Leeds United travel to Norfolk on Sunday to face Norwich City in a huge clash at the bottom of the Premier League table.
The Whites came into the weekend 17th in the table and five points clear of the Canaries heading into the match. A defeat would see the gap close to two points and Leeds stuck on one win after 10 league matches.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side were also beaten 2-0 by Arsenal in the Carabao Cup at the Emirates Stadium in their last competitive outing earlier this week.
James hasn’t been good enough
Bielsa must now ruthlessly axe Dan James from the starting XI as he is not good enough to warrant a start in present form.
Should Dan James start?
Yes
No
The Welsh attacker put in a dreadful display against Arsenal in midweek and has not had the best of times since making the switch from Manchester United. He played 70 minutes against the Gunners and was unable to make a positive impact on the game as his end product left plenty to be desired.
As per SofaScore, he lost a whopping six of his seven individual duels (85.7%), missed one big chance and was dribbled past three times by opposition players. The forward also messed up a couple of opportunities to thread a player through on goal on the counter as he chose the wrong option and the attack broke down.
He has now played eight times for Leeds this season and is yet to register a single goal or assist from out wide for the Whites. In the Premier League this term, he has lost 59% of his duels and completed 74% of his passes whilst only creating 0.5 chances per game.
The £52k-per-week lightweight has quite simply not been good enough for Bielsa. His statistics show that he is not pulling his weight defensively or offensively and Leeds cannot afford to have a liability in the side in a relegation clash, with both teams potentially fighting hard to win an early six-pointer.
Therefore, he must be axed from the starting XI to give another player a chance to show that they are at the standard required to perform week-in, week-out. Youngsters Crysencio Summerville and Joe Gelhardt were both on the bench against Arsenal and could inject some youth and enthusiasm in place of James.
AND in other news, Sold for £10m, now a Championship outcast: Leeds had a blinder with “special” 24 y/o…