Which is exactly what I said but somehow my take isn't accurate. It makes no sense.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
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Which is exactly what I said but somehow my take isn't accurate. It makes no sense.
You can claim whatever you want, you said yourself that he mainly played on the right in previous seasons and that he mainly played on the left last season which is in line with what I said. I also didn't give my opinion on which wing is better, I said that he was excellent on both. You are arguing for the sake of it about things that I didn't argue, I didn't talk about last season specifically and I didn't claim that he was better or worse on a wing.
It's one of @Zehner 's causes célèbres to argue that Sancho has not been good on the right without Hakimi and is better on the left.
You'll not convince him otherwise. He's not completely wrong of course, but not completely right either.
Generally, this "player x can only play this or that position and is played out of position at this or that position" stuff gets on my nerves, most players can be made to work in different ways, and Sancho is definitively one of them.
But I'm not trying to convince him, it wasn't even the topic of my post. He is trying to disagree with someone that already told him that he isn't going to argue about which wing is better for Sancho.
Nani had these same discussions. Whether he's better from the right or left. I always maintained he was a better RW, but many said he was more dangerous from the left.
Nani was less frustrating on the right.
All this time playing in Germany has really paid off as he gets to the ground early and puts his towel down on the seat in the dugout he wants to reserve it
Because Ronaldo has always needed a striker partner.
He has never played without a striker like Rooney, Benzema or Dybala - he isn't going to play great without one when he has aged needing to play as a lone striker.
That's why our wide attackers are on the bench and we have started to play a striker partnership.
Do you think we would be playing 352 if we signed Sancho, Kept Daniel James and didn't sign Ronaldo? How would that line up? Not a chance, 4231 we would still be stuck with that. Inverted forwards.
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I'm not arguing for the sake of it and not arguing in which position he is better, I'm disagreeing with what you posted and are posting. Initially this
My argument was that this is not true and that if anything he has mainly played on the left. The heat maps for the Bundesliga seasons 17/18, 18/19, 19/20 and 20/21 see him predominantly on the left three out of four seasons, among them his last two that established him as a star player.
You also argued that he is natural to both wings which I also disagree with and why I believe you think I'm trying to convince you that he is better on the left. That wasn't my intention, my intention was to showcase that the right wing isn't natural to him. Him having better stats on the left is only one indication of this, as is him playing on the left during the youth and after he had established himself as a star player for Dortmund. That's not uncommon, even Messi was played on the left in his first appearances. Towards the end of his Dortmund time, Terzic even played Reus, Hazard or Brandt out of position on the right to make room for Sancho on the left. That's where we disagree: In my opinion he's not natural to the right wing but can do a job there.
Ole has wasted 120m on players he has no idea to maximize.
Sancho looks completely shot under him.
Sancho looks completely shot under him.
Sancho should take zero blame for his poor start. He has barely had a chance playing in his preferred position and has had to cope with being shoehorned into an awkward position in a systematically trash team. How can we place any blame on the poor lad? He is class and, if we got another manager, he would show it.
Don't write him off. This is all Ole's fault.
Don't write him off. This is all Ole's fault.
To be clear, in 17/18 he played 12 Buli games, the next season where he outrageously played on the right he played 34 games, the following season the one that you argued was mainly played in 3421 you will have to accept that he was largely an AM and last season the heat map has him a bit more of the left but substantially on the righ?
Do you see the problem in your argument about where he mainly played for Dortmund? Not only you are arguing with yourself but your argument is flawed.
Also heatmaps tell you where someone has touches and the color intensifies with the amount of touches in a specific areas, Sancho moves around more when he is on the right. A heatmap is useful but it doesn't tell you much on its own.
It's VDB all over again. The next step is we're going to say he doesn't take his chance whenever he gets 5min sub appearances and plays FA cup games with the B team every 3 weeks. Then when he stops featuring at all, we're going to say he's shite training and he wasn't Ole's signing. Then next season he'll have some alright appearances it'll be "he was shite last season look at his 0 goals and 30 apps stats. The longer he doesn't play, the more he becomes like prime Robben", etc, etc.
I just hope the clowns are sacked and it doesn't happen.
What it tells us is that he tends to drift inside and does not stay on the touchline, he is not a classic winger. But he is also not an inside forward like Rashford, he rarely moves deep into the box.
An overlapping WB/FB is very helpful for his style of play, that's why Hakimi is so often mentioned as being influential to his game on the right, just like Guerreiro to him playing on the left.
Shaw and especially AWB don't play that way and therefore a lot of Sancho's playmaking ability is currently wasted, no matter on which wing he plays for United.
In the current setup of United I believe that Sancho's strongest position would actually be Bruno's, as that is the only attacking position where he is surrounded by players to pass to.
Which is what I have said about him, it's particularly obvious when he played on the right for Dortmund. I noticed that he plays more inside when on the right and plays more as a wide playmaker than a winger, on the left he is more direct and plays a bit wider which is a bit counter intuitive.
That's why I called it "indication", not proof and didn't speak about positions when talking about heat maps
And yes, those are no weighted averages or anything but I think based on the heat maps one can assume that Sancho probably collected ~60% of his touches for Dortmund on the left side of the pitch. And I believe if somebody collects 60% of his touches on the left side of the pitch, then the claim that he played mainly on the right is debatable.
How can you scout a guy for 2/3 years and not know what the feck to do with him ?
Just wanted to give more context, you and I are agreeing mostly I think.
Also I think you can explain that counter intuitive observation with the fact how Dortmunds FBs play. Guerreiro likes to drift inside himself sometimes, when he did that Sancho had to keep the wide position. Hakimi or Pisczcek on the right usually stayed outside.
I would think it’s more of a Bruno related thing. Because we could play 3 up top in a 343 but then it doesn’t really leave a place for Bruno unless Ole puts him on the wing or in the sitting 2. That’s more why we can’t use our wide attackers.
I mean AWB does feck all going forward except cross into the oppo's CBs feet. Sancho would have to be prime Messi to fix our problem on the right.
It's literally the only reason people have been saying he looks significantly better on the left.
Turns out that Ole’s a crap chequebook manager too. First VDB, now Sancho. It’s shameful.
Boggles the mind doesn't it
Personally i'm seeing a trend of him making runs and instead of him receiving the ball its instead being recycled across the midfield, typically looking for Fernandes and Ronaldo. Same when he plays one-two's with players, instead of returning the ball they recycle it. I cant tell if who our players pass to operates on some kind of heirarchy or if the kid's pissed off some people in the dressing room but its frustratingly consistent.
2 good players he doesn’t know how to use because his system is about ‘putting a shift in’ hence McFred starting 50 games a season.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but after the game, did they show a table to show the amount of sprints both sets of players did throughout the game? If so, has anyone got that information? From what I can remember, Sancho had more sprints in 45 mins than some of our players who played the 90.
He needs to play, especially if we want to be a high pressing team. Not only is someone who can play in tight spaces and keep possession (not exactly worked out for him yet) he's good off the ball. Certainly better than our others options anyway.
He needs to play, especially if we want to be a high pressing team. Not only is someone who can play in tight spaces and keep possession (not exactly worked out for him yet) he's good off the ball. Certainly better than our others options anyway.
I mean watching the game, it is clear and obvious who our best RW is for the system, Sancho.
He will track back meaning we are harder to beat because we have a clueless RB. he needs to start more games, but obviously our incompotent manager will not be able to see beyond Greenwood.
He will track back meaning we are harder to beat because we have a clueless RB. he needs to start more games, but obviously our incompotent manager will not be able to see beyond Greenwood.
You forgot the most important part:
How can you scout a guy for 2/3 years, SPEND 70 MILLION ON HIM, and not know what the feck to do with him ?
He wasn't lazy at all. He looked like the singular United player who gave a f***.
I saw a stat for the City game, Ronaldo and Sancho topped the stats for United players for most sprints and Sancho played 45 mins less than most of the other players.
The Athletic reporting that Solskjaer may try Sancho as a RWB against teams who sit deep. I hope it's not true because that is a waste of his talents.
Jesus
That's so ridiculous I would call it bullshit if it didn't come from The Athletic. You guys need to get rid of your coaching staff as soon as possible.They are probably going to play Ronaldo as a goalkeeper because he can jump high.If true, I'd hope that it's RWB in name but basically right wing, and other players will have responsibility covering and defending that side
If he's actually going to get played as a defender and expected to defend...
If he's actually going to get played as a defender and expected to defend...
Serious question: if United sees the need to play an attacking RWB, who would be better out of the current squad?Jesus
Our season is over anyway so I like the idea watching something unique to keep the rest of the season interesting like to see how Sancho plays as RWB.
He can't be worse than AWB in regard to his positioning, he at times is awful.
Playing Sancho as RWB would be as ridiculous as playing Neymar or Mbappe there, we would all be baffled if PSG did that.
Nice to see the years of scouting and pursuing one of the best young attacking talents in Europe as the £70m+ solution to our longstanding RW position come to immediate fruition by shifting him to RWB within a few games of his arrival. Top notch team building and management.
I don't know but if a player who is best when cutting inside and getting the ball between the lines is your best option as a RWB, you maybe shouldn't play a system that needs an attacking RWB
It's like playing Rashford there because he is quick or Bruno Fernandes because he can cross. To me this looks like clutching at straws. This reminds me of Heiko Herrlich playing Brandt as a RWB. Sunday league stuff when you don't have enough players available.
I would say Lingard or Dalot would be better suited (but not well suited either0.
Jesus
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