Jadon Sancho has not enjoyed the best of starts to his career at Manchester United, struggling to contribute to the team going forward since his £73 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
The absence of a single goal or assist for the first block of games had led pundits to question his signing and price tags. The lack of form was maybe best summed up by Sky Sports Germany when they created a graphic with Sancho as 007, mocking his zero goals and zero assists in seven games.
However, many United fans were reluctant to write off the forward, as it was still early in the season. It seems their faith has been rewarded as under Michael Carrick, Sancho has recorded two goals in his last two games.
This may be due to the English winger finally getting time to play on the right-hand side, where Ole Gunnar Solskjaer severely underutilised him. Or it may be that the change in the system that Carrick has implemented in his short time in charge of the team has given him more freedom.
If history is anything to go by, Sancho had a similar misfiring start to his campaign last season with Dortmund, not scoring a goal until Matchday 14 in the Bundesliga.
In the following ten appearances, he registered six goals and six assists. Furthermore, at the end of the campaign, Sancho had 16 goals and 21 assists, marking his third season in a row where he had registered double figures in both of these statistics.
This shows why United were so desperate to sign the player and what fans can expect when the team fully utilises him to the best of his ability.
When Ralf Rangnick finally becomes interim manager, Jadon Sancho will only get better.
Sancho has all the attributes that Rangnick looks for in a player deployed in what the German calls the ‘red-zone’. He has good movement off the ball, creating space for the rest of the squad to pass into. He also has a great work rate off the ball, pressing the opponent and forcing them into mistakes, and we saw that on Sunday against Chelsea.
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Having played in the Bundesliga, Sancho will have some understanding of the ideas that Rangnick will try to get across to the rest of the team. In the early stages, players who are familiar with the style of play will be invaluable as gegenpressing is a style of play that can be instantly implemented, especially if the team has not been coached in that way before.
Some players like Fred and Bruno Fernandes will take to it a lot easier due to their high work rate regardless, but others may fall behind as it does not suit the style of football they are used to playing.
Sancho is in the perfect middle ground. He will be familiar with the style, even if it’s not Dortmunds preferred style of play, just having played in the Bundesliga. He is also a young and impressionable player with a reasonable work rate who would be open to learning this style of play regardless.
Sancho is a top talent, and every United fan must be glad that he is finally starting to deliver on the promise he has shown previously, and we will be hoping that he continues this form into the future.
Who would you like Rangnick’s first signing to be for Manchester United? Follow our United On My Mind writer Casey Evans on Twitter and get involved in the discussion in the comment section below.
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