Unpopular opinion - Daniel James is not very good

Mainoldo

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He’ll come good. He just needs guidance. He’s very very raw.. but we knew this before we got him. But he’s here now.
 

TsuWave

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Prototype for "Pace & Inshallah" type of players. Nothing to him besides running and hoping.
 

Devil81

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He’ll come good. He just needs guidance. He’s very very raw.. but we knew this before we got him. But he’s here now.
Surely we have enough raw kids in our youth set up. When you consider the number of players making a career around the Premier League and Championship that are schooled by United you do wonder why we've paid 20 million for someone else's project.

Personally, if I was a young 20 year old youth prospect I would be infuriated to see this lad get chance after chance to prove himself yet deliver next to nothing on a weekly basis.
 

wolvored

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Panic buy on Giggs say so, or is it the lack of right training which has slowly turned him to shit? After all first 3 games looked really good. Since then slowly turned into a faster Periera/Lingard
 
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Lee565

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Sorry but I would rather we had young playing over him, Unbelievable that Solskjear was happy to waste 20 million on this kick and run merchant but wouldnt spend the same on Bowen during a transfer window where we ended up with bloody ighalo, this cultural rebuild by Ole and the club is a joke of a mess
 

wolvored

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Why does a player from the academy get 2-3 games at most to prove themselves, yet a player we sign gets 2-3 seasons to prove themselves?
Exactly. I have thought this myself time and time again over the years. The only difference the manager has bought them, so to save face has to give them loads of game time to justify the spend. Compare that to Nuno. He bought 2 players in the summer and has fecked both of them off after half a season as not good enough.
 

sugar_kane

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Started off well but looks absolutely shot now, needs a long rest.

What happened with his father over the summer will be affecting him too. He’s played almost every week since then and you have to wonder if he’s been able to come to terms with this yet.

Personally I still think he will come good in the long run.
 

Mainoldo

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Surely we have enough raw kids in our youth set up. When you consider the number of players making a career around the Premier League and Championship that are schooled by United you do wonder why we've paid 20 million for someone else's project.

Personally, if I was a young 20 year old youth prospect I would be infuriated to see this lad get chance after chance to prove himself yet deliver next to nothing on a weekly basis.
Aye I said this in the transfer forum saying just give Chong minutes... But like always fans don’t pay attention until it’s in there face.

Worth it for the price I was told. That extra £20m could have been used as instalments to get Bruno in the summer. But what do we know.
 

Godfather

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The thing is we can't afford to carry players like him and Pereira in such important positions. Especially when our other forwards aren't delivering properly either
 

UpWithRivers

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Teams just found him out. They plan for him by getting tight to him and not allowing him any space to run into. And if necessary when he looks like he might get passed they just take him out. He has no plan B. Can't dribble for sht. Now he needs coaching. He is too static and one dimensional. He needs to learn how to find space and release the ball quickly before the full back is on him then move again into space quickly. He needs to drag the full backs around and make runs behind them as and not in front of them. Traore is a good example but that's down to coaching.
 

Classical Mechanic

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Teams just found him out. They plan for him by getting tight to him and not allowing him any space to run into. And if necessary when he looks like he might get passed they just take him out. He has no plan B. Can't dribble for sht. Now he needs coaching. He is too static and one dimensional. He needs to learn how to find space and release the ball quickly before the full back is on him then move again into space quickly. He needs to drag the full backs around and make runs behind them as and not in front of them. Traore is a good example but that's down to coaching.
Traore is probably the strongest player in the league too. James is pretty lightweight so can't really beat players in that sense.
 

Ballache

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Prototype for "Pace & Inshallah" type of players. Nothing to him besides running and hoping.
:lol:
Very good.

I think he has a future here as a squad player, he will never be a main starter for us IMO. We've overplayed him and that's due to the shambles of a summer window we had.
 

Di Maria's angel

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How is anyone surprised? We bought him from the championship. Of course, he's... shit. Still willing to give him time.
 

KennyBurner

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I really hope he doesn’t read this thread. One would think he was th main reason for United’s fall, judging by these posts. It’s his very first season for us and he is only 22.
Him reading this thread doesnt change the facts. A defensive winger will never be good enough as a starter. The kid cant dribble. Is technically worse than lingard. What exactly is there to develop? I like him him as a tactical starter/sub but thats where it ends. I dont mind him in games were we play on the counter or are trying to protect a lead. Those are like 5% of our games yet he has started more than 60% of them. I dont blame him and neither should we but we can argue that he is not quality enough to start which most have echoed on here.
 

KennyBurner

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How is anyone surprised? We bought him from the championship. Of course, he's... shit. Still willing to give him time.
Time to do what? Our expectations of him are ridiculous knowing he wont develop any of these magical skill sets we are expecting. Do you one day believe he will transform into a mane/sterling/mahrez type of player? i didnt think so. He is doing fine so far this season and shouldnt be starting this many games if it wasn't for our awful team building.
 

Camilo

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He's not very good. Poor technical skills, poor passing, poor vision. Sure he's quick but so what?

He shouldn't be near this team. He wouldn't start for any other Premier league club. If he was 26 years old with these limitations would we be ignoring these problems? Manchester United isn't a youth training facility.
 

Vidyoyo

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He's been like this since day one really. Exuberant and tries hard but technically limited.

I know it's an easy call because he kinda looks like him but he reminds me a lot of Hernandez, whose game was limited to scoring and not much more.
 

Inigo Montoya

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Time to do what? Our expectations of him are ridiculous knowing he wont develop any of these magical skill sets we are expecting. Do you one day believe he will transform into a mane/sterling/mahrez type of player? i didnt think so. He is doing fine so far this season and shouldnt be starting this many games if it wasn't for our awful team building.
He was never a Mane, Sterling or Mahrez type anyway. With the exception of Sterling
The others took a few years to develop. Let’s give him a chance before throwing him under a bus eh? He is playing in a team that’s in transition.
 

Lentwood

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I think we’re asking him to play in games that don’t really suit his skillset because we’re so short

Can be very effective away from home or against the better sides. Think he struggles against the low block.

It’s a zero risk signing though because he must be worth at least double what we paid now so if he doesn’t come good it should be easy enough to move on
 

KennyBurner

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He was never a Mane, Sterling or Mahrez type anyway. With the exception of Sterling
The others took a few years to develop. Let’s give him a chance before throwing him under a bus eh? He is playing in a team that’s in transition.
The others didnt magically add new things to their game. They already had it and took a few years to perfect it. Dan james is not magically going to develop his dribbling skills. That is the sole thing that is limiting his game and he doesn't have it. I like him because he is useful when used in various tactics. Other than that lets not kid ourselves and think he will develop into some impressive winger.
 

2 man midfield

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He'd do well in a Pochettino team. Needs actual coaching, then we'll see the best of him.
 

elnorte

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The player we're seeing now is no different to the one we saw in the first few games of the season. A couple of good moments enabled the self-delusional among us to pretend to themselves that he was good at anything other than just being able to run fast.
 

AaronRedDevil

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Think he's just burnt out. He runs like hell every match, but does it to much to barely cross in the 70th minute onwards. Hes a good player. Just needs to sharpen up a bit.
 

Woeisme

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He's a very average, one dimensional player. He's decent championship standard
He's honest and tries hard.
Most fans have realised this by now.

He's starting for us every week. That's more of a reflection on us than it is on him. It speaks to our lack of direction. How could anyone have assessed our squad, with all the weakness's that it contained, and identified Daniel James as one of the first solutions to correct the mess? If your focus is on " rebuilding" and only building with the right "material", then the question has to be, WTF are you trying to build, if D. James is your chosen corner stone?
 

Bojan11

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People keep going on about coaching. But he hardly can take players on. That comes naturally not by coaching.

Traore takes players on, but he just has a brain fart when it comes to end product. James does neither.
 

SirAF

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I think we’re asking him to play in games that don’t really suit his skillset because we’re so short

Can be very effective away from home or against the better sides. Think he struggles against the low block.


It’s a zero risk signing though because he must be worth at least double what we paid now so if he doesn’t come good it should be easy enough to move on
I absolutely agree with this. This is pretty much what I have made of him from the beginning. He’s a useful squad player, but not someone you would want to start every week.
 

Bestietom

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Panic buy on Giggs say so, or is it the lack of right training which has slowly turned him to shit? After all first 3 games looked really good. Since then slowly turned into a faster Periera/Lingard
Shifting him from left to right every other week is not helping, plus I think he needs a good rest.
 

DWelbz19

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Panic buy on Giggs say so, or is it the lack of right training which has slowly turned him to shit? After all first 3 games looked really good. Since then slowly turned into a faster Periera/Lingard
It was an extremely short purple patch. He scored 4 goals in the Championship last season. He’s on 3 in the PL. He’s just simply not that good. We can’t really expect much more.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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This was always going to happen. Thrown in way too quickly. Should never of had the amount of games as he has this season. This is the reason we needed at least another attacking player in the summer.

Next season, if we get a winger and striker, it will allow James to be the impact player he should have been playing this season.

Striker = New Striker/Martial/Greenwood
Left = Rashford/Martial/James
Right = New Winger/Greenwood/James
 

Bestietom

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It was an extremely short purple patch. He scored 4 goals in the Championship last season. He’s on 3 in the PL. He’s just simply not that good. We can’t really expect much more.
He is a runner who loses the ball most of the time.
 

Cockney Phil

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Needs a re-profile.
Came with speed and shooting - defences know how to block and channel him.
Needs to find a different style and variety to create opportunities again.
Biggest problem is burn out - he looks shattered and plays like someone whose legs have given out - may well profit most from this rest period.
 

SadlerMUFC

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James can be a very dangerous player. The problem is we have such little depth in this squad that he's asked to it every game while his game is still developing. He should be a squad player. The odd start with appearances off the bench where his pace can hurt tired teams. Instead, he's asked to start every game just about and hes not ready for that yet...
 

GBBQ

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Why are we writing him off so quickly? Big step up for him especially after losing his father as well. There’s been a whole host of players who took a season or two to find form and he’s only 22. Doesn’t help that he’s walking into an absolute shit show of a team at the moment.
Ideally he would have been used sparingly (as many have mentioned) but our planning was so bad that he became an automatic starter regardless of form.
I’d give him time before making pronouncements on his suitability for United.
 

Hester_manc

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There is not much difference between James and Lingard in level. There is a difference in what they are good at, but otherwise James is very similar to Lingard