Could he potentially play as a central attacker that overlaps martial & Rashford playing as strikers?
In a more simple way - can he do what Lingard does as a false nine with all that movement that creates space for the forwards we have?
Can Sancho start centrally before drifting wide to the free spaces ie - ?
Starting from :
Martial - Sancho- Rashford
To
Sancho - Martial - Rashford
Or
Martial - Rashford - Sancho
depending on where the space opens up?
From what I have seen Sancho is a creator & is able to get on both sides of the pitch - providing an element of significant width to Dortmund's attack.
Rashford & Martial are much better forwards than wingers & their attack gets toned down the wider they play. If Sancho can start in the middle & drift to wide left or right - this should allow martial & Rashford to get in to deadly positions in front of goal by him taking their positions & creating chances for them from out wide.
This is something that Lingard does already & whilst not the most clinical; is a vital part of holding an element of fluidity in our front 3 that makes the opposition defence Always without failure face a front 3; never less whilst also making it compact, short & quick.
Iv got no issues with Sancho coming here as a RW only - but a part of me has this feeling that as a pure winger at RW that our attack gets a tad lopsided since we would have these forwards playing in wide areas whilst having a more creative winger down the right. I'd rather see Sancho start centrally then drift in to free spaces to create whilst martial & Rashford tap in against the goalie non stop.
Others can offer their perspective on this, but for me, you want Sancho out wide for the simple reason that he draws players towards him, needs multiple bodies to try and contain (the one going to him being covered by someone trying to sweep, and in some instances another trying to run/press and railroad him) in which case, he's freeing up massive amounts of space for clever players in the middle to exploit.
I think with his technical ability, intelligence and reading of the game, playing through the middle could well be in his future, and as an atypical wide-man, the transition or switching to and fro, wouldn't be much of a problem - a template for that is perhaps Messi. Obviously the onus is not on comparing their abilities outright, but rather what someone small with exceptional close control, intelligence and situational awareness can do when moved from wide to central areas, however:
I think it's the literal opposite of that. His passing and finishing, while decent, aren't that special. What makes him special is his ability to face 1-3 defenders and consistently keep the ball while probing for a defender's miss-step or a dribbling opportunity.
It's an incredibly important quality when trying to break through against an organized defence after a methodical and slow paced build-up.
@do.ob statement in this regard rings a bell because Sancho's passing is not incisive in its own right, like Messi's was even before he became a playmaker. Sancho's passing is brilliant thus far because he switches the play at the exact right time to make a complex situation a very simple one where a cutback of his looks like something genial because of how he's beguiled so many players beforehand before putting a pass on a plate for a now-open team-mate.
The difference through the middle is he won't get time to work and isolate as often, so would have to play passes through packed central areas whilst having more bodies coming at him from all angles than he gets out wide. He's not shown he can just slot passes through defenses without doing a copious amount of dribbling prior to pass-release yet, so he'd either be reliant on counters, where holes then opens up or having to do a lot of extra work through magical footwork to force bodies onto himself to then slot through or triangulate and work space that way.
Lingard's biggest asset is massive amounts of clever off the ball movements, Sancho's is having the ball itself and drawing players on to him. It'd take a hell of a lot of effort on Sancho's part to move as ceaselessly as Lingard does and I think you'd be looking at a very different, more ball-hoggy player through the middle with Sancho there, who wouldn't be as willing to make continuous off the ball runs, because his nature is to come to the ball and work with it, not have others find him in space.
He's only 18 and there's plenty of time for such things to develop in his game, but I think wide positions make the most sense for him and the game he currently has than central. I think Pogba and Rashford would be the biggest benefactors of Sancho on the right as the more bodies he draws, the more space both of them get to work in. Even Martial would find he has more space to work in because teams would have to decide how they're going to try and mark as well as cover for such a mobile, fluid unit who all need a double-team to really contain.