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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Mathew Davies

Daniel James' Leeds United remarks expose Man Utd flaws

Daniel James says the attention to detail at Leeds United is second to none and that he's learned "so much" since swapping Manchester United for Elland Road.

James moved across the Pennines on the last day of the summer transfer window for a fee of £25million - possibly rising to £30million with add-ons.

The arrivals of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho pushed the Wales star further down the pecking order, with one United director allegedly informing James he would be seventh choice at Old Trafford should be he remain in situ.

As such he decided to trade Manchester for Leeds. Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa had courted James since his Swansea City days and the manager finally got his man.

Going from working under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to Bielsa was clearly a big shift for James, and his comments about training and preparation will raise a few eyebrows among Red Devils fans.

"The detail is second to none," James told BBC Radio Leeds when asked about life at Leeds under the Argentine.

"Everything is so fine and detailed. The one-to-one meetings and everyone’s obviously got their individual clips to look at, which he goes through with you.

"The detail of it. I've learnt so much here already and I’ve still got so much to learn, but he’s been absolutely brilliant since I’ve come in."

James, 24, has featured 22 times for Leeds in all competitions so far this term, scoring twice, and he has sometimes been deployed in a false nine position - something he experienced occasionally at Swansea under Graham Potter.

Translating his work from the training ground to matchday is becoming second nature, he says.

"There’s times where he’s had to reiterate things, but there’s stuff in the games you do which maybe doesn’t get seen," he said.

"Off the ball I find myself doing without even thinking anymore because we do it in training every single day."

The drilled-down attention to detail comments will hit home for Manchester United supporters, with both Solskjaer and new boss Ralf Rangnick reportedly facing questions over their training methods.

Solskjaer's sessions were once labelled "basic", while under Rangnick players have reportedly already questioned his techniques at Carrington.

Manchester United are fourth in the Premier League table, with Leeds in 15th.

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