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2020-21 Performances

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5.5 Season Average Rating
Appearances
26
Goals
5
Assists
2
Yellow cards
3
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The kid just needs to calm down a bit when the ball is at his feet. Constantly trying to do everything at 100mph.
Quite predictable also when cutting in from the left, finishing and final ball obviously needs plenty of work.
There could be a player in there but the jury is still out, can't see him being given much more time. Probably will get his Leeds move after all.
 
I struggle to see a footballer in him. Good runner, with or without the ball, but his every kick off the ball is just random. Makes me wonder: what was the idea? Was it a pass? A cross? Was he going for power or accuracy with that shot?

Probably one of the easiest players to upgrade on. I guess there are plenty nimble fast hard working wingers out there.
Let's just not waste our time with James.
 
I do like the fact he tries things even if he's got no ability to pull it off. In that sense I prefer his bravery to Lingards "first time pass back where it came from" cowards approach
 
It is getting increasingly unlikely that it will ever work out for him here, which is a shame because there have been glimpses.

The need for some fans to vilify our players always staggers me, though. Fair enough if a player is not putting in the required effort, have at it, but that is not remotely the case with James, so critique his performances all you like but there’s no need for slamming him constantly and the hyperbole about his ability.

He’s probably not good enough for United, but do you know what? 90% of players aren’t.
 
I just don't see that he'll ever be good enough for us beyond being a fringe player. He's 23 years old and it's not like we're seeing raw talent but needing a bit of maturity to 'click', he just seems to be a limited player albeit it seems like he has a good opportunity. He's clearly got something that means in the right set up he'll have something to offer but I don't think that's at a top team and I really can't see that if we put him on the market anyone in top 10 is looking at him as a first team player or that he'd get on the bench for a lot of our competitors.

If he is going to push on though then he needs to play. I think we should look to keep him until the end of the season and then in summer he needs to be moved on both for his own good and for ours, as currently there will be teams wanting to take a punt on him but the longer we hold on to him with the lack of game time he's getting the harder it will be I imagine to move him on at a reasonable fee. We've clearly struggled with holding on to players for too long in the past and it's got to stage where we've basically had to let players leave for free and you'd hope we've learnt from that.
 
rooney2009 said:
Loads of pace
Hard working
Energy
Wicked right foot
Great Skills from the left wing

I just think he is still improving and has not played a lot at this level
He will get better with time and he is a good squad player
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Pace he can't even use properly against semi decent teams. He only gets space against minnows but even today Watford easily quelled him after the 30 min mark. Leeds were too naive with their attacking approach and gifted him space but no other PL team will. His 'wicked' right foot continusouly passes the ball to the opposition keeper, blazes it over the bar and crosses (both feet) it blindly without looking up. He shouldn't be playing for a club of this magnitude in my opinion
 
Not every player is destined for the top, and unfortunately James isn’t.

1 issue for him is he’s definitely better on the left, but we’ve got 2/3 players already better than him there.

the next issue is he doesn’t have a picture in his head of what he wants to do. You can tell he gets it then tries to decide what he’s going to do as he starts to run with it - he then gets confused.

physically he’s just far too weak and has awful balance. He can’t ride a challenge because he goes flying like a crash dummy as soon as he’s touched.

he will probably have a good lower table/championship career but he’s never going to be a top class player.
 
youngrell said:
It is getting increasingly unlikely that it will ever work out for him here, which is a shame because there have been glimpses.

The need for some fans to vilify our players always staggers me, though. Fair enough if a player is not putting in the required effort, have at it, but that is not remotely the case with James, so critique his performances all you like but there’s no need for slamming him constantly and the hyperbole about his ability.

He’s probably not good enough for United, but do you know what? 90% of players aren’t.
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Same thinking here, he looked good at glimpses but never really kicked on from that. His dribbling is too inconsistent, with a combination of ball covering and lack of any strength his skillset is very limited. Obviously his biggest weakness is his shooting and final product in general. You know he will just not score, can't hit it with power neither place it with accuracy.

Brigns zero flair even if at early stages of his career he seemed to look like he can play with his head up and pick a pass. Showed very little in that department since that though.

Wasn'ttheworst of punts, for 15mil. Was worth a try and should get majority of his fee back, just need to realize we should give chance to others and not waste time here. Also next time we should be cautious trusting giggs next time he speaks, the same with McTominay and SAF, there is a lot of sentiment in recommending players from the same country and "good lads".

We are man United who should aspire to be the best in the world, not struggling to get a top4 every season in the premier league. Like someone said, the drop in quality is really huge, even our squad players should do the trick be skillful. Watford was total shite yet we couldn't convincingly go past them with our b team..
 
I think an issue is that he knows he's not going to get many chances, so every time he gets on he's playing with desperation and trying to force something to happen. From a coaching perspective he should have learned by now to take an extra second before crossing as he got in a good position a couple of times last night but just went head down and fired a cross in instead of taking a quick look up to see where our players were in the box.
 
Poborsky's hair said:
Same thinking here, he looked good at glimpses but never really kicked on from that. His dribbling is too inconsistent, with a combination of ball covering and lack of any strength his skillset is very limited. Obviously his biggest weakness is his shooting and final product in general. You know he will just not score, can't hit it with power neither place it with accuracy.

Brigns zero flair even if at early stages of his career he seemed to look like he can play with his head up and pick a pass. Showed very little in that department since that though.

Wasn'ttheworst of punts, for 15mil. Was worth a try and should get majority of his fee back, just need to realize we should give chance to others and not waste time here. Also next time we should be cautious trusting giggs next time he speaks, the same with McTominay and SAF, there is a lot of sentiment in recommending players from the same country and "good lads".

We are man United who should aspire to be the best in the world, not struggling to get a top4 every season in the premier league. Like someone said, the drop in quality is really huge, even our squad players should do the trick be skillful. Watford was total shite yet we couldn't convincingly go past them with our b team..
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The thing is, he can shoot with both power and precision, he’s done it for both us and Wales in the last 18 months. His weak shooting seems to be when he’s quite stationery and/or as usual, being indecisive.

The two early crosses he put in yesterday looked awful, but had someone like Cavani been there to poke them in then they’d have looked great. The strikers should know he goes early across the face and adjust their runs to suit. This has been a problem for quite a while for others as well as James, there’s nobody there to convert. A lot of his Swansea assists were like this, with McBurnie usually working well with him.

Anyway, overall I agree it will take a minor miracle for him to establish a place here, it’s probably best to find somewhere he’s more suited.
 
Happy for him.

That cross where it just went straight out did make me laugh though, Martial was disgusted
 
Nice finish for his goal. Looked rubbish up until then. I was expecting him to provide the width on the left but apart from one poor cross, he spent much of the time lost in amongst Southampton's defensive block.
 
Played well tonight, pleased for him.

Is it just me or has he put a bit of weight on?
 
Looks much better recently. Kept our width and linked-up with Bruno well at times.
 
I still think he has potential as wing back if we play with a back 3, the work rate is there and he is not a bad tackler with the speed to recover mistakes. For what we paid I am more than happy for him to remain a part of the squad as he certainly has his uses and you never know when an injury crisis will hit but I do think with Diallo and Pellistri waiting on the wings he will struggle to see much action as a winger.
 
It’s good that he scored, nice goal. It registered an important assist for Bruno as well - Bruno didn’t have many headed assists earlier
 
Really tidy finish. He's matched his goal tally from last season at least.
 
I like when he simplicity his game like just dribble wide to use his pace and make crosses rather than try to cut inside and shoot because that's not his strength and today he put lot of crosses.
 
I thought his movement last night was very good. We created so many opportunities down his side after he came on, had a nice little partnership going with Fred which was surprising given Fred always seems the most frustrated with him.

Had one poor cross where he failed to wrap his weaker foot around the ball enough, but other than that he was causing a lot of issues for Southampton's young right back with his runs from out to in.

Those who are so entrenched in their hate for the guy were still on his back last night, though. We get it, he's probably not good enough overall for us but give credit when it's due.
 
Acole9 said:
Played well tonight, pleased for him.

Is it just me or has he put a bit of weight on?
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I noticed this at the tail end of last season, and it looked like it had slowed him down a little. Needs to find a balance of improved strength while keeping his quickness.
 
Lovely finish. He did well when coming on. Hopefully a confidence boost for him
 
Only just dawned on me, even on a night where we rotated James didn't get a minute.

I'd say he's on his way in the summer.
 
Should've sold him when we had the chance, maybe there's still a chance because Bielsa seems willing to pay a lot for him. We would be stupid not to take it IMO. He will never be good enough under Ole. He needs tactical guidelines to be effective, and he will never get it under Ole.
 
Real Sociedad 0:4 Man Utd
Said it in the newbies but will say it here too, everytime James has started a game this season he's done well! He deserves a start v Newcastle
 
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