Daniel James on the change of mindset that has made him Leeds United's main man — Yorkshire Post 21/3/25

By Stuart Rayner

LEEDS UNITED winger Daniel James says he has learnt to take more risks as he has got older as he tried to make himself the "main man" for club and country.

Often players become more conservative as they get older, but 27-year-old James has come to understand that the best way to make the most of his talents is by taking the more positive approach. Leeds are certainly reaping the rewards.

A full Wales international since he was 20 who has cost £40m in transfer fees, Hull-born James has an impressive CV. Yet it is arguably only under the management of Daniel Farke he has really begun to fulfil his potential at club level.

Marcelo Bielsa famously failed in a deadline-day attempt to sign James from Swansea City in 2019 as the documentary cameras captured an exasperated Leeds running out of time to do a deal.

Instead he joined Manchester United that summer in a £15m deal but only six Premier League goals and 39 starts were a poor return for a player who only showed in flashes what he was capable of.

There was understandable excitement when Bielsa finally got his man for £25m in 2021, but again he disappointed.

Often used to fill in at centre-forward, he scored just four goals in a debut season which saw the Whites narrowly avoid relegation under Bielsa's replacement, Jesse Marsch. James watched from the sidelines after a daft red card early in a 3-0 defeat at home to Chelsea left him suspended for the final two matches.

It was not as if he made up for his lack of goals with assists, either, creating just three for others in that campaign.

A loan to Fulham looked like an escape route but he made just five Premier League starts for the Cottagers, and was sent back to a club now in the Championship.

Finally, under Farke, he is producing the form he has hinted at for so long, and he puts it down to a change of mindset.

"As a winger I want to be as direct as possible, not turning things down," he told the BBC ahead of Wales' World Cup qualifier at home to Kazakhstan on Saturday.

"Sometimes I look back at games and I've been quite safe. That might look good from the outside, keeping the ball, but ultimately I'm in the team to try and create things, that constant mindset of 'Can I get a goal or an assist?' – and believing that.

"And when you do give the ball away, it's so important the reaction is to want it again.

"You might get tackled nine times out of ten but it's about that tenth time where something will happen, and I'm trying to keep that mindset."

Whereas before, when chances fell to James it seemed to be a toss of a coin as to whether or not he would score, now there is far greater composure in front of goal.

Thirteen goals and eight assists were the best return of his career last season. This term he has 10 and nine with eight games to play.

He only had 23 and 37 respectively in the rest of a senior club career which began with a goalscoring Swansea FA Cup debut in 2018 having been released by Hull City as a youngster.

And in a Leeds squad blessed with four high-quality wingers – three full internationals, plus Largie Ramazani, who is a Belgian under-21 international – James is a player his manager utterly depends on as Leeds look to win promotion back to the Premier League.

In the last six matches James has only been substituted once, and that was in stoppage time. The previous occasion he came off early was only after scoring twice at Watford, with his side 4-0 up.

He has started every league game this year, only a substitute three times since returning from a hamstring problem – a tricky injury for speedy wide players – in October.

Having swapped positions across the front three under previous managers, James is now a fixture on the right, forming an excellent relationship with his full-back, Jayden Bogle – perhaps his main rival for Leeds’ player of the season award.

It feels like Farke gets James.

“When he first came in he put his arm around me, we have a good relationship,” says the latter. “It’s one that I’ve tried to continue over the last two years, listening. The way he sets up the team suits me down to the ground.”

With it comes responsibility.

"I'm not a young player anymore," says a man with 55 caps. "I want to try and be that main man."

It goes beyond goals and assists.

Winning the ball back quickly when the opposition defenders have it is such an important part of modern football tactics, and starting the "press" is James’ job. It is his own form of quiet leadership.

"When you start the press off you can get the boys up for it on the pitch rather than off it," he explains.

"It doesn't add any pressure (to him). There's games where things you try maybe don't go right, but you just continue to try and do the right stuff and keep trying to be that main man."

There seems little doubt he is now.