I don't even think they have as much pace as you assume. Salah's 33 km/h top speed for instance is almost average. Great timing, movement and transitioning makes players look fast. If you actually look at the goals they scored against you, none of them involved outpacing the defenders. Also, look at how easy it was for Diaz to get his goal and assist. He could keep it very simple. When was the last time one of your attackers just needed to keep it simple to create a great chance? Sancho needed to take out 4 players through dribbling and passing to create that chance for Rashford while at Liverpool, the transitional moments seem so orchestrated. They make the right runs with the right timing and the players know which passes they have to play at which moment and with which urgency to get into the dangerous areas. They see when there's an opportunity to pass to a player between the lines and then accelerate the play. I mean, look at the first Salah goal, that's the perfect environment for Sancho - one player coming short, play it into his feet and get it back, another one running inbehind with the right timing, etc. And all this isn't new, it's the same recipe that made Dortmund so successful under Klopp.
If Sancho would be playing for Liverpool, he'd start at LW 100% with Mané playing false 9. He'd flourish in this system to an extent less talented players like Dias or Jota aren't capable of. And he'd look much faster and aggressive than he currently does for you. Klopp always had players like Dias at Dortmund (albeit with lesser quality), like Kuba or Großkreutz for instance but the ones to really excel under him were the technically excellent players great in tight spaces like Reus, Götze, Gündogan, Lewandowski, Kagawa, etc. Typical Pep players actually.
Good post but the top speed thing isn’t really representative of anything, the Leicester defender(not Fofana) was said to have the fastest top speed of all players in the pl one season and anyone with two eyes could see he wasn’t even top 30 fastest players in this league, you’re eyes are literally a better judge of top speed in this occasion and anyone can see that Sancho doesn’t have the pace Salah or Mane have, pretty easily.
Im not saying Sancho won’t be good just saying that Klopp prefers he’s wingers to be technically excellent which Sancho and Diaz are, but also be aggressive and have high end athleticism which Diaz Mane Jota have but Sancho doesn’t. By the way Sancho isn’t more talented than Diaz at all if we’re talking strictly technique, Diaz is very South American like with his ball playing ability.
Diaz Mane Salah in this comparison are the prototype wide forward because they tick all the boxes, good technique athleticism and strength plus aggression stamina and intensity, Sancho and Jota don’t, Sancho has great technical ability probably the most technical alongside Diaz in this comparison, but doesn’t have the intensity strength or outright crazy pace.
Jota has limited technique but has pace intensity and movement, Klopp could fit him in but it’s no surprise as soon as Diaz came who ticks all the boxes Jota has been more on the bench in the bigger games.
The truth is most top wide forwards in the modern game have pace and intensity, Salah Mane Mbappe Vinicius Jr Neymar, for Sancho to truly be a top player in the Pl he would need to add certain things like stamina pressing and movement in behind to compensate for his lack of top level pace. I rate him and feel like he could be one of the top 10 players in the world still but looking at his game I can see why he hasn’t completely took to the PL like many thought he would have outside of United being dysfunctional, he still needs to work on certain parts of his game off the ball.
A player like Saka is another comparison of a player lesser talented on the ball but fits into PL football a bit more at the moment because of how much work he is willing to put into pressing driving at defenders and off the ball movement.
Saying that to stick to the thread title Nkunku seems to be a player who presses and has incredible off the ball movement as well also so I think the concerns with Sancho wouldn’t be the exact same with him even though he doesn’t have top line pace also.