Daniel James underwent post-match media duties after Leeds United were resoundingly beaten 3-0 by Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon, with the Welsh winger blaming the Whites' poor start to the game as they struggled to adapt to the tempo set by the home side.
Everton took the lead through Seamus Coleman in the tenth minute but could have been ahead in the first couple of minutes after Anthony Gordon was only denied by an excellent recovery tackle from Luke Ayling after Robin Koch gave the ball away poorly inside Leeds' defensive third.
"We weren’t at the races from the start and their fans got behind them and they were the better team today," James told LUTV.
"We knew they were going to be at the races, a new manager, on the front foot. The early goal killed us a bit and we had to work to get back into the game and unfortunately we couldn’t."
Despite going in 2-0 down at half-time, Leeds had hit the bar twice in opening 45 minutes as two long distance strikes from Rodrigo beat Jordan Pickford but came bouncing back off the woodwork. James was asked whether he felt the game might have played out differently had one of those gone in:
"Yeah, it could have been but we’ve got to keep creating chances.
"They got their second and we still believed we could get back into the game. You know, the other day we were two goals down and we came back. On another day, both of them go in."
The result means Everton are now only a point behind Leeds in 16th place but they have a game in hand over the Whites and Leeds may now look over their shoulders again, particularly with a difficult run of fixtures coming up. James was asked whether the team felt they were in a spot of bother after this result, to which he replied in the negative.
"No, not at all. We believe in ourselves and the manager believes in us. Today wasn’t our day."
