Southgate backs Sancho to shine at Old Trafford

Gareth Southgate has urged patience with Jadon Sancho as the england winger continues to find his feet at Manchester United.

the winger moved to Old trafford from Borussia Dortmund during a summer which also saw him racially abused after missing a penalty in england’s shoot-out loss to Italy in the final of euro 2020.

the 21-year-old has struggled to make an impact since joining United, with three Lions boss Southgate admitting his form this season was not worthy of an international call-up.

But he included Sancho in his squad to show his ‘belief’ in the the forward, who then started the 5-0 World Cup qualifying win over andorra on Saturday night.

albeit against inferior opponents, Sancho provided two assists in a strong 72-minute showing.

“It was not easy for a winger in the game because quite often you are receiving the ball with two, sometimes three, defenders really close,” Southgate said.

“So you’ve got to pick the right moment to set the ball off and the right moments to back yourself to maybe take one or two of those players out and I thought he did that exceptionally well a couple of times.

“It is important that he got the assist because you’ve also got to have that productivity and the right pass or the right cross at the end of those passages of play.

“We shouldn’t be surprised that for a young player to have such a big change in his life, new league, new club, different style of play, different training regime, back living in Manchester, moving house and everything that’s involved in that, that’s a lot to take in,” he added. “So it’s going to need time.”