It's weird that you come to this thread if you don't want to talk about football or Sancho especially given you admitted it yourself it actually hit you hard, shouldn't you be the one who take a break from football by staying away from this thread or even forum? I think that's the best for you, log out for a week.
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Like I said in the first post I replied to you, that was yesterday, meaning things have changed. Hope this helps
I was talking about yesterday.
He looks more natural on the left but his output is pretty equal on both sides, he scores a bit more from the left but has more assists from the right. He spent the last year in Dortmund mostly on the left but before that he was a right sided player getting dozens of assists, and this is from before Haaland turned up to convert every chance that fell into the box.
Remove the youth games and the dead rubbers and focus purely on the more recent Bundesliga games, he was much more effective on the right especially in terms of assists.
What he does need is a very attacking full back behind him and in Dalot we do have that, along with two brilliant finishers waiting in the box.
Why are you in the Sancho thread then?
Can we move on from the semantics of what @kouroux said?
It's natural to now expect more from Sancho. He's our only option on the right now, and that's the position we seemingly bought him for despite hardly ever using him there.
Obviously Ronaldo and Cavani have spent portions of their career on the right but that ship has sailed. Same goes for Mata.
Rashford has always been hopeless on the right.
Elanga's never played there.
Pogba hasn't either, but I think he'd be a good option there. When he's drifted to the right side from central midfield he's always looked good, imo. Nice crossing, can beat his man with skill, can keep the ball under pressure which is vital as we never cause overloads down the right, and the lack of options in the wasteland means that particular attribute becomes necessary if we're to keep possession in that area of the pitch.
Obviously Ronaldo and Cavani have spent portions of their career on the right but that ship has sailed. Same goes for Mata.
Rashford has always been hopeless on the right.
Elanga's never played there.
Pogba hasn't either, but I think he'd be a good option there. When he's drifted to the right side from central midfield he's always looked good, imo. Nice crossing, can beat his man with skill, can keep the ball under pressure which is vital as we never cause overloads down the right, and the lack of options in the wasteland means that particular attribute becomes necessary if we're to keep possession in that area of the pitch.
No it is not. If you really dive into the stats you'll see that his output is better on the left and that he actually spent the majority of his timr at Dortmund on the left wing. The notion that he played on the right is widely adapted (also by many media outlets) but not true. Look at the heat maps at Sofascoreto see which areas of the potch he actually occupied. Go through all competitions and seasons and you will see that his productivity actually goes up the more he occupied the left side of the pitch.
Even more importantly, when Sancho actually did occupy the right side, it was in a 3-4-3 formation as a right sided ten, not a traditional winger.
I think when most of us talk about him playing on the right we are referring to the 18/19 season, and he did play most of his games on the right according to heatmaps. His most productive season was 19/20 and he was only marginally more frequently played on the left. Really what it comes down to is that he can do either, but he needs a much more specific setup to succeed on the right.
If we bought him intending to play him on the left it asks some serious questions of our recruitment policy.
Sofascore is a nice website btw, i had not seen it before.
How is his mentality?
He shied away from fighting for a place at City though you can hardly blame him there. Did he have to fight for a spot at Dortmund? Not that I'm aware of.
He strikes me as one of those players who might be best being told the position is his for the next 6 months, instead of having other players breathing down his neck. That's exactly what he's got now.
He plays best on the left, trust this club to go buy another player who’s better on the left when we were screaming out for options on the right. This will mean Rashford will play on the right and play badly because he’s far better off on the left. I’ve given up hope on how this club is run, top to bottom.
For us to even have a hope of having a proper RW, he needs to be left footed for me. That is how bad I see things
For me his best United performances has been on the right.
His left sided version is exceptionally easier to read whilst at RW he holds his width or decides to cut in.
I don't think it's a coincidence his two goals have come more lenient to the right than the left.
I think that's fair enough. Still, the way I see it, Sancho is the player with the highest ceiling right now (though I admit I haven't seen much of Elanga or Diallo) and for me it would make sense to set the team up to get the best out of him. As a fan of the player, I believe he's wasted on the RW the same way other world class inverted wingers would be wasted on the opposite side. So especially in the long run I believe you'd be better of playing him on the left and finally finding a decent solution for the right wing - somebody who's not better on the other side but actually plays his best football there.
Couldn't tell you about his mentality, mate. Like you say, though, this is a great opportunity for him to cement himself into a bona fide starter. Hopefully he grabs it with both hands and, well, feet!
Januzaj to reclaim the #11 shirt?
Sancho is a right winger..this obsession with having right footed players on the left wing cutting in and vice versa on the right relies on having great attacking fullbacks providing width...we have no great attacking fullbacks so that makes us predictable as best seen by Rashford cutting in all the time for the left and never stretch the play by going behind the defender. Sancho did play most of his games at Dortmund as a right winger and he´s looked much better there than on the left. I think he has to get a run of games now in that postion with Elanga/Rashford on the left. It´s been good to see Elanga progress as he can go on the outside of the defender plus cutting in. He also sets a new standard for Rashford and Sancho to match in workrate.
I dont know about Dortmund but he looks way better whenever he plays on the right. Ralf should let him have a proper go at RW, let him play 3-4 games and see how it goes.
I agree. Of the three players mentioned Sancho is definitely the most accomplished on the right side. Rashford and Elanga are more comfortable on the left so leave them there to battle it out.
United having to persevere with him will hopefully be the making of him.
If we can't accept that Sancho's chance to become a Man Utd first teamer is at RW then I don't know what goes through the coaches' and fans' heads. He's never going to be our first choice left winger with Rashford here.
I assume Sancho will not get more opportunities to play, look forward to seeing the player most of us thought he was going to be.
It's really amazing with how much conviction people claim things that simply are not true.
He's played more career games on the left than right.
At one point Matic had played more games as a no.10 than a DM, didn't make him a no.10.
Haha! +1
Also, controversial opinion, but when we play 4-3-3 the attacking players have usually been given a lot of freedom and, for better or worse, are floating around the field in a way that if Sancho wanted to make an impact on either flanks, he probably could have.
There's something wrong with the kid's start at United. I would be making millions if I knew what exactly, but it's very clear he's far from his best. The weirest part is - some games it looked like he wasn't even trying. And that is really strange for a new player.
Why is that ? I am pretty sure in few years Sancho will be bossing this league and Rashford will be bench warmer here or play in some team from middle of the table I do not see a player here but Sancho is pure class, he needs a little bit more time but his decision making and making good moves is miles better than Rashford's and if we can get proper manager to implement some kind of style he will be flying.
He's England's what, 6th choice winger? Gonna have to step up an awful long way to show he's pure class.
IMO Rashford is better than Sancho in every way possible.
There is basically zero evidence of Sancho being anywhere near Rashford's level in the league let alone being better than him.
I'm thinking it's probably something to do with his confidence, cannot explain this otherwise. I've mentioned this multiple times in here before but he looks terrified out there. The minute he gets the ball he panics, looks for the closest player and gives it back 99% of time. He almost never tries anything adventurous which you would definitely expect from one of the most expensive wingers in football. The things that he's been doing you could quite easily delegate to a random Championship winger and they would do them as well.
Like I said, if you know a little about football you can see all that potential in Sancho but evidence is that Rashford is one trick pony with low IQ and will never be elite player.
Sancho is a monster of a player but with our current setup we focus more on a individual player rather then whole team, if we build a team Rashford will be lost and Sancho will be main player but the question is when is that gonna happen. For so long with poor manager as Solskajer who was not able to build a team and thats why players like Rashford were seen as a good players but give it a time and proper manager and setup and everyone will see how poor player he is.
Ah, so it's basically the good old 'I'm a football expert and see little things that nobody else can see'.
So far the only thing we've seen is that Sancho has next to no productivity and Rashford has had 3 seasons with 10+ goals, including one with 17 goals and 7 assists. Sancho so far at United has basically been a worse Dan James without pace.
I also find it weird how people have used 'we need to build a team around him to see how good he is' excuse for Sancho. It is not how it works. You don't build a team around a player who has done next to nothing for you in hope of him finding form. He has to get significantly better or he'll be out anyway.
Rashford in the Bundesliga would be better than Sancho was imo.
The constant space due to the high line etc.
Anyway, I do think Sancho is better for us on the RW than left - and arguably we haven't seen him their consistently; possibly due to our last minute unplanned signings.
The constant space due to the high line etc.
Anyway, I do think Sancho is better for us on the RW than left - and arguably we haven't seen him their consistently; possibly due to our last minute unplanned signings.
It really is weird that Sancho so far didn't show a lot, and his lack of productivity is definitely an issue. Nonetheless I do agree with @3vra that Sancho should be more important than Rashford to make the team click, but as long as that doesn't happen Rashford's productivity just is more important. Sancho needs to improve his performances a lot to beat the one trick pony Rashford (I'm exaggerating here, but you get the point).
I really struggle to understand this notion that fans have. So apparently technical players struggle in teams because they are not built around them, yet "kick and run" players do well?
Sancho needs to fit in this team, I believe he can on the right hand side, his United career has been up and down due to various reasons.
We also need to stop saying Rashford, Bruno, McT are not good footballers, they keep getting picked by managers, they must be good at something.
Rashford is a fast running player, but he is not a quick thinker. Sometimes it's just hilarious how he can't stay onside. He would be caught in the offside trap time and time again and I am quite sure that he wouldn't get the scores Sancho did. High lines also mean tight spaces in (attacking) midfield areas and that's just not what Rashford excels in.
Players need to fit well with each other to perform. Rashford, Bruno, McT are good foodballers, but they are useful for a quite direct style, fit well together and mostly can perform in one team.
Sancho just fits better with a more possession based style than the direct style United prefers. In a way this comes down to the question of the summer "should United better have signed Grealish and City signed Sancho?"
Yeah, I see what you mean but I do actually think Sancho can fit in with these players.
Bruno is a very clever player, he will be able to play with Sancho.
I wouldn't swap Sancho for Grealish, I have hope that Sancho will turn up in the second half of the season.
I do agree. I hope that what I described just means he needs more time to adapt and deal with the changes than most people thought before.
He was quite good in the last games until he got injured. Hope he'll get back even better now that we don't have Greenwood.
Yep, we are also seing that the players that really killed it in the Bundesliga struggle in the PL. In the last 2/3 years, this is because they play such a high line, rarely do teams come across a team to break down.
Sancho has had issues settling in, from being not 100% fit when he got here, to Ole using him sparingly. Started to get into it under Carrick, then had to change in a 4-2-2-2 where none of our attackers looked comfortable. Then he had a family issue. Hopefully, now he is fit and motivated to make the RW his own, also having Dalot there might help.
However; he hasn't helped himself in some games where he has struggled himself, he needs to start doing better too.
That is simple logic IMO. A top RW either needs to naturally left-footed to come inside and have the game on their stronger foot, or athletic enough to excel going on the outside. The average PL full back is pretty athletic themselves, so if you want to go on the outside, you need to be fast and strong enough. This is the reason why coaches have had the bright idea to play Mata on the right but never on the left. Common sense would tell you he has no chance of being a functioning left winger wt the highest level, just as much as common sense would have told you that he could ‘probably do a job on the right’. Just as Jack Grealish can play left wing, or people are now adding Pogba to the list of options we have to play left. But not right, for obvious reasons.
My position last summer was that this signing didn’t make much sense. For a number of reasons. It demonstrated poor planning to me. Greenwood was 19, Amad was 19 and Sancho was 21. All here to ‘develop on the right wing’. Sancho seemed more a vanity purchase - he definitely fit the profile of a ‘United player’, but the actual United football team didn’t look like they had much need.
For me, we’d have been better off at least having a good look at Amad and developing him in rotation with Greenwood. We can dismissively say ‘Amad isn’t ready’, but people say that acting as if that is some sort of permanent state! He was 19. Perhaps by 21 he’d be ‘ready’, and everything in between would of course be a sliding scale of him gradually getting closer to being ready, the more football he played. The fact is - Sancho is 21 and clearly not ready either. I don’t doubt that he will be, at some point, perhaps in a year or so - but if he himself needed development for a year plus before he could really contribute, why not just give that time to the one you bought 6 months earlier? The one who has the added advantage of clearly being a natural fecking right winger too!
I’m sure Amad could have scored two goals and had no assists so far this season with the same minutes. And if he did, I imagine he’d have more by this time next season, just as we’d expect Sancho too. I don’t see him as left gifted than Sancho, so if it is a simple question of which talent is worth developing more, I’d have just gone with him, and bought Declan Rice with the money instead. And again, long term, he’s also a more natural fit for the position at hand. There has been mo such debate about left or right with him. We know that he belongs on the right. When he plays for his country, he’s on the right. When he plays for the 23s, he’s on the right. I’m not one of those who goes on about ‘how to run a football club’, but this micro example demonstrates poor planning and logic to me.
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