Leeds United winger Daniel James put in an impressive display for Wales despite their UEFA Nations League defeat to Poland on Sunday night.

The Lowdown: Fulham loan

James moved to Elland Road just over 12 months ago from Manchester United but struggled to nail down a spot under Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch.

The 24-year-old made majority coming as a centre-forward due to Patrick Bamford’s injury struggles last season.

He fell out of favour recently, though, with Marsch allowing him to join Fulham on a season-long loan on transfer deadline day, with teenager Wilfried Gnonto coming in.

The Latest: James impresses for Wales

James won his 37th cap for his country and his 12th in the UEFA Nations League on Sunday, starting alongside Brennan Johnson in behind Gareth Bale in Wales' attack. He played the full 90 minutes and was his team’s top-rated performer on SofaScore with a rating of 7.4/10.

The 24-year-old made three key passes (more than Johnson and Bale combined), won seven of his 11 duels, drew three fouls and made two tackles.

No other Wales attacker got close to James’ SofaScore rating, with a second-half goal from Poland’s Karol Swiderski proving the difference on the night.

[web_stories_embed url="https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/latest-leeds-united-news-51/" title="Latest Leeds United news" poster="https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/cropped-2022-03-10T184055Z_1834933207_UP1EI3A1FW561_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-ENGLAND-LEE-AVA-REPORT-1-scaled-1.jpg" width="360" height="600" align="none"]

The Verdict: Good signs

James has only played 50 minutes for his new club prior to the international break, so it is good to see him finding some form with his country, despite their Nations League relegation.

You’d expect that his performance at the weekend would’ve impressed Marsch, and who knows, there could be a chance that the winger returns to Yorkshire in the summer, should he not complete a permanent move to Craven Cottage.

Leeds officials may now be hoping that he can take his impressive form for Wales into his time on loan with Fulham.

That may give the Yorkshire club the best chance of receiving a permanent fee for the winger on whom they spent £25m in 2021, or it will at least mean that they will be getting back a player in some sort of positive form come next summer.