Talented lad but needs to become efficient with his use of the ball. In the Premier League trying to be cute with your touches is more risky than its worth a lot of the time and will lead to unnecessary dispossessions.
25
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 38
- Goals
- 5
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 0
- Status
You do know that Solskjaer had his own personal scout in Simon Wells?, who by all accounts was the scout he trusted above else.
The club's issues are very simple for me, and those are that we've allowed people with a short shelf life (Managers) to set the footballing blueprint at the club, using their own personal scouts.
But Sancho isn't a mistake as far as profile goes and should be afforded more patience. I remember many years ago when Arsenal signed Robert Pires from Marseille, who was 27 at the time, and he struggled in his first season in England before going on to be a legend at the club.
I said last year that we should swerve the Sancho signing and instead develop Amad and Mason for the right forward role, and in-turn spend the Sancho money on the midfield because without a top quality midfield we cannot challenge for the league. But sadly Solskjaer decided to neglect the midfield and here we are.
So, I got laughed out of this place for suggesting we should loan him out so he can build up his confidence. We are at a point now where I honestly don’t even know if any of the half decent PL teams would actually play him week in week out.
Extremely frustrating player. Still looks absolutely terrified out there. With Elanga looking great and also having Rashford and Greenwood around + Amad being 2-3 years away his time may run out quicker than expected.
Extremely frustrating player. Still looks absolutely terrified out there. With Elanga looking great and also having Rashford and Greenwood around + Amad being 2-3 years away his time may run out quicker than expected.
I'm not judging him on his lack of goals or assists, I don't really care about that at this point to be honest.
I am judging him on his worrying lack of physicality and intensity. I refer you again to his first action yesterday. A crossfield pass is hit in his direction by Greenwood (I think) and Sancho controls it. However, immediately he looks nervous and unsure and his weak attempt at shielding the ball leads to him instantly surrending posession without a fight.
That for me is the problem. Have you seen Foden, Silva, Sterling etc...play for City? All fight like lions to keep the ball, flying all over the pitch, swarming over opponents. Sancho looks like a little kid who's looked good in u16s football so his Dad's got him doing a job for his Sunday League team on the wing. You can see there's a bit of ability there but the games too fast and strong for him, so its of limited use
I'm concerned with his performances, but I still think we have to be more patient than this. He's only 21 and has only been in the league a few months. The majority of our players aren't playing well. It's not like everybody else is playing at a good level, and he's standing out being bad. We have to give him some more time.
I remember you getting a lot of abuse for that post. I still don't think you can loan a player out that you paid £74m/£350k for, but it's not as overly outlandish at this point as it was when you first said it. We're going to have to play him through this and hope he improves.
People are going overboard as Elanga wasn't that good today anyway, but it won't be long until Elanga is worn down to looking crap too. Someone posted the numbers Rashford, Martial, Greenwood posted like 2 seasons ago I think. They've all gone backwards since.
If anything it's the opposite of this. His passing stats are normally one of the best in the team, and he's get dispossessed less than most others in the team when he's played too (eg. Ronaldo, Bruno, Rashford, Greenwood are losing the ball more). This is in part because he's often playing very safe, he needs to take more risk and take on his man more. Too often in a Utd shirt he's been very pass it sideways and backwards and not really looking like creating anything. I think this is because he wants to play in a system that is fluid and everyone is passing and moving, which often involves short quick passing, but this doesn't happen at Utd, so he's just resorting to the safe, easy pass a lot which leads to him doing nothing.
Pace can make an average player look good.
He hasnt got any. So he looks average.
Bayern were and are better than pretty much any side in the Premier League and he’s done it against them so I don’t see any problem once he settles.
Foden is a generational talent I consider him to be up there with Mbappe and the other mentioned are fully developed at the peak of their careers for City.
He’s very tenacious when a side can press in numbers like City do.
We can’t and don’t hunt in packs so those City players would look lost here also at times. I wish our players would get closer to together on the pitch to support one another both in and out of possession.
We get this guy a young powerful target man and midfield platform to receive the ball around the opponents area he will protect it very well and lay on assists galore.
Proved it far too many times to count in Dortmund already in his career. He really was unplayable sometimes there on his day and truly world class.
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Nothing and nobody will ever convince me that he isn't a top player. In fact, we have a lot of quality players. The club however, is broken.
Yeah we probably won’t loan him out this year - though next year is a possibility and wouldn’t be the first time an expensive player went on loan to gain back some form and confidence.
But the main point behind that idea still stands, he seems to either have zero confidence which causes him to always pick up the nearest player for the pass, take risks and never attempt to do anything remotely inspiring or we just bought a player who doesn’t really do any of those things. I prefer to think it’s confidence issue at this point. I don’t think playing a bit part role at United will lead to him becoming better in that case though.
We can make up all the reasons why he doesn’t perform, including trying to bring 5 new players to the team so he feels more comfortable in his role etc. but I think it may indeed come down purely to him not being confident enough to try anything on the pitch. The job he’s been doing the last few games - so basically picking up the ball and giving it the nearest player within 5 seconds - you could actually give to any Championship/League One winger and they could do it. It’s extremely annoying when you expect your £75m winger to take on a player, take a shot, go past a few players or pull out a creative lob over the defense and then he passes it to Dalot who is literally standing next to him, every single time, or stand like a statue and do nothing.
His lack of pace also automatically means you have to adapt the rest of the team to compensate for it, which I don’t love either considering we already have about 3 or 4 other first team players that need you to fit the rest of the team to address their weaknesses.
Can't believe how bad he's been for us so far. I thought he would rip the league up.
I'm not writing him off yet and I think some of the posts may look stupid or so in the a year but he just seems devoid of any confidence, any ability to really beat and get away from a man. I thought he was quick watching him at Dortmund where he could get away from defenders but he looks very slow with ok dribbling at United so far. He gives the ball away needlessly far too often as well, not even trying to execute difficult passes. Very concerning for a £70m signing.
I'm not writing him off yet and I think some of the posts may look stupid or so in the a year but he just seems devoid of any confidence, any ability to really beat and get away from a man. I thought he was quick watching him at Dortmund where he could get away from defenders but he looks very slow with ok dribbling at United so far. He gives the ball away needlessly far too often as well, not even trying to execute difficult passes. Very concerning for a £70m signing.
I’ve seen Mkhitaryan do well against Bayen. Don’t mean feck all.
Disappointed with him so far. Haven't showed me anything that is worth the 70 odd million that we paid for him. Sooner we bought a couple of midfielders for that money. But that's our club in a nutshell.
What the hell. He has been by far our worst attacker this season.
Is it just me who thinks he has looked a better player for us when playing as a RW than when he has played on the left hand side?
I don't know why he keeps getting picked to play on the left than on the right.
I don't know why he keeps getting picked to play on the left than on the right.
I watched him for England and never thought he was anything special. His stats obviously very impressive in Germany but that's not a strong league. I think he is better than what he has shown so far but he is nowhere near as good as his reputation would suggest. There were people here claiming he was one of the best young players in world football before you signed him. Not many claiming that now.
Agree, at least for us he was more impressive on the right so far.
I still hope we will see this front three at least once this season:
Rashford Greenwood Sancho
With Bruno behind.
Same rules don't apply for Rashford then? He came on against Wolves in last 15 mins and was destroyed.
Sancho has been abysmal this season. Doesn't mean he's written off and that's it for him but just say it as it is. Coutinho has equalled his goal and assists in the league in his first 20 mins of football for Villa.
This is what I wonder.
When he plays at RW he looks like a more confident and capable player than on the left. He seems very easy to read on the left for the defender whilst on the right it seems like he has the ability to both cut in or keep his width which can confuse the opposition fullback at what they should do vs him.
When I think about Ole managing to get some decent performances out of Daniel James as a RW - it does make me wonder if he could have gotten such performances out of Sancho as the RW too.
Then I think about why we still haven't seen
Rashford- Greenwood- Sancho
And it's obvious that even if it was a good transfer or not to some fans, Ronaldo being a guaranteed starter has stopped such a front line being used.
It's why I'm not surprised that all Rashford, Sancho and Greenwood have been looked down upon during the season - going from arguably being all in our attacking plan A to bits and pieces used as more a plan B now
It's not just pace, he lacks physicality too and athleticism. There would be a very good player if you could combine the best parts of Sancho with the best parts of Rashford's game.
Looked more like a youth prospect making one of his first starts today than Elanga did.
I agree. He has done better on the right. He linked up quite well with AWB in some of his performances on that side. I think it's mostly because Mason has been playing on the right. He gets played on the right when Mason isn't on the pitch.
That was definitely Ole's plan. We still might get to see it next season. It depends on what Ronaldo does. There is little chance of it happening this season with Ronaldo and Cavani as options.
It’s infuriating, our right side has been desperately looking for a right winger after having several players looking to play off the left for years (Rashford, Martial, Pogba etc). So we finally buy a proper right winger and then play him on the left all the time.
Watched Arsenal played vs City. Saka looked twice the footballer Sancho is at the moment.
If Dortmund offered us our money back right now, would you take it?
I absolutely still do. I'd take Sancho at Bayern in a heartbeat (not that we have an opening). Man United would be absolutely mad not to have patience in order to reap the rewards later on.
Not in a million years.
Sancho is the most exciting young player I've seen in the Bundesliga (yes, including Haaland). He's one of the very few players I would walk out of my way to watch them. Which is why I was disappointed that he chose United from the first place. I actually hoped I would be proven wrong and he does well here but unfortunately it went as expected up to this point.
I always thought he'd have a hard time with EPL fans because most are stuck in the 00s and only value pace and power while not even recognizing technique and subtletly in attacking players. It was also clear that he'd struggle with the absolute mess this United team is as a unit.
Hoped he'd go to Chelsea or City or wait for a move to La Liga but unfortunately he rushed it. Now I'm kind of hoping he realizes his mistake and finds a way out of this club in the summer.
No, because we'd only go and spend the money on another player who failed to impress in our rotten team.
It’s really strange. People speak about Grealish and Sancho in the same sentence, but Grealish plays well in most games - he just hasn’t been great or outstanding. Sancho on the other hand isn’t just not playing well, he is absolutely dreadful most of the times. Systems and bullshit, sure, but why aren’t we seeing some stardust? Extremely annoying and worrying, hope he suddenly just finds it and becomes a different player. Most of us expected 10 goals/15 assists without hesitation.
Yeah because English clubs filling all the CL final spots in recent years is really living in the 00’s.
I wish he was as good as Spurs Aaron Lennon !
Oh yeah, with typical English football, am I right? The teams that are dominating the EPL are playing nothing like the kick and rush days.
Truth be told, English clubs have understood that their old ways are outdated. Fans are still lacking behind. They're still talking about "pace and power", "beating his man" and other pub stuff.
Maybe listen to the guys who have been following the league that sparked the innovations the EPL currently adapts completely for decades.
You obviously don’t watch or play much football and are just making some outdated assumption about English football.
Pace is more or less a universally recognised skill in football and probably up there with the most important, beating a man is essential for an attacker to open up the game, really what the feck am I even doing explaining the basics of football, what you say is just wrong..
That's true. It's a good question.
Maybe the "part of a problem" bit is too melodramatic. Arguably, it doesn't matter much to the running of the club how sensible or outrageously unreasonable posts on online forums about football are, and to demand responsibility from ourselves posting is kind of nonsensical, since the opportunity to be unreasonable is kind of the whole thing.
However
1) it just irks me very much, the lack of self-awareness or of sense of irony when people behind their keyboard earnestly mouth off about players having to 'take responsibility', being 'spoiled and entitled brats', etc., when these players actually devote their whole life to playing football for our entertainment. They've been doing nothing else since they are kids. It's their whole existence. When they play poor, when their club gets relegated, their actual life is impacted on a massive scale.
While we, when things go wrong, are just in a bad mood as our habitual opportunity to gratuitously make ourselves feel better from other people's work is spoiled. Fans are by definition spoiled and entitled. We want other people to do things for us, and we cheer them on or abuse them for it. Imagine if there were a mob of 50000 people watching your every move in your job, jeering if you, I don't know, type a word wrong, and then millions more would tweet about it?
At the very least we fans should remain self-aware about it.
2) Especially in the age of social media, the feedback loops of public opinions are real and do have an impact. We have the thread about Phil Lynch, CEO of Media, and the guy says exactly how everyday he scans the fan mood on social media and then briefs/instructs the players or their PR team on how to react. And then we have Bruno Fernandes apologizing on Twitter for missing a penalty. I'm not claiming the impact is severe, but it does exist, and thus, to however small an amount, toxicity in the fan social media creeps back into the club.
Now, you could say the fans are just reacting badly to bad stuff from the club. True, but they are also incited by a media and social media architecture that wants to see the world burn for clicks.
Again, just a little sense of proportion, self-awareness, playfulness while being fanatics is needed also from us. Remembering that to us, it's a fecking game, for the players, coaches, staff, it's not just.
Sorry for the essay. Maybe better suited for the mental health thread by @Mr Pigeon
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Great post.
No, I'm not making outdated assumptions about English football, I'm making assumptions about the outdated English fans. Of course the top clubs have understood that their old tactics aren't suitable for the modern game which is why they brought in foreign expertise in coaches like Guardiola, Klopp, Conte or Tuchel. United has finally joined the party by bringing in Ralf Rangnick.
And yes, pace is one way of unlocking defenses but only one. And what I'm referring to isn't that dribbling isn't important to create space and numerical superiority in certain areas of the pitch, what I'm referring to are claims like "he isn't even able to beat his full back". English football in the past heavily revolved around one on ones and duels - midfielders against midfielders, wingers vs full backs, strikers vs center backs and so forth. All those talks about "we're x players away from a title challenge" are also a testament to this. Head to head comparisons instead of looking at team shapes and cohesive playing system, patterns of play and so forth.
You often read "he's just not suited to the EPL, you need to have either pace or power" and that's just such bullshit. It's nothing more than a self fulfilling prophecy because fans intrinsically want to preserve the style they've grown to love over decades of football. And now they claim it's the only way to survive in the EPL when Guardiola has been dominating the league almost at will without much pace or power, just through technical and tactical superiority. It's bizarre how people in here don't get this basic conclusion. Instead your response is always the same: "The player doesn't cut it, he lacks pace and strength for the EPL. Bundesliga is just not at the same level". You'd be saying the same had you signed Bernardo Silva or Gündogan.
So to summarize it, I think you have no clue what you're talking about. And given how limited your understanding of football seems to be, I'm pretty confident that I'm not only playing more football than you but also process it at a higher level, thanks
I thought we should have left Elanga on, put Greenwood CF and have Sancho right. Digne is not as aggressive as Cash in defence, and was on a yellow.
Not saying it would have made a difference anyway, but would have made more sense to me.
Not saying it would have made a difference anyway, but would have made more sense to me.
I do agree with the overreliance, from a fans perspective, of signing players primarily based mainly on the skillset of pace and power.
Saying that, United clearly are in the need of more 'power' and directness in midfield, as we're also in need of more composure.
Saying that, United clearly are in the need of more 'power' and directness in midfield, as we're also in need of more composure.
My limited understanding of football?No, I'm not making outdated assumptions about English football, I'm making assumptions about the outdated English fans. Of course the top clubs have understood that their old tactics aren't suitable for the modern game which is why they brought in foreign expertise in coaches like Guardiola, Klopp, Conte or Tuchel. United has finally joined the party by bringing in Ralf Rangnick.
And yes, pace is one way of unlocking defenses but only one. And what I'm referring to isn't that dribbling isn't important to create space and numerical superiority in certain areas of the pitch, what I'm referring to are claims like "he isn't even able to beat his full back". English football in the past heavily revolved around one on ones and duels - midfielders against midfielders, wingers vs full backs, strikers vs center backs and so forth. All those talks about "we're x players away from a title challenge" are also a testament to this. Head to head comparisons instead of looking at team shapes and cohesive playing system, patterns of play and so forth.
You often read "he's just not suited to the EPL, you need to have either pace or power" and that's just such bullshit. It's nothing more than a self fulfilling prophecy because fans intrinsically want to preserve the style they've grown to love over decades of football. And now they claim it's the only way to survive in the EPL when Guardiola has been dominating the league almost at will without much pace or power, just through technical and tactical superiority. It's bizarre how people in here don't get this basic conclusion. Instead your response is always the same: "The player doesn't cut it, he lacks pace and strength for the EPL. Bundesliga is just not at the same level". You'd be saying the same had you signed Bernardo Silva or Gündogan.
So to summarize it, I think you have no clue what you're talking about. And given how limited your understanding of football seems to be, I'm pretty confident that I'm not only playing more football than you but also process it at a higher level, thanks
When City have some of the fastest most powerful players in the league?
Bernardo Silva is very fast with an unbelievable work rate?
Come on pal...this kind of patronising, antagonistic nonsense is poor form. Speaking like you're some sort of footballing oracle when you're just another guy watching footie and posting about it.No, I'm not making outdated assumptions about English football, I'm making assumptions about the outdated English fans. Of course the top clubs have understood that their old tactics aren't suitable for the modern game which is why they brought in foreign expertise in coaches like Guardiola, Klopp, Conte or Tuchel. United has finally joined the party by bringing in Ralf Rangnick.
And yes, pace is one way of unlocking defenses but only one. And what I'm referring to isn't that dribbling isn't important to create space and numerical superiority in certain areas of the pitch, what I'm referring to are claims like "he isn't even able to beat his full back". English football in the past heavily revolved around one on ones and duels - midfielders against midfielders, wingers vs full backs, strikers vs center backs and so forth. All those talks about "we're x players away from a title challenge" are also a testament to this. Head to head comparisons instead of looking at team shapes and cohesive playing system, patterns of play and so forth.
You often read "he's just not suited to the EPL, you need to have either pace or power" and that's just such bullshit. It's nothing more than a self fulfilling prophecy because fans intrinsically want to preserve the style they've grown to love over decades of football. And now they claim it's the only way to survive in the EPL when Guardiola has been dominating the league almost at will without much pace or power, just through technical and tactical superiority. It's bizarre how people in here don't get this basic conclusion. Instead your response is always the same: "The player doesn't cut it, he lacks pace and strength for the EPL. Bundesliga is just not at the same level". You'd be saying the same had you signed Bernardo Silva or Gündogan.
So to summarize it, I think you have no clue what you're talking about. And given how limited your understanding of football seems to be, I'm pretty confident that I'm not only playing more football than you but also process it at a higher level, thanks
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