so is intelligence, first touch, quality passing, ability to beat men etc Do I want to bring on Park Ji Sung or Daniel James? The former by a country mile.

Adding on to the above is the fact that James' pace doesn't seem to matter on the pitch, and hasn't done for awhile now. If you can't beat a man, can't get a yard ahead of them, are easily knocked off the ball etc then having insane pace is merely relevant on paper and not in the real world.

I don't like writing young players off. And hence would still wait and watch to see how James works on his game and the aspects mentioned above. You never know how a player develops. But I'll admit it's not looking good - he's not looking a Manchester United level footballer at all. And more importantly in the context of your post, I don't believe him having great pace is this definitive factor that is of greater importance than any other. Different is not always better.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
You grossly overstate the importance of his pace. It's one attribute and it shouldnt matter this much unless it's combined with complimentary ones such as dribbling and crossing. Fellaini for example was a plan B option at United because of his aerial/chest/strength. But that didn't in itself make him a better option than someone more well rounded but less proficient in the air. It's too simplistic a way of looking at things. Do I think pace is useful? Sure. But so is intelligence, first touch, quality passing, ability to beat men etc Do I want to bring on Park Ji Sung or Daniel James? The former by a country mile.

Adding on to the above is the fact that James' pace doesn't seem to matter on the pitch, and hasn't done for awhile now. If you can't beat a man, can't get a yard ahead of them, are easily knocked off the ball etc then having insane pace is merely relevant on paper and not in the real world.

I don't like writing young players off. And hence would still wait and watch to see how James works on his game and the aspects mentioned above. You never know how a player develops. But I'll admit it's not looking good - he's not looking a Manchester United level footballer at all. And more importantly in the context of your post, I don't believe him having great pace is this definitive factor that is of greater importance than any other. Different is not always better.
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Fair enough. He showed more in his game at the start, but I agree he has mostly struggled in the PL and I might be overstating his pace a bit. I just think he'll improve the consistency in his contributions as he gets a few years on him, and hopefully improve enough in the other aspects to be a really valuable squad player.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
You grossly overstate the importance of his pace. It's one attribute and it shouldnt matter this much unless it's combined with complimentary ones such as dribbling and crossing. Fellaini for example was a plan B option at United because of his aerial/chest/strength. But that didn't in itself make him a better option than someone more well rounded but less proficient in the air. It's too simplistic a way of looking at things. Do I think pace is useful? Sure. But so is intelligence, first touch, quality passing, ability to beat men etc Do I want to bring on Park Ji Sung or Daniel James? The former by a country mile.

Adding on to the above is the fact that James' pace doesn't seem to matter on the pitch, and hasn't done for awhile now. If you can't beat a man, can't get a yard ahead of them, are easily knocked off the ball etc then having insane pace is merely relevant on paper and not in the real world.

I don't like writing young players off. And hence would still wait and watch to see how James works on his game and the aspects mentioned above. You never know how a player develops. But I'll admit it's not looking good - he's not looking a Manchester United level footballer at all. And more importantly in the context of your post, I don't believe him having great pace is this definitive factor that is of greater importance than any other. Different is not always better.
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Pace alone doesn't get you far in the Premier league as you say, the top defenders are used to playing against players who combine pace and skill which is something James, unfortunately, hasn't got. If James does manage to get a ball past a player he's either bodychecked or put under enough pressure his cross over hit or worse still ran into touch.

Not good enough, he's a Championship player who must feel like he's won the lottery.
 
A couple of times i've watched him in a foot race with someone and expected him to burn them off and it just hasn't happened.

I'm not sure he's as fast as he's been made out.
 
Josep Dowling said:
He did well for his first month with us. Since then it’s got worse and worse. He will be on the bench a lot next season, then out on loan to a Norwich City. He isn’t good enough for United. I’ve been saying it for months but because he cost just ‘£18m’ his performances are ok for some RedCafe posters. Judge the player not the transfer fee.
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True that, but then players got their fitness back fully after summer break lets not forget. As for being on the bench, hmm will there be even a spot for him there when we bring in players ?
 
G-manc said:
A couple of times i've watched him in a foot race with someone and expected him to burn them off and it just hasn't happened.

I'm not sure he's as fast as he's been made out.
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He's definitely got slower as the season went on. At the start he looked quick, but right now he looks no faster than any of the usual front 3.

I think the issue is he's fast in a straight line but once he gets blocked a bit he has awful balance so just ends up nearly falling over and losing all forward momentum.

He isn't actually that quick in a standing start, it's more once his legs get through the first 1-6 strides that he "opens his legs" and kicks on.
 
Am I the only one who's been thinking he's not scored since August 2019, when he got one against LASK?
 
I can't believe how bad he's been since the restart. Literally offered nothing whenever he's been trusted to play. Runs around like a headless chicken.

The thing is you know he can do much better because he was doing it when he first joined. Goals, assists etc. He lost his dad at the start of the season so its been a rough ride for him and he doesn't look too confident recently.

I'd loan him out next season, let him develop at a smaller club and bring him back the year after, hopefully a much better player.
 
This is one thing I don't get. Why should Man Utd be in the business of developing a 22-year-old? The youth system is there for developing young players. If a player is too old to go into the youth teams but not yet good enough for the first team, in my view he has no place at the club.
 
Not sure what some of you expected from someone who wasn't even good in Championship.
 
The one positive was James actually looked like a right winger today. Mostly because he was so utterly dire on the left that just by taking up good positions second half made him look better.
 
I don't know if it's even worth it to give him another season. His greatest asset of pace is only viable on through balls in space. He can't even get past players and his final ball is atrocious.

Might sound harsh. His United career is on the line next season.
 
I thought he was poor tonight but have been impressed with him at times, especially early in the season. Wouldn't be against him going on loan to a bottom half of the league team who would give him a solid run of games and allow him to learn. If Sancho comes in I think he will really struggle for minutes next year.
 
Wasn't his final ball quite good for the first half of the season? I seem to recall him laying off a few decent ones to Rashford... What's happened to that?!
 
He did ok. Just has to cross it faster. Takes too long to make a decision. Plus the others need to be in a better position. Needs to improve his performance overall tbh. But he can definitely improve.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Wasn't his final ball quite good for the first half of the season? I seem to recall him laying off a few decent ones to Rashford... What's happened to that?!
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It was way better than it is now. At least it was competent.

I remember 1 great ball he played to Rashford vs Norwich. I don't know if those passes were anomalies or he's just super super low on confidence at the moment.
 
If by some luck we get Sancho and Grealish, then he has to go on loan and see how we can recoup our £19m
 
I never really expected much from him when we got him. I think be surprised everyone actually. I don't think he's off form, I think he was over achieving and this is his level
 
#07 said:
The one positive was James actually looked like a right winger today. Mostly because he was so utterly dire on the left that just by taking up good positions second half made him look better.
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Yes at least him being shit on the left ends the myth about him being shit because he was out of position.
 
When you see that Ferran Torres (all be it special circumstances) went for almost similar fee and Benrhama is going for £25m, you wonder if that 19m spent for James wouldn't have been better invested in something else.

He needs a loan next season, even if to top of the championship team.
 
Very low on confidence the lad. He needs to keep working hard, keep it simple as they say and he will come out of the slump. Even his once good layoffs and through balls seem second guessed.
 
He was nothing special in the Championship. The likes of Harry Wilson outperformed him. No surprise to see him underwhelm at a level he clearly shouldn't be.
 
I was thinking he may play as a fullback but over the year, his defensive sense is bad. Lots of time he got back to defend with our FB, it always ended up loosing the opponent. The time when he played as WB against Tottenham when we in possession after lockdown, he just passed it back all the time and show no creativity or attempt to do anything else.

He's young and Ole once said he will be 70m player, do you think that will happen?
 
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