Daniel Farke described Dan James as a “top-class human being” after the Leeds winger scored on his 100th appearance for the club in their 3-1 home win against Middlesbrough.
James’ emphatic second-half finish put Leeds back in front after Max Wober’s own goal had cancelled out Willy Gnonto’s early opener as Leeds regained top spot in the Sky Bet Championship.
Brenden Aaronson added a third for Farke’s side in stoppage time to seal their eighth successive league win at Elland Road and lift them two points clear of Sheffield United.
Farke said: “What he has done for us as a club is excellent. He’s a top-class human being.
“We’re all happy that we have him and rightly so, on such a special day for him, he delivered such a good performance.”
James, in his fourth season at Elland Road after signing from Manchester United in 2021, turned in a man-of-the-match display as he reached a century of games in all competitions for the Whites.
“He’s a key player for us,” Farke said. “He’s so important. Especially since I’ve been his manager, he’s always chipped in with end products, his goals and assists.
“He’s important for our pressing, he’s important for counter-attacks and sometimes he also drives the game forward.
“He chips in at decisive moments with crucial goals, quite often the first goal or to make it 2-1 – the decisive ones.”
Middlesbrough were overrun in the first half but regrouped at the break and gave Leeds plenty of problems in a much-improved second-half display.
Home goalkeeper Illan Meslier produced a crucial save to deny Ben Doak after Wober had headed a corner into his own net to level the match in the 54th minute before Leeds’ late rally secured them a 12th league win of the season.
“I want to say congratulations to Middlesbrough for a really good away performance,” Farke added.
“That makes our win even sweeter because I think we’ve played against an excellent side and we deserved to win this game.”
Boro boss Michael Carrick said his players were left frustrated after slipping to their seventh league defeat of the season.
Carrick said: “Disappointed with the result, yes. I thought the game was right in the balance really, second half.
“In some ways it was where we wanted it. We had a really good spell and looked like, and felt like to be honest, that we could go on and win the game.
“We were doing loads of good things and came back into the game. We’re bitterly disappointed to lose it in the end, for sure.
“We’re striving to be closer to the top of the league and the way the boys are bitterly disappointed not to have more can be taken as a positive.”
