Played one year in the Championship, lost his dad before signing for United, has 6 assists in the PL (more than Grealish, Pepe, Pulisic to name a few) and has tailed off over the end of the season. I genuinely don't understand why he's being written off?
What is Dan James good at?
- Thread starter Schmeichel's Cartwheel
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Sidelined by Greenwood since the restart. For the better.
He’s been very poor for a while now and has been rightly criticised. Still think he has the potential to come good though.
Looking like a boy band member.
Seeing rumours that we are considering a loan, hows his first season been?
Not sure how he'd fit in for you, as you don't play wingers / wide forwards?
Not sure he's a striker as such.
Amazing. You'd be lucky to have him
It has been largely forgotten that he did start the first 6 or 7 games well, and did show much better decision making than of recent times.
He just looks like he has been rushing everything he does: his crosses, dribbling all seemed to be him putting pressure to deliver instantly, and he was brought on on occasions when we were down so maybe felt like he needed to even more than usual.
Hard place to be in, because he showed good performances when he was starting consistently, but did not show much when he was appearing less frequently. He is a squad player and not likely to start as frequently as he first did (unless we have a heap of injuries to our front line and we are forced to play him week in week out), so he needs to learn to be patient and not rush his decisions when he gets 20/30 minutes per match.
He just looks like he has been rushing everything he does: his crosses, dribbling all seemed to be him putting pressure to deliver instantly, and he was brought on on occasions when we were down so maybe felt like he needed to even more than usual.
Hard place to be in, because he showed good performances when he was starting consistently, but did not show much when he was appearing less frequently. He is a squad player and not likely to start as frequently as he first did (unless we have a heap of injuries to our front line and we are forced to play him week in week out), so he needs to learn to be patient and not rush his decisions when he gets 20/30 minutes per match.
Not as bad as he's made out to be. Poor guy lost his father last year and his confidence looks shot to bits. He can put in a good cross, he's lightning quick, can play on either flank, can press, can defend a bit, decent shot on him.
Wow must a world class player as you described him as prime Gareth Bale.
He isn't good against a low block and not a right winger.
On the left in a counter attacking set up he can be very good.
On the left in a counter attacking set up he can be very good.
There’s no way we’re loaning him out. We don’t have enough attacking players as it is!
Yeah your sarcasm aside, that's a pretty accurate description of what Dan James has to offer. If you feel that to be prime Gareth Bale characteristics, more power to you!
Source?
If he is first option off the bench next season again, it’s a 4th trophyless season in a row. It sounds harsh, but he isn’t good enough to be that high up our squad ladder.
We should go ahead and loan him out.
If we loan him out we’d need another 3 attacking signings if we wanted to sell Lingard and Pereira. There’s just no way we’re loaning him.
I would agree that he's not as bad as he's made out to be. But regarding him puting in a good cross, playing on either flank, pressing, defending and having a shot on him. We'll we could say the same about Lingard or any other profesional player to be honest, the thread is about what is he good at, meaning what does he do that is above the average player. After saying that, I think James is above the average player on speed and work ethic, thats it.
Because a good deal of our fans are shite
Plenty of players had rubbish first seasons for us, Fred/Lindelof being recent examples, and as you say his wasn't even that bad.
To answer the thread title, being absolutely rapid on the counter and being surprisingly impressive defensively - at least before lockdown. He's not the level we need starting week in week out to challenge for league titles but a good one to have in the squad no doubt, and will get better.
Cannot for the life of me see why people want us to loan him out. He benefits most by staying with the squad and learning to play with this team he just needs to not be relied upon as much as we did at the start of his first season. Ideally he is the back up to Rashford on the left where he is most comfortable and we will start him in all the domestic cup games so that Rashford doesn't get run into the ground for the second season in succession. To answer the OP's question though, he is a good attacking winger and with a little fine tuning and sharper decision making can be a solid supplier of assists and crosses into the box.
As posters above have quoted, Dan James started pretty consistently the first half of our season. Where he assisted 6 goals and scored a few important ones as well. The person who you compared to, Lingard, has scored a handful of goals in over 2 odd seasons and has generally not been involved in most games.
One is 21 and moved from the championship. The other is 28 and is/was an England international.
I think James is above the average player on speed and work ethic, thats it.
This is your opinion and you are totally entitled to it. Comparing him to Lingard is doing him an utter disservice and is quite frankly premature and incorrect, in my opinion.
Saying he started consistently in the first half is correct but if we take out august and september his numbers are poor.
I dont think its unfair to compare him to Lingard since they been basically getting the same numbers since january.
He is great to watch! Diamond in the rough. Can only get better! Likeability max.
He’s fast and very pacey. He’s got great speed and runs pretty quick. His change of acceleration and turn of pace is a major asset too. He’s also very quick and makes rapid darts down the wings. Other than that, not much.
I was surprised when we got him as cheap as £15m in this day and age. Now I’m shocked we paid as much as £15m for him.
I was surprised when we got him as cheap as £15m in this day and age. Now I’m shocked we paid as much as £15m for him.
I agree.
Have we ever loaned out a player where they came back the better for it? And at an age like 21? For us it seems like getting loaned out is always a precursor to getting shipped out permanently.
Caf darling Adama Traore looked even worse when he played for boro. While he may not necessarily turn into a muscle freak, there's still time for him to improve his game and put his pace to good use.
Sheffield, goalkeeper new contract
I stand correctedSheffield, goalkeeper new contract
Only one I can think of is Lingard. He had a purple patch but nothing ground breaking at Utd.
Pereira going to Spain. Looked much better over there than he did here.
Ironically Smalling has looked good in Italy but I think he’s better suited over there where the high pressing isn’t as common as in the premier league.
I would absolutely love him at Utd. Just as an impact sub though. It would be amazing to throw him on for the last 20 minutes of games against tired legs. He’d shred some full backs.
Lingard may have lost his way but he's certainly a much better football player. James has a long way to go reach the heights Lingard has attained in the past being:
An England regular at the World Cup.
Scoring in an FA cup final
Scoring great goals that saved games.
I totally agree. I saw him alot in his final season at Swansea and he was showing great potential. People dont realise how hard it is jumping up to play for United . He had a Excellent start to his United career and yes while he did drop off a fair bit it doesn't warrant the abuse he gets . He's a young player who will get better
That's really not true. He was quite an impressive dribbler even then, which made him exceptional at two things.
1) Just not true
2) He’s never going to be that strong without turning into a body builder instead of a footballer.
3) He can’t dribble half as well.
But let’s have a toast for hope.
I watched his games, he was terrible.
James should not be written off, just like Zaha and Depay. Someone short on expectation doesn't mean he is no good. James just need to work on his decision making, which seem to be wrong 100% of the time. In fact, probably easiest to work on, just show him his video and get it into his head.
Ronaldo needed to work on just his decision making. James needs to worn on much more than that.
Let's at least give the kid a few games at the start of the new season with Fernandes and Pogba trying to put him away time and time again which is something he's not yet had, before we write him off as a poor mans Obertan, Bebe or Bellion. The kid does have something about him, it's just up to the coaches and his team-mates to get it out of him. Catch that pigeon James!
To be fair he does get released into some good positions owing to his pace. If he improves his decision making + learns to look up and pass, he could become an effective squad player. Bonus would be if he improves his finishing. Lots of IFs basically with him at this stage.
With a player as one dimensional as James, he needs to be used as a specific role player. When playing on the counter attack, he's a good option on either flank because of his speed.
When chasing a game, he'd be a good option as a touchline hugging wide player. United have a terrible tendency of getting very narrow. When chasing a game, I'd like to see James right and Chong (not next season now obviously) left to stretch the play.
Wide players these days are expected to be pseudo number 10s. With players like James and Chong, that complicates their game too much. They haven't got the intuition or game smarts to be given free rein.
They need to keep it really simple. Stay wide, use your speed and dribbling ability, get up and down, take the full back on and put some quality into the box.
When chasing a game, he'd be a good option as a touchline hugging wide player. United have a terrible tendency of getting very narrow. When chasing a game, I'd like to see James right and Chong (not next season now obviously) left to stretch the play.
Wide players these days are expected to be pseudo number 10s. With players like James and Chong, that complicates their game too much. They haven't got the intuition or game smarts to be given free rein.
They need to keep it really simple. Stay wide, use your speed and dribbling ability, get up and down, take the full back on and put some quality into the box.
Stupid thread.