Unpopular opinion - Daniel James is not very good

Josep Dowling

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He’s definitely a fan favourite on here and I really don’t understand why.

In most games he’s absolutely anonymous. He was again today but Ole didn’t take him off. I think the last time he did anything of note was against Sheffield United away where he got an assist. That’s two months ago.

He lacks any movement off the ball. When he receives the ball not once does he use his pace to take on a man. Why doesn’t he run down the wing? He’s turned into Antonio Valencia. Receives the ball, stops and plays a safe sideways pass.

I don’t care if he only costs £20m I judge players on whether they are good enough to play for Manchester United. He doesn’t show enough for me. The biggest defence I see for him is ‘well he puts the effort in’. So does Lingard but we all know he’s shite. You need effort and quality. When was the last time he even crossed a ball into the box?
 
He’s hit a bad run of form, we have asked too much of him, he should be someone that comes in to boost the squad, not play every game.
 
He’s squad quality, but anyone with sense knew that from the start.
 
He young, raw and a potentially very useful squad player. He needs a lot of work and coaching, but there's a useful player there. He's not improved at all since he's been here, but its very early days. I look forward to see how he'll get on under better management setups.
 
Of course he's not good enough as a starter.

Decent squad option to have though.
 
Funny that he's perceived as a good squad player but he actually starts a lot.
 
Josep Dowling said:
He’s definitely a fan favourite on here and I really don’t understand why.

In most games he’s absolutely anonymous. He was again today but Ole didn’t take him off. I think the last time he did anything of note was against Sheffield United away where he got an assist. That’s two months ago.

He lacks any movement off the ball. When he receives the ball not once does he use his pace to take on a man. Why doesn’t he run down the wing? He’s turned into Antonio Valencia. Receives the ball, stops and plays a safe sideways pass.

I don’t care if he only costs £20m I judge players on whether they are good enough to play for Manchester United. He doesn’t show enough for me. The biggest defence I see for him is ‘well he puts the effort in’. So does Lingard but we all know he’s shite. You need effort and quality. When was the last time he even crossed a ball into the box?
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If you can't even get his transfer fee right I'm struggling to take in the rest of what you're saying tbh.
 
He's 21, in his first season in the EPL, playing a lot of games, experiencing an excepted dip in form.
 
Think he needs to be coached better and for us to have other options with higher levels of quality.
He is certainly not at the level of Man City and Liverpool attackers. Martial and Rashford could be though on their day.
 
He should be an option instead of someone that's relied on every week. He's a good player and will get better, he's just hit a bad patch of form. Given our resources we should be able to take him out and rest him for a week or two but we can't because everyone else is somehow either worse or a child. So he's stuck in the team toiling through it. He still gets in decent low crosses most matches, but he's been off form for a while.
 
He would need a good manager who teaches him some basics. He got some tools but seems to be clueless and his decision making is not good.
 
VeevaVee said:
He’s squad quality, but anyone with sense knew that from the start.
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This. His 3 goals in 4 was a bit deceptive and perhaps skewed the expectation of him.

He's a tidy hardworking player with a lot of room to improve, but right now he's certainly good enough to be a squad player. He's played more than I expected, and probably more than he expected, because we've been so short on numbers.

3 goals and 7 assists from a kid from the Championship is a reasonable return. Back in preseason I wouldn't have guessed he'd have those numbers by January.
 
He's starting more games than he should be, mostly because our squad depth is so utterly poor that we don't have many options but to play him.

That's not his fault. I think he works best as a sub to run at tired defenders. For example, I think had he come on today in the 60th minute, he would have been far more effective than he actually was when he started.
 
He's a speedmerchant and a work horse. He shouldn't have plaid the amount of football he has, but that's more a comment on the depth and quality of our squad than it is of james.
 
He has been overplayed and hasn’t been allowed the time to settle and find his feet. He looks exhausted at times.

People talk about the lack of a style of play, but overplaying these young players will hurt us far more in the long run. It’s verging on irresponsible now.

James and Fred will be next on casualty list.
 
He's a good hardworking player with devastating pace but I wouldn't be surprised if most PL teams have a wide player as good or better than him.

Is he better than Saint-Maximin, Sarr, Mcneil, Redmond, Harvey Barnes, Buendia? I don't think so and these aren't even the best the league has to offer.
 
He's a decent young squad player with some potential to improve further. I doubt anyone thinks he will become a world-beater.

He's a likable guy that works hard, so it's normal for people to have some affinity towards him.

I think the reason he starts so much is that we don't have another player that can play on the right and offer some width.
 
He's currently our top assist maker so disgarding him would be pretty thick imo. Negative thread.
 
To be fair Daniel James should not be a regular first team player, along with the majority of the squad, but Brand United is not interested the quality of the squad but the quality of the next brand that Woody can get on board.

James started off well, but has been expected to do more, because we lack quality in other areas of the pitch, but they continue to be left untreated, we hear the same old rubbish about "If the right player is there" in other words it means, we are not going to sign anyone or will end up with Longstaff, which sums up the state of United and where they are heading currently.
 
He's limited. He's the kind of player who you cheer wildly when he scores or assists, but sort of expect it when he's quiet.
 
It is not unpopular opinion, it is just a fact. He scored some (lucky) goals after his ararrival, but he is mit table transfer at best. His dribble succes is the worst in the league and his only good ability is speed. But problem is, if we need to play with the ball to the closed doors agaisnt weaker opponents, we are just playing "walking football" and his speed is useless. And even if we play counter attacks, his bad ball control hurts us so much. Could be a squad player, but definitely not good enough for United level (or level we should be).
 
He's a terrific player in counter attacking situations, but perhaps not as effective against a settled defence.
 
He’s been overplayed and misused a lot of the time. He’s in a bad run of form but could still have racked up more assists if the strikers attacked the box and got on the end of some of his crosses.

He’s a young lad who’s made a big step up. He’ll be a good player for us over the next few years I reckon.
 
He's a squad player and for 15m that's not bad. Biggest bummer for me however is he can't beat a man. Like he's an attacker who doesn't seem to have dribbling skill and that will cost him against deep defences
 
He was never going to be the main feature this season, but the state of the squad made him a regular. I would say he's a young player with a great potential - you can coach all of the things that he's not great at.
 
I don't think it's unpopular but he was not the correct purchase. He's a player that needs to be given years of time to develop not relied upon as an impact starter. In fact the best players at the club are none that were signed last summer which is concerning. Maguire is okay but not world class. Wan-Bisska is a one trick pony unfortunately in the modern area when you need attacking fullbacks.
 
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Josep Dowling said:
He’s definitely a fan favourite on here and I really don’t understand why.

In most games he’s absolutely anonymous. He was again today but Ole didn’t take him off. I think the last time he did anything of note was against Sheffield United away where he got an assist. That’s two months ago.

He lacks any movement off the ball. When he receives the ball not once does he use his pace to take on a man. Why doesn’t he run down the wing? He’s turned into Antonio Valencia. Receives the ball, stops and plays a safe sideways pass.

I don’t care if he only costs £20m I judge players on whether they are good enough to play for Manchester United. He doesn’t show enough for me. The biggest defence I see for him is ‘well he puts the effort in’. So does Lingard but we all know he’s shite. You need effort and quality. When was the last time he even crossed a ball into the box?
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Sprinting makes fans wet in England.
 
Well quite frankly if we're relying on him to provide God knows what then yes, he's not good enough. He's a player new to the league (jump from Championship), new to the club, his dad died in the summer, he hasn't had it easy by any means. It's up to our senior players, you know, those who are paid shittonnes of money to pick it up and start performing better in the first place.

And it's Ole/Woodwards of this world fecking up the transfers. Maybe we wouldn't have to rely on James if Ole hadn't been clowning with overplaying players when they are injured or we hadn't acted all big and mighty refusing Haland's clause because he'll leave leave in 2 years. Nevermind shipping out players who could've come in handy for rotation reasons without replacing them with anything.
 
He's better than I expected him to be.

If our squad wasn't in a mess he wouldn't start nearly as many games, and I think that's the problem here.

He wouldn't be a regular first choice starter for a title contending or solid top 4 team, but when you sign a 21 year old from the Chamionship for a relatively small fee, you wouldn't expect them to be. You're signing a player based on their potential in the hope they will grow into a useful member of your squad.

James alread is a useful member of the squad, and has been forced to start a majority of games due to the fact there aren't enough other useful members of our squad, and the fact some of the ones we do have are even younger than him.
 
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