Fanfare flowed throughout the Manchester United supporter-base upon the breaking news regarding the club’s interest in wonderkid Jadon Sancho. However, this was in the summer of 2020, and following Manchester United’s inability to secure the wingers’ signature last summer, it’s safe to say the hype surrounding the signing of Sancho this summer was less dramatic as a result.
This underwhelming feeling from the infamously sluggish completion of this transfer has only been compounded by Sancho’s on field performances for Manchester United so far.
The English winger has only made six appearances for the club, with a significant number of those being off the bench, resulting in Sancho not being the goal and assist machine he was in Germany, logging zero goal contributions at the time of writing.
Most of these appearances have seen him feature on the left-hand side in the absence of Marcus Rashford through injury, and whilst this makes sense as Sancho has grown up playing on both wings equally, many Manchester United fans believe Sancho would see more success on the right-hand side where he can perform a more creative role.
Some have gone as far as to criticise manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s ‘tactical decision’ to play Sancho on the left-wing. However, with no other obvious left-wing replacement in the squad for Rashford other than Paul Pogba perhaps (as good as he’s been this season, he doesn’t offer what a ‘winger’ offers in that position), Solskjær’s not exactly had much choice in terms of where he can play Sancho at the moment.
Whilst it may end up being beneficial to start on the right for Sancho’s form upon the return of Marcus Rashford, there are a multitude of factors that could potentially be leading to Sancho not having the best season so far, all of which will likely be remedied by simply having patience, a foreign concept to football twitter.
Whilst yes, Jadon Sancho did come through the academy system in England and ‘should be used to the English game’, English academy football is pitiful compared to professional football in England regarding intensity, physicality, and competition.
A notable difference between the Bundesliga and the Premier League is the amount of space attackers are afforded. The Premier League is frankly a better defensive league, with more compact defences forcing wingers and playmakers to create in much tighter spaces, as there are far less clear counterattacking opportunities and situations where there are three attackers versus one defender for example, compared to the Bundesliga.
Sancho never played in the Premier League or the rest of the football league before moving to Borussia Dortmund, he’s going to need time to learn and adapt to the Premier League game, which is a relatively common process for a lot of players who have joined the league from overseas, so why shouldn’t he be afforded this time?
Alongside requiring time to simply adjust to the style of football in the topflight of England, Sancho should also be afforded time because he’s extremely young. It is easy to forget when you see the stats he put up at Dortmund, and how according to advanced stats he was the second-best winger in the world behind Messi last season, that he is only 21. He’s two and a half years younger than Marcus Rashford, who as good as he is, wasn’t exactly the most consistent player in the world at that age, frequently having spells where he was frustrating to watch and wasn’t always providing goal contributions.
Furthermore, Sancho is also having to adapt to a new tactical setup at Manchester United, which for some players, particularly young players, requires a lot of time to acclimatise to. Are we beginning to notice a recurring theme here?
In all likeliness, Sancho will come good. Yes, the hefty price tag and the often talked about pressure of playing for Manchester United may be weighing on him slightly, as we saw with Memphis Depay. He also isn’t playing his best football currently, however, he simply needs to be afforded time as any player in his position would be if he didn’t have the price tag attached to his name.
Football is surrounded by a rampant fetish for immediacy and results currently, without allowing time for vital processes to occur. This could be said in regard to nearly every aspect of football, but it also applies in the case of Jadon Sancho. Just be patient.