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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
George Smith

Daniel James admits big difference between training sessions at Manchester United and Leeds

Former Manchester United winger Daniel James has revealed that he had never experienced such informative training sessions until completing a move to Leeds United in the summer transfer window.

The Wales international, who United snapped up from Swansea City in the summer of 2019, joined Leeds on the final day of last summer's transfer window in a £25million deal, with regular game time at Old Trafford increasingly hard to come by.

James racked up 74 appearances during his United career and showed glimpses of his qualities, scoring nine goals and grabbing nine assists in all competitions.

The winger, who turned 24 back in November, has enjoyed a steady start to life at Elland Road, scoring twice and notching two assists in 20 appearances so far.

But while he is yet to hit top gear in West Yorkshire, James has revealed how much he has learned from Marcelo Bielsa's training methods, implying that the sessions United put on at Carrington were far from the same standard.

"The detail is second to none," James told BBC Radio Leeds.

"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.

"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, as you said, off the ball I find myself doing without even thinking anymore because we do it in training every single day.

"I've taken so much out of it."

Bielsa, of course, is renowned as a coach who pays the strictest possible attention to detail, leaving no stone unturned in his preparations for almost anything.

Thus, James will be hoping his methods will help him develop at the Yorkshire club.

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