“There is a secret, third option where Ten Hag moves Sancho to the No 10 position instead of Fernandes, but we will wait for him to try that in a match before writing about it in full” — The Athletic, October 13, 2022.
Jadon Sancho remains something of a conundrum for Manchester United.
After a solid start to his second season at Old Trafford, the 23-year-old slowly lost his place in new manager Erik ten Hag’s starting XI, before being sent to work with coaches in the Netherlands over the World Cup break at the end of 2022.
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Sancho’s first appearance for United after the club season resumed at Christmas following the World Cup didn’t come until early February, in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest*.
His 27-minute cameo that night, in what was a dead-rubber game with United 3-0 up from the first leg, saw him playing as the No 10 in Ten Hag’s 4-2-3-1, with Bruno Fernandes moving over to the right. “We’ve seen a different dynamic that can help us and give us more opportunities in the future,” Ten Hag said when asked about the change.
Anthony Martial came on at the same time as Sancho in that Forest match, and Ten Hag spoke of how the pair would “play often together”. However, Martial’s ongoing injury problems have seen him fade away from the first-team picture over the past two months, while Sancho has made 10 appearances (half of them starts) for United since. Two of those have been as a No 10 rather than as the wide player we are used to seeing him as (and the role he was signed to play when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was manager).
Why does Ten Hag keep trying Sancho in central areas? And is it bringing anything different out of the player?
First, let’s re-establish what Jadon Sancho is
Sancho is an unusual player. His standout abilities hinge on his speed of thought and technical execution, rather than his physical gifts. The 23-cap England international is not a “get to the byline and cross” winger but a dynamic, on-the-ball creator. Good at receiving the ball to feet, and good at close-control dribbling, he has excellent passing intelligence and does the simple things very well in and around the opponents’ penalty area.
Sancho lacks an explosive burst of pace to get past defenders, and he isn’t the strongest of attackers either, but his sense for doing the right thing at the right time made him one of the Bundesliga’s most dangerous forwards during his four seasons with previous club Borussia Dortmund.
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In those years, it became clear that despite his nominal starting position being out wide, the areas Sancho thrives in most are the half-spaces.
His time in Germany saw him paired with attacking full-backs such as Achraf Hakimi, Thomas Meunier and Raphael Guerreiro, who offered overlapping runs whenever Sancho had the ball.
Given supporting runners and clever players to combine with, Sancho became one of the most devastating under-23 players in Europe in his 2020-21 final season with Dortmund.
Now let’s look at how those skills can be used from the No 10 position…
Here’s why Ten Hag is using Sancho as a No 10
Luke Shaw aside, United lack overlapping full-backs, which limits Sancho’s ability to come off his wing and access the half-spaces in which he is so dangerous. As a result, Ten Hag has looked to have the former Watford and Manchester City academy kid start off as the No 10 before tasking him to run from central areas out into his favourite areas of the pitch.
To date, United’s Dutch manager has used Sancho as the No 10 against Forest in the Carabao Cup, at home to Barcelona in the second leg of a Europa League play-off to decide who progressed to the last 16 and in Premier League games against Leicester City and Southampton.
His best contribution in this position came when he scored the final goal in a 3-0 home win over Leicester. The Athletic has previously covered this goal and the debt it owes to Wout Weghorst’s off-ball movement as the No 9.
When Marcus Rashford comes onto the ball in the middle of the Leicester half, Sancho makes a run beyond him into open space.
When Sancho then comes onto the ball, he takes three touches. One to control the pass…
…then a second, much smaller, touch to suck in defender Wout Faes, rather than force the immediate pass to Fernandes on the United right.
By the time of his third touch, out to Fernandes, Faes’ fruitless run to try to get a challenge in on Sancho has opened up space for him to move into and collect the return ball from his Portuguese team-mate.
(This is one of Sancho’s standout skills — he knows when to exploit pre-existing space and when to pause and wait for those nearby, be they team-mates or opposition players, to open things up for him with their movement.)
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Sancho then runs in behind Faes to receive Fernandes’ square ball and he scores United’s final goal of the day.
If you think of a defence as a locked door, Sancho’s short dribbles and passes to runners make him a lock-picker when he plays as a No 10, whereas Fernandes’ all-action style focuses on blowing the door off its hinges.
“I think at No 10 we need a strong press, you need quick feet in the midfield, you need a player there who can create, who can run in behind, which Jadon can do,” said Ten Hag before using Sancho as a central attacker at home to struggling Southampton three weeks ago.
Unfortunately for them, United could only draw that game 0-0, with the attack looking impotent as a first-half red card for key midfielder Casemiro curbed a lot of their progressive intent.
Does “Sancho 10” work for Manchester United?
Several months have passed since we hinted at this piece in October. The Athletic has taken so long to write it because:
1) Ten Hag hasn’t used Sancho in the No 10 for enough minutes to create a definitive sample size.
2) Sancho didn’t play with particular authority in those minutes he was afforded the role.
There remain teething issues over his ability to think and execute passing moves and dribbles at the required pace for United this season. Besides that goal against Leicester, he is yet to create a shot or chance after carrying the ball from the No 10 position.
Below is his touch map from that draw with Southampton. It shows us his fondness for the half-space but that he got little joy in terms of receiving the ball in the penalty area, where he can be truly dangerous.
When Barcelona visited a couple of weeks earlier, a game where he spent time playing on the left, Sancho had no touches in the opposition’s 18-yard box:
The good news for Sancho is that he retains the public support of his manager as an option in this position.
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”I think he did quite well as a No 10,” said Ten Hag after a question from The Athletic following the Southampton game, “like he did against Barcelona and Leicester. He was really decisive against Leicester and also today with some really good actions. One time, he was really close to the goal with a run at the defending line and a cross to Bruno almost came there. He did a good job.”
When asked if Sancho has the physical ability to play at the intensity he desires as a manager, Ten Hag also struck a positive tone: ”I think he can. I think he can make the difference when we play three against two in the midfield. And that is not bad when you have Casemiro and Bruno, and you have Jadon Sancho.”
There has been one further instance of Sancho’s attacking qualities, this time when playing on the left wing.
Take note of the weight of his pass to Shaw in the build-up to Marcel Sabitzer’s goal in the FA Cup quarter-final win over Fulham in the tweet below; fast enough to take the defender out of the game, but not so quick that Shaw has difficulty reaching it. (It’s better to watch it in motion rather than via screenshots.)
A glorious touch 🤩
Marcel Sabitzer provides the magic for @ManUtd#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/I8NXdjsdCj
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) March 19, 2023
Shortly after Sancho’s first trial as a No 10, Ten Hag said “the position has to be occupied, it is about that. And players have to keep the discipline to do that, otherwise it is going to be a mess”.
Sancho has the skill to play centrally. It is up to him to find the internal discipline and intensity to take on the role, and rather than look for ways for Ten Hag to unlock him, he needs to look at how to better unlock defences.
One more thing — about that asterisk we used in our intro…
*Before you depart, you may remember that United’s victory over Forest in the Carabao Cup second leg also saw Victor Lindelof play for 10 minutes in defensive midfield.
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When asked about that, Ten Hag said Lindelof “was educated as a six — a control, holding midfielder in Benfica, I know he can do that. We tried it in training, maybe one game, I want my centre-halves in midfield positions, so we create dynamics to construct more dynamic.”
Stick that one in the same file as Fred playing left-back: something United can use in an emergency when already winning, rather than as a potential starting option.
And to lay some breadcrumbs for another potential future article… Amad has several skills that can make him another option for the No 10 when he returns from his season on loan with Sunderland in the Championship.
(Top photo: Michael Regan via Getty Images)
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