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If there’s a bad time to fall out of shape, this is it. With a World Cup in just over a month to go, Jadon Sancho’s appearances for Manchester United hardly mean calling him back to the England squad for a trip to Qatar.
Still, international football will be the least concern for Sancho at this point, as this poor form is more than a speck – it seems to have ruined his entire career at United so far.
It continued on Thursday night when he got a Europa League start at minnows Omonia Nicosia, he was taken off the field at half time with his side embarrassing 1-0 behind.
Jadon Sancho has struggled at Manchester United since signing for the club over a year ago
The humiliation didn’t stop there, though, with United legend Paul Scholes scathingly criticizing his performance in a match in which his replacement Marcus Rashford scored twice to turn the game around and take a 3-2 win.
Scholes: ‘Sancho never really lags behind. He really needs a fast left back or a striker to join and he doesn’t really have that at the moment.’
It’s been a little over a year since he arrived at Old Trafford with much fanfare. He was an England international who was chased by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side for over 12 months before finally completing a £73million transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
The attacker hit a new low on Thursday after being substituted for Omonia Nicosia at halftime
Scholes has hinted at the difficulties Sancho is facing but why has he struggled in light of the form he once showed for Dortmund since moving to Old Trafford?
It was play in Germany that catapulted Sancho into English football in the first place, with his Dortmund form seeing him storm into Gareth Southgate’s England team as part of a forward line consisting of him Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling while he was just was 18 years old.
United legend Paul Scholes has criticized Sancho’s ineffective strikes during the attack
His talent wasn’t exactly a secret, he was always tipped for a bright future while in Manchester City’s youth academy and raised eyebrows when he left for Dortmund in the summer of 2017 for just under £20 million while looking was to a permanent first team American football.
He got easier on the team throughout the season, despite suffering from gnawing ligament injuries, he eventually caught a spark, starting the last four games where he scored his first Bundesliga goal and racked up three assists.
However, the 2018-19 season was his real breakthrough, scoring 12 goals and providing 18 assists in the Bundesliga, leading to his debut in England against the United States in November 2018.
On the left, he played an even more productive 2019-20 season with 17 Bundesliga goals and assists – and then it was Manchester United’s first turn.
A long summer chase for the Red Devils ended in embarrassing failure as the potential transfer collapsed due to Dortmund’s firm stance on their appreciation of Sancho, but it didn’t take him too far off track.
The arrival of Erling Haaland put more emphasis on the free-scoring Norwegian forward and while Sancho’s tally dropped to eight goals and 12 assists in the Bundesliga, he was prolific in the Champions League – scoring six goals from as many games and providing five assists.
Jadon Sancho became a star player at Borussia Dortmund, forming an effective partnership with Erling Haaland and his form in Germany earned him a place in the England squad (left)
Any perceived slight drop in form wasn’t enough to deter United, who led another aggressive chase – looking for Sancho for the European Championship last year.
This is where it gets interesting. As the tournament kicked off and his transfer saga continued, Sancho suddenly became a fringe figure in the squad.
His deal with United was finalized just after the group stage – where he played just six minutes as a late substitute in the 1-0 win over the Czech Republic.
He played a full 90 minutes in the 4-0 win over Ukraine in the quarter-finals, but his only other appearance in the tournament was in the final when he came up against Italy in extra time in the last few seconds before missing out in the final. the eventual shoot-out defeat.
As for his international record since his United debut, he played 72 minutes in Andorra a year ago and has not been called up since.
Sancho lost his spot in the England squad shortly after missing a crucial penalty in the Euro 2020 final
Sancho’s form in England wasn’t exactly a spark towards the end, but he hasn’t pulled it off at Old Trafford either. Unfortunately for Sancho, his Red Devils career took a hit just weeks after his arrival, when Cristiano Ronaldo’s shocking return overshadowed his arrival and any idea that the attack would be aimed at his strengths.
With all the attention for the Portuguese maestro, Sancho had already become a relative afterthought.
Despite being fit, he didn’t finish the full 90 minutes until November and it was only after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked at the end of November that he grabbed his first goal by scoring against Chelsea while playing as a central striker.
Interim manager Ralf Rangnick followed his predecessor as he struggled to get Sancho out on both flanks before settling into a favored role on the left.
More playing time in the second half of the season improved his form somewhat, but he still finished the season with a rather miserable record of just five goals and three assists in all competitions
Now, under his third United manager with Erik ten Hag in a year, he is struggling to settle
The arrival of Erik ten Hag in the summer offered another kickstart, but his situation has hardly improved. His form remains average, although he has scored important goals in big wins over Liverpool and Leicester City.
So while Sancho hasn’t had a total disaster and isn’t at United, he is certainly a long way from producing the goods expected given his past performances at Dortmund and the expected £150 million in total it will cost United during his career. five-year deal at Old Trafford.
While his substitution in Cyprus was a new low, it was his hook after 70 minutes in the 6-3 loss to rival Man City that perhaps hurt more.
His departure from the Etihad Stadium at his former club must have been painful, just six minutes after seeing his former Dortmund friend Haaland tear up the field with a hat-trick for Pep Guardiola’s outfit in a 6-3 win as the Norwegian striker continues to take the Premier League by storm after quickly settling in after his summer move to Manchester. What could it have been, maybe?
Sancho has shown a glimpse of his talent by scoring a crucial goal in the recent win over Liverpool
So where now for Sancho? In any case, Scholes offers solutions to all his criticisms to help him build a relationship with both a regular striker and a fullback.
But with the Red Devils in such a state of flux, it’s hard to see who that could be – especially in the short term. Sancho may have been exposed as a player who needs good teammates to get the best out of him – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, nor does it make him a bad player. Guardiola believes that this is the case with Haaland, for example, and that it does not harm his game.
It does mean, however, that if United want a greater return on their heavy investment in Sancho, they will probably have to build an attack around Sancho’s strengths now – or play the patient game and reconsider with additions to the January transfer market. .
Either way, there doesn’t seem to be an easy fix to Sancho’s situation at United and it will likely take patience to try and steer him off the path of becoming another expensive Old Trafford flop.