{"id":413229,"date":"2025-09-10T13:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413229\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T13:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T13:30:21","slug":"dan-james-poor-form-is-perfect-chance-for-leeds-united-to-finally-promote-like-for-like-u21s-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413229\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan James’ poor form is perfect chance for Leeds United to finally promote like-for-like U21s star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dan James was Leeds United\u2019s Player of the Season last time round. But the Welshman hasn\u2019t started this season all that well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dan James<\/a> enjoyed his best-ever season for Leeds United<\/a> last time round, scoring 12 goals and assisting nine more in 36 total games.<\/p>\n

Scooping the Player of the Season award, many expect this season to be the season where James finally cracks the Premier League. So far though, he\u2019s not shown that he\u2019s ready to do that.<\/p>\n

Leeds United fans have been critical of James\u2019 performances<\/a> so far, so too have the Welsh media who said James didn\u2019t play well<\/a> in the friendly defeat against Canada on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

With wingers few and far between at Elland Road<\/a>, Daniel Farke<\/a> could be tempted to turn towards the youth academy to add some exciting new competition to the ranks.<\/p>\n

\"DanPhoto by James Gill \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty ImagesLeeds United have a Dan James 2.0 in the making<\/p>\n

Leeds have a very impressive U21s squad with several players starting to make names for themselves, the main one of course being Harry Gray. But Josh McDonald is another who\u2019s seemingly getting better and better, with Leeds showing their faith in the 18-year-old this summer, handing him a new deal right until 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Scotland U17s international, McDonald suffered an injury setback last season but is back this time round. Speaking at the start of summer when he penned his new deal, McDonald gave Leeds United fans an insight into his style of play, and he certainly sounds a lot like James and how he plays.<\/p>\n

McDonald told the club: \u201cI would say I am a one-on-one player. I want to go out and beat the man. I like playing exciting football and getting the fans up.\u201d<\/p>\n\nStatistic<\/strong><\/td>\nJosh McDonald in 24\/25<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nStats<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGoals<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAssists<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMins played<\/td>\n736<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

McDonald is completely lacking in first-team experience, but Farke may have to seriously consider promoting the teenager and other attackers within the youth ranks, with Leeds lacking up top.<\/p>\n

Leeds United sent Largie Ramazani out on loan<\/a> to Valencia before the window slammed shut, and it\u2019s a decision that already seems to have come back to haunt them after failing to sign a replacement on deadline day.<\/p>\n

Noah Okafor now has a lot of pressure to step up, with Wilfried Gnonto, Jack Harrison and James the only other options on the flanks.<\/p>\n

Any injuries on the wing would leave Farke light and so he could be tempted into giving players like McDonald some first-team exposure, even if it\u2019s just on the bench, so that he has some options should someone like James pick up an injury.<\/p>\n

But the Welshman will still get plenty of time to get back into form: if he can do that then Leeds\u2019 attacking woes could quickly ease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan James was Leeds United\u2019s Player of the Season last time round. But the Welshman hasn\u2019t started this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,72047,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-413229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dan-james","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115180249163767837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}