Sancho’s our secret agent, says Ten Hag

JADON SANCHO could be Erik ten Hag’s secret weapon to stop Erling Haaland as Manchester United travel to the Etihad buoyed by success on the international stage.

Ten Hag has promised he’s done his own homework on Haaland who turned down a move to Old Trafford to join City in the summer and has scored 14 goals in 10 matches for his new club.

But the United boss acknowledges he’s approached Sancho for extra marginal gains aware that the winger spent 18 months with Haaland at Dortmund with the pair scoring 81 goals between them (Haaland 58, Sancho 23).

‘It’s our job as staff to look at someone like Haaland in advance. If an individual makes a huge contribution, we need to analyse them,’ said the Premier League’s newly-crowned manager of the month.

‘But of course you talk with your players as well. When someone has played in the past with a particular opponent, like Sancho and Haaland, you ask him.’

Asked if he was disappointed Haaland didn’t consider a move to Old Trafford and whether it reflected the best players in the world don’t want to join United, Ten Hag retorted: ‘We have them already in.

‘We have players who have potential to be the best, and some are already there.

‘We have a world champion (Raphael Varane) and players with the biggest titles (Casemiro, Cristiano Ronaldo) so you can say they are the best in the world.

‘In the window, I was in contact with a lot of players and you felt Man United was a really attractive club for them. So I am not concerned about the point about Haaland.’ Despite the troubles of club captain Harry Maguire with England last week, the majority of United players impressed for their countries during the break.

‘We followed all the players and almost all did well,’ Ten Hag said. ‘Diogo (Dalot) scored twice for Portugal, Bruno Fernandes scored and had two strong games Casemiro played really well and Fred did his job for Brazil.

‘Luke Shaw definitely played really strong for England against Germany.’ Ten Hag worked as part of Pep Guardiola’s staff at Bayern Munich before he went on to make his own name as a number one with Ajax.

‘Of course I know him but we worked together eight years ago and as a manager, one of the main things is you always have to develop. That’s what he has done and hope I did too,’ said Ten Hag.

Maguire misses out today with injury but Marcus Rashford and Sancho could start after being left out of the latest England squad.