Jadon Sancho - Chelsea (loan) watch

While I agree on the "know the kind of player you sign", I think it is clear he should be doing much better even in a less favorable tactical setup. Sancho possesses skills that should work in isolation as well. When you see his game against Atletico, you see that he's not "just" a pass and go player but is also explosive and hard to defend in one on ones. He's also excellent in tight spaces and has brillant body feints in his repertoire. United didn't make it easy for him but he still should have done much better than he did in the end. IMO the only explanation for this is something mental and related to his self-esteem. So the fact that he only works to a worldclass level under very specific circumstances can definitely be held against him.

There used to be more "confidence players" like this when football was a bit less professional. From the top of my mind, Kaká, Fernando Torres and Fabregas also fell off a cliff after leaving their "comfort zones" at a scale that couldn't be explained with physical decline alone.
Yeah can get on board with that.
 
Both were fine, but we really wasted Mata by using him wide.

Yeah, we can only blame ourselves for not getting the best out of Mata. He was an elite level #10, and in the correct setup, he could've thrived. We should've phased out Rooney much earlier and let Mata and Kagawa take his place centrally.
 
Stunning cameo from him on Saturday. Genuinely surprised he isn't playing more. He would be a brilliant wingback for Amorim.
 
That second assist was nice. He hasn’t played defense like Mudryk has been hustling back. A nice game played however.
 
Uh oh hes got an assist against some nobodies. Time to reassess everything
Hey, don't call them nobodies. Today was the first European match in Heidenheim's entire history which they did not win, Chelsea broke an incredible run!



Yes, yes I know it's because it's their first season in Europe (and second in the Bundesliga), but it's just fun to Phrase it that way :lol:
 
Good game from him. Nice pair of assists.

Heidenheim were surprisingly tough to play against. They remind me a little of Brentford with the high intensity full pitch pressing, non-stop running and harassing etc.
 
He doesn't suit PL football at all. This is his sort of level, nice shite defending, more time on the ball. Can properly get those youtube highlight videos some good footage.
 
He should go to Italy. Would suit his style - much slower, lots of static defending and significantly less frantic.
 
Absolutely bobbins, this lad.

I really wanted it to work out for him here, but he was just so painfully bad.