For anyone who needed reminding, Dan James has shown once again why he is one of Leeds United’s most valuable players.
There are flashier attacking options in manager Daniel Farke’s squad. There are players in that squad who have been at the club for far less time than the Welshman yet have their own catchy songs — in some cases, multiple tunes — sung in their honour from the terraces. But in Saturday’s 3-0 home win against Plymouth Argyle, James produced a performance to reassert his status as the player who is the heartbeat of this side.
When Leeds have needed him, in far tougher tests than the one posed by Wayne Rooney’s weekend visitors, James has stepped up. He was one of the few players not to wilt under the pressure of the occasion at last season’s Championship play-off final and he still bears a scar on his forehead from a collision with Southampton’s Kyle Walker-Peters in that game.
This campaign has been a clean slate for Leeds to build something new under Farke after the monumental efforts of last season and its agonising end, as automatic promotion slipped away and was followed by Wembley defeat.
James’ class has never been in doubt but it is always easy to get carried away by the promise of shiny new arrivals. Those came in the forms of Largie Ramazani and Manor Solomon, both brought in to add depth out wide in the final week of this year’s summer window. Meanwhile, Willy Gnonto has looked most likely to inherit the departed Crysencio Summerville’s ‘main man’ title with a number of standout performances making him certain of a starting place.
With injuries disrupting his start to the season — six league matches missed due to a hamstring complaint from August to October — it was easy to overlook James and his importance to what is a youthful Leeds side.
But against Plymouth, he showed what he adds from the off, despite being a doubt due to a return of his hamstring issue before the game.
James, who turns 27 this week, was a menace to Plymouth as they camped 10 men behind the ball in an attempt to shut Leeds out. There was little hope of that approaching paying off as he sent crosses into the area and produced a moment of magic for the opener on the half-hour. Leeds’ 23 shots to zero dominance over the course of the game reflected the gap between the two sides, particularly in the first half.
Over the full 90 minutes, Plymouth did not even manage to win a corner and finished with an expected goals figure of 0.0 — the first time that has happened for a team in the Championship this season. In recent seasons, only Millwall have managed that unwanted achievement, in a goalless draw against Blackburn Rovers in March 2022.
Rooney was in the firing line with frequent chanting in his direction from the home crowd, given his playing history for rivals Manchester United, although James’ own 74 games for that club have apparently been wiped from the collective memory at Elland Road.
Nothing could have stopped James’ rocket for Leeds’ first goal, drilled in from range after being teed up by Gnonto at the edge of the area. It was just reward for James, who had 10 crosses in the game, a tally only bettered by Ilia Gruev’s 11 against Portsmouth in August among Leeds players this season. James’ 15 passes ending in the final third reflected his link-up play as Leeds remained camped in Plymouth’s half — central midfield pair Joe Rothwell and Ao Tanaka topped the metrics in that respect with 44 and 34 each, the two highest totals in that metric this season by Leeds players.
Joel Piroe scored his fifth of the season three minutes later to put Leeds in control when he prodded home in the area after Tanaka’s volleyed shot dropped kindly to him, before James was involved again for the third after another five minutes. Linking up well with stand-in right-back Sam Byram, in for the suspended Jayden Bogle, James’ whipped cross to Piroe caused chaos in the box and the striker’s backheeled effort fell to Brenden Aaronson for an easy finish.
Leeds never needed to get out of third gear and although the game petered out in the second half, James continued to be lively until his substitution, for Solomon, just after the hour.
Farke is yet to see the best from Solomon, with the German comparing the Tottenham loanee’s form to shaking a bottle of ketchup last week against Bristol City, saying: “You shake it up and you never know when it’s going to suddenly flow.” Though he did not have the same level of impact as James against Plymouth, Solomon is still chasing full match fitness after also missing games, with back and hamstring complaints, in the past few months.
Ramazani is the latest Leeds player on the treatment table as he spends time recovering from an ankle ligament injury but when all four of his wingers are fully fit, Farke will have a great depth of talent at his disposal. James’ star turn on Saturday was another reminder of what he can do.
“It was not a risk (to play James) because he had no bad reaction from his body after being involved in training,” Farke said. “He looked really sharp on Friday in training, so we got the green light from the medical department. The last away game (Bristol City), he had a good game and I got the feeling he needed to be on the pitch. I’m grateful that after 65 minutes I was able to give him a rest but, on the other hand, after a bit of a disrupted start to the season, he needs a bit of game time.
“These 65 minutes were more or less the perfect (amount of) game time for him, it was good for his confidence that he scored the goal and had involvement in many good scenes for us. So he is in good shape, we definitely need him back and if it would be a risky situation I would have gone for a different solution today. But we decided to give him the nod for the starting line-up, and thank god we did.”
(Top photo: Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)
