The start of the 2019/20 season looks like a long time ago now, but in the first weeks of the longest campaign anyone can remember that Daniel James was the star of the show for Manchester United.
James was the new autograph that caught the eye with his electric start in life at Old Trafford and having only had one senior football season in his career, he was also the young man who was tipped to enter the stratosphere .
But it would always have been difficult to ask James to maintain the performance level that saw him score three goals in his first four games for the club. After all, while James is 22, he doesn’t have the experience of most players of that age. He didn’t make his Football League debut until he missed his 21st birthday a couple of months and when United spent £ 15 million signing him up for Swansea he only had one year of professional football on his behalf.
So it was inevitable that at some point James’ feet would return to earth. It had been an incredible 12 months, since it looked like his turn in Swansea would never come to the signing for Manchester United, through a bizarre January day trip to Elland Road when a transfer to Leeds collapsed after the eleventh Now. At some point, he would always meet the fast wing.
Now, with the 2019/20 season running for the second time, his signature status has been taken which has captured the attention and the young man who is setting the languages.
Bruno Fernandes’ dramatic impact from his £ 47 million move from Sporting Lisbon in January made him the newcomer of the year. As the season progressed, James had the least impact of United’s four permanent signatures this season, although he was probably always expected, being the cheapest and least experienced.
He has also now lost his place on the team against a four-year-old younger player, whose performances have been sensational since the season started again. Mason Greenwood is one of the hottest properties in European football right now and his performances in the right-wing role of James have been magnificent. Adds balance and another threat to the target of the attack.
United was missing this, to some extent, with James on the right. He had scored just one more goal since that quick start to his United career, in the 5-0 win at LASK Linz in March, and being right handed, he tended to stay on the pitch instead of threatening the penalty like Greenwood does.
Yet the team role James has now is probably what he should have always been. He was unstoppable for most of the season because United had been so short of options in the top three. This put a level of pressure and control on James which was unfair to a player who was still adjusting to a mercurial surge in 12 months.
There was some hope that James could benefit from the forced break this season, but was disappointing for United’s first United Project Restart day and with Greenwood hitting the bench at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the 18-year-old didn’t watch since.
Since then, Tottenham James have played only 48 minutes of football in the Premier League in four late appearances. He didn’t need to influence those games, but with his pace he could very well be a useful threat that comes off the bench in the games as he starts when rotation is required.
This is probably the situation this week. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has named an XI unchanged for four consecutive Premier League games, but this week tomorrow United face Southampton at Old Trafford, Crystal Palace on Thursday at Selhurst Park and then an FA Cup semifinal with Chelsea on Sunday. It’s a busy week that requires some degree of rotation.
United have been in an irresistible form of delay and two Premier League wins this week will see them approaching a fourth place, but Frank Lampard’s clash with Chelsea is undoubtedly the toughest task. There will be no eight changes for that game, as for the FA Cup quarter-finals in Norwich, when United almost paid the price for the excessive rotation.
So they will almost certainly return to Southampton or Palace James. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he played in both games. His role in the shadows will have kept him fresh recently and Greenwood’s rise to prominence has brought the spotlight and pressure to the £ 15 million wing.
This is why he will surely benefit and when his chance comes this week, it would not be a surprise if he did.
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