Fairly sure he played at OT vs City as well. Wasted quite a few chances but overall played decently if I recall correctly.
21
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 26
- Goals
- 5
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
Fairly sure he played at OT vs City as well. Wasted quite a few chances but overall played decently if I recall correctly.
Mainly off a couple of crap moves down the right recently and cutting back onto his left to stuff the move up, when I googled transfermarkt the google search made it look like it said "LEFT".
but actually clicking the link and going in it says right foot, there you go.I feel like most of our players would improve massively in a well drilled system. Decision making has not been a strong point of our forwards.
This is only due to him scoring a goal. Actually, when he got the ball on the RW, he was completely ineffective - he tried to get to the byline (his 1 move on the right) and his cross either got blocked, he turned around, or he delivered a blind cross without looking for his teammates. This is not what a Man Utd RW should be doing.
James has no guile, is a pace merchant that PL teams easily adjust for. His best position in the PL is a right-sided wingback or a "defensive forward" but Ole doesn't usually play 3 at the back and Man Utd needs offence from its RW. If James wants to hang around to play 4-5 games a year as R wingback, that maybe fine but will also block the progress of the youth.
This is typical Caf oscillation, we shouldn't confuse a (slightly lucky) goal for quality.
He was again useless yesterday except for the goal, which to be fair he took well. If he had not scored yesterday people would have been rightly blaming Ole for playing him in this match. He had about 5 opportunities on the right to put a decent ball in with plenty of space and time, each time he hit it straight to the first man and could not find a team-mate
Normally you get around 2 to 3 opportunities like this during the match and good players make these opportunities count. I am still of the opinion that he should never start against teams who will sit back, his use will always be against teams which will open up, even then his decision making is appalling.
If we sign Sancho i would try to recoup the money spent on him with Amad as a backup to Sancho.
Normally you get around 2 to 3 opportunities like this during the match and good players make these opportunities count. I am still of the opinion that he should never start against teams who will sit back, his use will always be against teams which will open up, even then his decision making is appalling.
If we sign Sancho i would try to recoup the money spent on him with Amad as a backup to Sancho.
It's his work rate. The guy frustrates a lot - but its the way how he doesn't stop trying after it which makes me believe that he can be a solid player once he gets his decision making fixed.
Exact same feeling. To all those posters saying he was poor, 'useless without the goal' - this is a right footed playing on the right wing; sure his crossing can be better - but half the time he has no one to cross it to. There simply isn't enough movement when the ball is in wide areas.
It's funny seeing all the people who threw Dan James under the bus trying to either backtrack or make excuse for why they're still right.
It probably is. I found it strange we stuck Diallo on the left when he came on the other day instead of putting them both in their supposedly best positions.
I think its a sign that Ole is confident enough in Amad that he is willing to put & test him in his unnatural position. He wants his front three's to be inter-changeable regardless.
I thought AWB didn't really help him at all, lack of movement from the full back makes it harder on the winger to have any decent space.
The kid has his uses, people just have very short memory and are quick to judge. I can imagine if we managed to get Sancho, James would be the perfect cover and a great option.
He’s Ole’s version of Park Ji Sung, not as talented as the other wide options but he works his socks off and follows the game plan.
That's under rating Park. His movement and short passing were excellent.
Should drive infield more often, teams can’t live with him when does that & it pulls them all over the shop.
Come on, man. He was nowhere near useless.
He carried the ball up the pitch with driving runs several times, kept possession very well when needed, helped out AWB defensively and worked his arse off cutting out passing lines. He was pretty far from useless.
Played as he did Thursday, but maybe not quite as well.
Good for James scoring goals, but we need a right footed RW that can pull back some of the crosses - James makes good crosses but almost on instinct and straight in to the box.
He is useful whilst his here but I'm still unsure about him. If it was a lack of decision making that people see then he can work on that over time and experience - yet for me I hardly see him look at his team mates before he crosses and that's more to a lack of technical ability in my eyes.
Anyway, hope he continues scoring goals when he can.
He is useful whilst his here but I'm still unsure about him. If it was a lack of decision making that people see then he can work on that over time and experience - yet for me I hardly see him look at his team mates before he crosses and that's more to a lack of technical ability in my eyes.
Anyway, hope he continues scoring goals when he can.
Does anyone think he could be retrained into a rb making runs from deep instead of a touchline hugging winger? He has the engine for it and finding space won't be such a big issue from back there. We need another option for AWB, not sure Laird or Williams are going to be up for it.
So true.
Our forwards have only scored the most amount of goals in England this season but sometimes when they are kicking the ball into the net more than all the other teams I'm always screaming at the TV 'Wrong feckin' decision, Marcus.. Shudda squared that one to Anto.'
Stop with the Park comparisons.
Park was a key player for PSV, when they went on a great champions league run and gave the great Milan defence a torrid time. He was a much footballer than people give him credit for.
Ah yeah you’re correct. He played up front in a 2 with Martial. His finishing is actually quite decent, maybe with coaching he could be converted into a young Michael Owen type whippet poacher. I don’t think he has the technical attributes to play on the wing if I’m honest. His dribbling, passing & decision making are all quite poor.
When Cavani can’t play, I’d rather see him on the right and Greenwood down the middle than Martial again.
When he beats the initial challenge, it does open up a lot of space for us. What he did well against Newcastle and Real Sociedad was release the ball early once he had opened them up. Before he was running down blind alleys too often.
If James can work on his short passing, his link up play, taking the ball on the turn in tight spaces, and working a yard for the early cross, he can be a good squad option for us. He's the only player in the team who's effective on both flanks.
He's had a good run of games recently. He's impossible to stay with when he gets a yard of space and his new thing of going inside makes it harder to push him out wide and out of the danger area.
Noticed that too. He left one and two of them trailing, and his pace meant that defenders were unwilling to tackle; thus he created imbalance to their defense, which unfortunately AWB did not exploit on the right.
James looks back to the player he was when he first joined us, he's got that speed and energy back which went missing for a while, and actually looks to drive in field and dribble at people.
We know his limitations, he needs to work on his crossing and getting his head up as a few times he just kicked and hoped into the box, 1 time Fernandes was wide open at the edge of the box and he didn't see it.
I like that he remained patient out wide for his goal, too often our forwards all get sucked into the centre of the pitch.
We know his limitations, he needs to work on his crossing and getting his head up as a few times he just kicked and hoped into the box, 1 time Fernandes was wide open at the edge of the box and he didn't see it.
I like that he remained patient out wide for his goal, too often our forwards all get sucked into the centre of the pitch.
This
Yes. Sadly, Ole won't have the balls to drop Martial for more than a game.
I gave him a 7, he was one of the better players. We desperately need a winger in form right now.
A lot of comments here read: "if only he improves x, x, x, and x, we'd have a player on our hands." He's 23 and been here 1,5 years, he's not suddenly going to improve all the aspects he's lacking. Last night was the first important goal he's scored for us this season. He's only scored against teams we absolutely crushed and I'd rather we give those minutes to a youngster. It's such a small club mentality. I'll support him as long as he wears the badge, but if the rumours are true we should sell the moment we receive a substantial offer. The only upside to keeping him for another season would be to have a more experienced player in case the young talents, Pellistri, Amad, Shoretire are not ready.
And no I don't have "favorites", we should look to sell Fred, De Gea, Martial, Lingard as well and try to upgrade our squad or give more chances to the very talented u23 players. Our rivals do a much better job offloading these kind of players for good money. If we don't sell James on a high, he's going to be our next Rojo.
Not going to quote all of them, just the most recent one:
Didn't think he was brilliant in the first half, but got better as the game went on. I'll give credit to the guy he was up against as I thought he had a good game. Great finish, though. Took the goal well.
Also, the boy is a worker and I'm automatically biased to those types of players. It's why when I don't see players work hard (like certain players in this team) it really clouds my judgement of them somewhat. It's such a basic thing and is something that all players should do. And he does it all game, to be fair to him.
Also, the boy is a worker and I'm automatically biased to those types of players. It's why when I don't see players work hard (like certain players in this team) it really clouds my judgement of them somewhat. It's such a basic thing and is something that all players should do. And he does it all game, to be fair to him.
Absolutely. One dimensional in the first half, space wasn't there. That's what he needs, a plan B, something to make his full back think. You're dead on there, caused panic when he darted across in front of their back line Never quite picked out the right ball but at least it shook the pattern of the game up. Confidence brings a willingness to try stuff out, I guess. He's an option again. Good on him.
Man Utd 0:0 Real Sociedad
Another good display.
Clumsy on the penalty but was lively in the 1st half.
The lad had a good game. Was naive on the penalty but overall did what he was asked to do. Could have scored a goal too with his header. Ran non stop and pressed hard.
His Jack Russell pressing is fine in the opponents half and is always good for nicking a ball or two every game but he needs to be more composed in his own half.
Think he's good in these games where the opposition actually tries to play football - esp when he has someone like Bruno who can pick out his runs.
I still don't think he'll be very effective against teams that just sit deep and defend, but really useful rotation option to have over the course of a season.
I still don't think he'll be very effective against teams that just sit deep and defend, but really useful rotation option to have over the course of a season.
Not bad, time for maybe a stint off the bench to curb him a little bit and keep him clean. Thought as soon as he gave the penalty away that he would have lost all of his credit he built up over the last few weeks.
James got very lucky the penalty wasn't scored, that was a poor one to give away.
The movement to get on the end of Bruno's cross was good though, he didn't score but putting yourself in those situations means you'll get a fair few goals.
The movement to get on the end of Bruno's cross was good though, he didn't score but putting yourself in those situations means you'll get a fair few goals.
Well played that lad. Agree with @Shane88 on his pressing and probably one of the reasons that Leeds were interested in him. No problem with him if he continues to develop and can be a good addition to the squad. Thing that a few people forget he come from a small pond to a big pool and at that time his old man passed away who. Some people they can block it out and carry on, others 2 weeks, 2 months whatever.
He has a boss who believes in him and if he ends up being a 'specialist' winger of sorts against a certain team or system, then no issue.
He has a boss who believes in him and if he ends up being a 'specialist' winger of sorts against a certain team or system, then no issue.
I really like him. He was great in the pre match presser as well, shows you how much effort he's been putting into improving. He talked a lot about reviewing and reflecting on his performances and learning how to do what he does best more often.
Just not good enough. Best three qualities a winger can have (certainly offensively) are;
Scoring, Crossing, Dribbling 1v1. James is awful in all three areas. His decision making is shockingly bad too.
He runs around and harasses the opposition when they have possession but for gods sake he's a Man Utd winger. We need the Ronaldo, Nani, Kanchelskis, Beckham, Giggs etc style winger. Not a bottom of the table style winger who just hunts people down and runs around.
Scoring, Crossing, Dribbling 1v1. James is awful in all three areas. His decision making is shockingly bad too.
He runs around and harasses the opposition when they have possession but for gods sake he's a Man Utd winger. We need the Ronaldo, Nani, Kanchelskis, Beckham, Giggs etc style winger. Not a bottom of the table style winger who just hunts people down and runs around.
Not sure why he wasn't rested for Chelsea.
- Status