Bielsa has been a firm admirer of James over the last few years and was close to linking up with him in January 2019, with Leeds close to snapping him up from Swansea City, but a deal broke down at the eleventh hour.
The Argentine finally got his hands on the Welsh winger on deadline day of the recently concluded transfer window, as the Whites secured his permanent signing from Manchester United for an initial £25m.
Ex-Leeds hitman Beckford feels James adds a lot of pure pace to Leeds’ attack, a quality which Bielsa is a big fan of with the way he sets up his teams.
Beckford added that raw pace is the hardest thing for opponents to defend against and if James can develop his upper body strength a bit more, he can become more of a massive threat up front for Leeds.
Asked what he feels James brings to Leeds, Beckford said on the Official Leeds United Podcast: “He is going to bring pace, is he not?
“He is going to bring a lot of pace and you could be the best football player in the world, but if you have not got the pace to get past players, it is only going to work so many times.
“The hardest thing to defend against, and I have spoken to many defenders about it, is pace.
“You look at somebody like [Adama] Traore for Wolves like he is pacey, he is just pure speed.
“He is powerful, but he is speedy as well and as long as your first touch is decent and you can navigate the ball well enough, which Dan James can do, I think the other side of it if he can work getting a little more upper body strength to get around the defender a little bit easier, pace wise he offers us a massive, massive threat.
“We have not necessarily got that in abundance; we have got quick players but we have not got any real raw pace and I think that is something Bielsa absolutely loves.”
James will meet up with all his new Leeds team-mates after the international break as he is currently part of Wales national camp for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
