No you didn't. He needs Bielsa's trust and expertise to bring the best out of him. He will never get that in Man Utd.
Daniel James | Leeds player
- Thread starter roonster09
- Start date
I think we miss his pressing, he's really top class in that regard. Honestly I think Ralf would have played him just for that. But he gave up on asking this team to press, one more player probably wouldn't have made a difference.
Utterly shite post
I think he now has more PL goals than ronaldo in 2022.
Certainly got more than Grealish
Only 2 less in open play all season.
Pleased for him even though he’s scoring for scum. One of the few players over years I didn’t want to harm when watching him. Gotta like a tryer.
Underrated player by the amazing scouts on here. Too often there’s a real follower mentality. He’s a perfect system player. Pity none of the rest of our forwards apart from Cavani wanted to work off the ball and left him running around like a headless chicken
Really pleased for him. Hope he ekes out a good career in the PL
He was brilliant for us today. His best game by far. Can't believe he managed to score that header from between two giants. Never stopped running, never stopped hassling and finally managed some quality end product. Superb, hope he can keep it up.
Exactly why i hope he was loaned for us. Next season would have done wonders under the new system, especially if it’s ten Hag
Lovely player, great to see him doing well.
Don't think Ten Hag has used a similar player to him whilst at Ajax I must say.
Never was a United quality(I mean taking us a level above level, as our current standards is too low), seems like a straight forward confident bloke though given his interviews.
Although can never forget the false hope he gave me, when for few games when it looked like he was special, as he was the only one trying and performing
. The lad would have been great squad if Fergie was still there though.
Although can never forget the false hope he gave me, when for few games when it looked like he was special, as he was the only one trying and performing
. The lad would have been great squad if Fergie was still there though. NoHe would 100% improve our squad right now.
It was fairly clear he'd do well at Leeds, the move made total sense, and I'm very happy for the lad.
it’s only leeds. £45m in the summer should do it imo.
He's not United quality, although I reckon he could have a good career.
This. Physically and attitude wise he's great but just pure technique and talent he's not at the level. We shouldn't accept that we can't get more talented players to run around a lot and settle for someone like James. Elanga for example is more talented IMO and also has a great workrate and enthusiasm, that is more like what we should be aiming for.
Didn’t seem to have the personality to make it at a big club but hopefully will have a good career
He’s not gonna be a salah or anything & obviously he looks better than a couple of the bluffers we have but I wasn’t bothered when he left & I still wouldn’t have him back
He’s not gonna be a salah or anything & obviously he looks better than a couple of the bluffers we have but I wasn’t bothered when he left & I still wouldn’t have him back
Some people are getting a little carried away from one good game from him... he's scored the same number of goals as he did yesterday in 20 games before that. I always loved his effort and seriously wouldn't mind him around at the moment ahead of Lingard, but that's with hindsight of Greenwood happening.
Good player, good lad.
but once the fans at United start moaning about a player they don’t stop.‘he’s better off out of it and not have to listen to our dimwits saying he just runs fast
but once the fans at United start moaning about a player they don’t stop.‘he’s better off out of it and not have to listen to our dimwits saying he just runs fast
That’s why we build squads not just teams
He'd have been squad level in a Fergie team. That should have been his role in 2019 too.
I think he suffered from being in the spotlight too soon. It meant a lot of fans got the wrong idea about what he was bought for. Unfortunately, the guy never really recovered.
I think he suffered from being in the spotlight too soon. It meant a lot of fans got the wrong idea about what he was bought for. Unfortunately, the guy never really recovered.
Happy to see him doing well and full of confidence. Was a crossbar’s width away from getting his hat trick.
Also the foresight that Lingard had no long term future at the club. Which was pretty obvious at the time.
It’s actually crazy how we’ve ended up with so few “squad level” players after spending so much money. Other than in defence literally all our back-ups have already left or are leaving soon. Negligence on a grand scale. It all adds to the humungous (and expensive) rebuild inherited by Ralf/his successor.
Didn't we get like £25m for James? I'd say that was great business personally given how bad we are at selling players normally. He's a good lad, effort was never an issue with him but it was clear his end product wasn't up to scratch for a top tier team. Wish him well.
As for our current squad talk, when you loan out Diallo, Chong and Martial then have the Greenwood situation then no shit our squad is going to look a little thin. Don't forget Ralf was saying he wanted a smaller squad, so I don't overly understand why the fans are now critising us for lack of Squad depth when that's exactly what Ralf wants.
As for our current squad talk, when you loan out Diallo, Chong and Martial then have the Greenwood situation then no shit our squad is going to look a little thin. Don't forget Ralf was saying he wanted a smaller squad, so I don't overly understand why the fans are now critising us for lack of Squad depth when that's exactly what Ralf wants.
This is the Lukaku to Inter situation all over again. If a player does well in their new club it doesn't mean that it was the wrong decision to sell them or that we didn't get enough of a transfer fee. It's just good business from all parties involved, including the player.
Happy for James. He was out of his depth here, but can still have a decent enough PL career ahead of him.
Happy for James. He was out of his depth here, but can still have a decent enough PL career ahead of him.
I think this is at the heart of our issues since Fergie left.
United spent a ton of money on top tier players who should have been good enough to win us multiple trophies. And those top tier players should have been backed up by reliable second tier players ready to step in when needed.
The problem has been that too many of our "top tier players" shat the bed. And when the second tier players stepped in to perform to the best of their ability, they got slated with the same criticism that should have been reserved for the superstars they were deputising for. But being a starter wasn't their job to in the first place. Of course they're going to be under par if you're relying on them week-in week-out.
The likes of James, Lingard, Welbeck, Young, Matic and McTominay (all either academy, cheap buys or aging backups) have been treated incredibly unfairly by the fanbase. And all because Di Maria, Pogba, Falcao, Schweinsteiger, Lukaku, Depay and Sanchez (all either prestige signings or on massive wages) failed to live up to the hype.
I think United have actually done a decent job of developing good squad players in recent years. But we need to get better at keeping the faith in them for doing their jobs. Our priority should really be cutting our losses on the big money signings who've failed to do theirs. The squad has become too big, too pampered, too comfortable, and too highly paid. It's top-heavy and straining under the weight of its own excesses.
I get this, but the player himself seemed to want to leave to get regular first team football which we were never going to give him unless we turn into an aspiring mid table team. I'm also doubtful as to whether his type of player is that well suited to a squad type player, he seems like a confidence player who needs to play every week to actually start believing in himself and taking risks to improve and use the actual ability he has (which as he's shown on occasions for Wales is pretty good, when he believes in himself!). With us his confidence was shot and he was on a downward spiral of fans hating on him, so it was imperative he either left for first team football or was given a guaranteed starting place and some fresh ideas under a new manager.
So with hindsight, maybe he would be useful at the moment under Ralf. But as he arguably doesn't have the attacking quality for a top 4 player anyway and seems like a confidence player who needs to be a starter to get the best out of him then I'm not sure he would have ever got out of the rut had we kept hold of him.
Thinking about it squad type players need to almost have a steely mental resilience to them which is probably underrated and basically I don't think he has that, which isn't a fault of him, just he's better off somewhere that he's guaranteed gametime. E.g. when I think of our squad players in the past I think of the likes of McClair, P.Neville, Butt, Johnsen, May, O'Shea, Brown, Fortune, Fletcher, Park, Solskjaer. Thinking of the positions and types of players they are, there's almost a correlation that 'creative' types generally don't make good 'squad' types, e.g. the likes of Sharpe, Poborsky, Cruyff, Blomqvist, Liam MIller, Rossi, Forlan. Though I would admit Dan James is on the less creative side of that list of players.
There are certainly some parallels between the type of player he is and Park Ji-Sung who was a great squad player for us for years, but I just think Park had more mental strength to fulfil that type of role. And also in a parallel universe if Park had played for a slightly lesser team I think he would've hit better numbers and been more appreciated across world football for the player he was, rather than appreciated mostly by Utd fans for being mr reliable.
Yup. Agree 100%. With the Ronaldo signing an absolute classic of the genre.
He's not great, it's one football match.
I was pretty much apathetic to selling him, wasn't pleased or fussed. 25 mill is probably fair in this market for his ability, which is fairly limited. But at the same time it's kind of a pointless sale in that as a squad player there's not much more you can ask for, at least until you've got City like depth. With a few players leaving it looks more questionable but certainly not a big loss for a player that needs and wants to play football.
I was pretty much apathetic to selling him, wasn't pleased or fussed. 25 mill is probably fair in this market for his ability, which is fairly limited. But at the same time it's kind of a pointless sale in that as a squad player there's not much more you can ask for, at least until you've got City like depth. With a few players leaving it looks more questionable but certainly not a big loss for a player that needs and wants to play football.
I always thought we should of kept him… not as a regular starter but just as a squad player… under the right manager he’d of been a great player especially now when we’re trying to turn into a pressing team. You can hardly judge any player that was playing under ole to be fair.
Honest player, found his level
He scored 2 goals yesterday. As many as he's scored in the previous 20 games.
Suddenly he's a World beater who we should never have sold and should play ahead of Rashford and Ronaldo.
Suddenly he's a World beater who we should never have sold and should play ahead of Rashford and Ronaldo.
Well said. Absolute common sense. Now watch dozens of absolute fecking children throw their toys out the pram on here when the inevitable happens.
Just so obvious isn’t itHe's looking even more lost at Leeds than he did at united. No signs of improvement at all. A few goals and the odd assist are surely not good enough for their record signing.
It's not just Bielsa's methods and deployment stopping him. Many thought he'd flourish under the guy but that's not the case at all
It's not just Bielsa's methods and deployment stopping him. Many thought he'd flourish under the guy but that's not the case at all