Daniel James | Officially Signs

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Watched some highlights from the City game. They really struggled with him. He looked a bit raw but the pace was enough to cause havoc.
 
His pace will cause any team in the world problems if given space to run into. Whether he can do anything with it is another question...
 
I think he was a LB prospect for Southampton. But I'm sure he didn't play their much at Spurs - outside of being Assou-Ekotto's back up. @SquishyMcSquish @balaks probably know more

A bit like Sessegnon is now he was kinda known as a left-back but everybody thought he would likely play higher up the pitch once he developed more - mostly he was known for great free kick technique and that was about it when we signed him.
 
Watched some highlights from the City game. They really struggled with him. He looked a bit raw but the pace was enough to cause havoc.
Yep. Caused them more trouble than many other bigger named players.

Pace kills. The guy seems hungry and I’m sure giggs has given them a great idea of his
Mentality. People are just being silly as they expected sancho.
 
Yep. Caused them more trouble than many other bigger named players.

Pace kills. The guy seems hungry and I’m sure giggs has given them a great idea of his
Mentality. People are just being silly as they expected sancho.

Pace isn't all that matters. There's a reason Adama can't get into Wolve's first XI.
 
Pace isn't all that matters. There's a reason Adama can't get into Wolve's first XI.
He clearly has more about him than traore.

Traore is a track and field athlete.

Our Wide options right now really aren’t pulling up many trees, if I was a defender I know who I’d rather play against. Lingard, Mata or James?
 
He clearly has more about him than traore.

Traore is a track and field athlete.

Our Wide options right now really aren’t pulling up many trees, if I was a defender I know who I’d rather play against. Lingard, Mata or James?

What is it that you like about him over Traore?
 
What is it that you like about him over Traore?
He can shoot, cross, pass and move, tracks back and helps his defender, isn’t gassed after 1 big run.

Traore is dangerous in carrying the ball but he hasn’t scored in a long time.
 
He can shoot, cross, pass and move, tracks back and helps his defender, isn’t gassed after 1 big run.

Traore is dangerous in carrying the ball but he hasn’t scored in a long time.

I'm sure United and the other top clubs have done their due diligence so I'm not going to argue it's inconclusive between him and Adama. But I'm still concerned that the view pace is overweighted in our evaluation of targets. If he can shoot he'd have a better goal return than 4 in 33 games. He may well be creative, but 9 assists isn't setting the league on fire.

He's 100% worth a punt at £15m, but I don't expect us to be suddenly cutting the gap by buying a Championship left winger and converting him to a right winger. Our issues going forward is the lack of creativity and the lack of chance conversion. If he's a squad player, great. But if Ole thinks James is a 2nd choice behind Sancho then, it's quite the gulf in quality.
 
I'm sure United and the other top clubs have done their due diligence so I'm not going to argue it's inconclusive between him and Adama. But I'm still concerned that the view pace is overweighted in our evaluation of targets. If he can shoot he'd have a better goal return than 4 in 33 games. He may well be creative, but 9 assists isn't setting the league on fire.

He's 100% worth a punt at £15m, but I don't expect us to be suddenly cutting the gap by buying a Championship left winger and converting him to a right winger. Our issues going forward is the lack of creativity and the lack of chance conversion. If he's a squad player, great. But if Ole thinks James is a 2nd choice behind Sancho then, it's quite the gulf in quality.
I agree he’s not the answer to all our problems, but he’s certainly capable of being a good squad player.

At home especially we are far too narrow, having a player like him get wide 1v1 and delivering could earn us plenty of goals.

Let’s wait and see anyway, but my mind is open. I can’t say I’ve watched much of Swansea apart from the city games
 
Many wingers have made a career of being faster than their fullback and putting in crosses.

His dribbling looks fine especially for the speed he runs at. I don’t expect him to be an immediate starter either, probably an impact sub / rotation at first.

His crossing doesn't look much cop and that is such a dated way of playing, none of the best sides use that kind of basic winger, plus we don't even have a striker to cross it to unlesss Lumpkaku is staying and most sources point to him thankfully being off. The fact is this kid has done nothing, he's not even the star of the second rate league he plays in, his goals and assists stats are crap, there's nothing to suggest he's ready to be a PL player and we don't have the luxury of taking punts right now.
 
McTominay didn’t pull any tree, even on reserve. I’d take him over our other ‘accomplished’ 50m midfielder.
 
Watched some highlights from the City game. They really struggled with him. He looked a bit raw but the pace was enough to cause havoc.
We don't have problems with pace though. We have problems breaking teams down and creating and this guy isn't going to fix that. Just look at Rashford. He's fast, he loves to kick and run and bank on his pace being enough but it rarely is.
 
His crossing doesn't look much cop and that is such a dated way of playing, none of the best sides use that kind of basic winger, plus we don't even have a striker to cross it to unlesss Lumpkaku is staying and most sources point to him thankfully being off. The fact is this kid has done nothing, he's not even the star of the second rate league he plays in, his goals and assists stats are crap, there's nothing to suggest he's ready to be a PL player and we don't have the luxury of taking punts right now.

Players like Chiesa and Sancho better fit the profile of young winger we should be going for IMO, technically astute with a more broad skillset. This kid reminds me of Valencia, basic knock the ball forward and run type that worked in the old days of basic/flat 4-4-2. These types of players are useless when trying to break down stubborn teams. His only standout quality appears to be his speed.

I remember when people were raving over Tom Ince at the same age, he got almost identical stats at age 22 in the championship while playing for Blackpool in his break through season. Ince managed 7 goals 6 assists in 22 games (2004 mins) compared to James 6 goals 7 assists in 39 (2507 mins). Ince was expected to be the next big thing at Liverpool as a youth player and was linked with Inter Milan but he never broke out of the championship. Im not saying it will the same with this kid but nothing suggests he has what it takes to make it in the big league.
 
With the number of potential players leaving that will need to be replaced we can’t expect all of them to be big name signings. If we can buy a young winger with the sort of speed that could be quite a weapon on its own in certain circumstances for only 15M then great. That will leave that much more money to spend on another player that should be a guaranteed starter.
 
Nothing to get excited. Just like Gabriel Obertan or Jonathan Greening etc.. a squad member at most. Would rather put more faith on our homegrown Tahith Chong next season.
 
Just a question - is this dimension, which I think we do have as is in Rashford, any less barbaric than throwing on Fellaini ever was?

Always thought it a little odd to say one was wrong or better versus the other.

Rashford /martial are inverted wingers cutting inside while having to depend on strong foot to make a cross. They struggle to beat fullbacks on the outside while taking them on and struggle to provide width

He is a traditional winger who provides better width when playing on his strong side while having ability to beat fullbacks on both sides and provide better service to the striker, just like back in Fergie template.

Width makes a lot of difference in final third, as we don't have a full back who's game is strong on attacking side. It's a different dimension to what we have in attack.
 
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Have you ever known a team that openly state they're selling one of their top talents, whilst in a title race? Of course they'll say he's not for sale, it doesn't mean he's not though, money talks.
You can live in false hope that he'll come to us.

In his position, I wouldn't touch us with a 10 foot barge pole
 
Very unconvinced about pacey wingers. All it takes one ACL injury. Drops to 75%.. One more fracture and then you'll have him playing on wingback roles.
 
Feck me. Never heard so much moaning in my life about a big team taking a punt on a promising young low risk signing
 
People really seem to have a very pink memory of Ronaldo in our two first seasons. The countless step overs (which he almost stop doing after a while), not really that consistent, not a large amount of goals, etc. But yeah he was 18 and by the 2005/06 (20/21 years old) season it was clear he could only get better. And he was hungry. Like I said before I'm really not comparing James to him but we DO Need a hungry set of young players ( players from 17 to 22) with different skill sets along with 3 or 4 established (26 to 28 years) players. In the todays market a 15 mil pound transfer is probably very similar to 3 or 4 mil in the turn of the century so there is really no harm from the deal only potential benefits.
 
You can live in false hope that he'll come to us.

In his position, I wouldn't touch us with a 10 foot barge pole
That's easy to say after what's been reported. If he cant move to us at our worst then he shouldn't come when we're at our best, we want players who'll fight for the badge on the shirt.

Very unconvinced about pacey wingers. All it takes one ACL injury. Drops to 75%.. One more fracture and then you'll have him playing on wingback roles.
Fake news. The graft they take from the hamstring in a standard procedure is stronger than your current ACL, the procedure has improved masses in the last decade.
 
That's easy to say after what's been reported. If he cant move to us at our worst then he shouldn't come when we're at our best, we want players who'll fight for the badge on the shirt.

I wouldn't disagree with any of that! Another reason not to pin my hopes on Sancho. Utd have been a club that players want to come to and that's what we should be looking at


Fake news. The graft they take from the hamstring in a standard procedure is stronger than your current ACL, the procedure has improved masses in the last decade.
 
That's easy to say after what's been reported. If he cant move to us at our worst then he shouldn't come when we're at our best, we want players who'll fight for the badge on the shirt.


Fake news. The graft they take from the hamstring in a standard procedure is stronger than your current ACL, the procedure has improved masses in the last decade.
The ligament provides more than just strength and structural integrity. It has many sensors in it as well which cannot be replaced with grafts. I do lots of neurorehabilitation of such patients on fairly regular basis. In fact, nearly daily.
 
Nothing to get excited. Just like Gabriel Obertan or Jonathan Greening etc.. a squad member at most. Would rather put more faith on our homegrown Tahith Chong next season.

Thank you. All this talk about youth and we are going to waste 15m whilst we have Chong just there. If James came in and I was Chong. I’d go back to Holland.
 
We don't have problems with pace though. We have problems breaking teams down and creating and this guy isn't going to fix that. Just look at Rashford. He's fast, he loves to kick and run and bank on his pace being enough but it rarely is.
We have problems with a dead right flank
One of the biggest reasons we struggle to break teams down.
 


Although I have only recently heard about him and not seen enough to give an informed opinion he seems decent from this video.
Great pace, good cut in and finish around 1:16. Very good run and decent finish for his goal on 3:12. Towards the end of the video it highlights his ability to assist goals, I particularly liked his turn before he set up the goal on 4:40. Think he could worth a punt at £15M as he could become a star.
 
What makes you imagine both can't push for a starting role at the sane time? Yet we lack both a natural right and left winger?

He just about push for a starting role now that plus another first team winger puts him down in the pecking order.

Why do you believe he won’t think like this?!
 
If we sign him for £15m, on £75k week and get rid of Sanchez, the savings of Sanchez wages (£20m/year) will pay for James. Net spend, zero. Sanchez didn't even play much so wouldn't be a loss, on or off the pitch.
 
He just about push for a starting role now that plus another first team winger puts him down in the pecking order.

Why do you believe he won’t think like this?!

Really doubt if Chong is ready to have much impact next season. We certainly have room for both anyway
 
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