Sancho needs time... and a role at United

WITH 15 league appearances under his belt, Manchester United’s Jadon Sancho has scored one goal and failed to register an assist.

His goal and assist rate of one per 849 minutes is more than 10 times worse than it was during his final two seasons at Borussia Dortmund, where his average was 83 minutes.

So, why hasn’t Sancho settled at Old Trafford?

It would be lazy to suggest that he is suffering from a lack of confidence. Sancho (below, celebrating during a Bundesliga game) came to United with consistent years of excellent form at one of Europe’s top clubs.

He was also part of the England squad that made the Euro 2020 final on home turf this past summer.

On the pitch, he isn’t making any obvious errors. He isn’t missing chances or misplacing passes. He just isn’t influencing games as he can do.

I believe the issue is that Sancho feels as though he doesn’t have a mandate at United to be the player he was for Dortmund. He doesn’t feel like a locked-in, senior member of the first team with the right to dictate and control a game.

I have been used as a utility player, in any spot along the back line, sometimes in midfield and sometimes on the wings. You don’t feel valued. You feel like a square peg in a round hole and it’s hard to improve and get consistent form.

Although he often played on the left in Germany, Sancho was supposed to be the solution to United’s problems on the right of the pitch. They have a glut of talent who liked to operate on the left wing – the likes of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba and even Juan Mata – but no one for a similar role on the other side.

United were one of the most unbalanced teams in the league last season. They had the joint second lowest percentage of attacks down the right and the third highest percentage down the left.

Signing Sancho (above) was meant to even that out, while also freeing up the talented Mason Greenwood to move from his makeshift right-wing role back to his more natural central position in conjunction with Edinson Cavani.

Instead, with Cristiano Ronaldo suddenly joining the squad, Greenwood has been forced back to the right wing, which has eaten into what was supposed to be Sancho’s position. In those 15 league games, Sancho has found himself on the left wing six times, the right wing five times and centrally four times.

And if the game against Burnley last week is anything to go off, then it looks as though he will be used as a generic central attacking midfielder in Ralf Rangnick’s 4-2-2-2 formation, which isn’t his strength.

At 21, Sancho is a top player, but needs to be given some consistency by United in order to shine. The future seemingly lies in a front three of Rashford, Greenwood and Sancho. Now should be the time to lock Sancho into that right side and allow him to flourish and lead the team for years to come.