Thought he had a poor game tbh, probably nerves played a part. Shocking dive which he got away with on his first attack then a yellow card for something that obviously wasn't a dive. He tripped over the defenders heel as he sprinted round the back of him but the previous dive had already made the refs mind up on what to expect. AWB doesn't seem to trust him to cross with his right foot and with good reason going off his efforts, not James fault though, he is a left winger naturally.
In pre-season James was better on the left, it's his natural position, but there were several games where there seemed to be confusion between James and Shaw. The presence of James seemed to frustrate Shaw's own tendency to leg it up the wing and at times Shaw seemed out of place. If he can re-learn the left back role to provide for James and then look for space we will be fine. The same applies on the right, Wan Bissaka has a natural tendency to bomb down the line too, and in doing so we can't make as much use as we should from James's strength which is in his pace. I do hope we haven't ended up buying a really good player only to find we haven't got the right place in the side for him. I certainly wouldn't take out Shaw or Wan Bissaka simply to give James a good game.
He definitely plays better off the left, cutting in. He also plays better running onto a ball played behind the opposing defence. Shaw is more attacking than Wan Bissaka so I can see why we are trying him on the right, but those passes haven't been forthcoming from AWB. I don't think he'd work at all in front of Shaw unfortunately, which is likely another reason why he's being played on the right. A conundrum. He's a very good player when used right. It's whether the whole side can play to those strengths.
Don’t write him off, He’ll come good for us, Be patient with him, He’s had a difficult couple of months.
He's a young lad whose had to suffer the grief of losing his father at the very moment his career has taken off. he can take all the he time he likes - but he has to stop diving, he has to lose that side of his game. He needs to just take it, go with it and let the ref (or VAR) make the decision. If he keeps going down he won't get genuine free kicks in dangerous areas.