Welcome to my first article of the 2021-22 season. In my Scouting Reports, I use screenshots from match highlights to analyze players and teams. I share what I see from technical, tactical, and psychological perspectives from my coaching lens. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them. Now let’s get to the reason you’re all here…
Jadon Sancho
I had the privilege of watching most of Jadon Sancho’s matches last season and about half the season prior. I had a general impression of him as an incisive player that can play on either wing.
I reviewed highlights of every match Sancho played in last season and have picked out some attributes I find interesting.
Jadon Sancho ~ Passing
We begin with Jadon’s ability to see how a play evolves and what he can do to influence that evolution. I know, sounds a bit esoteric, but bear with me. On this counterattack, Jadon drives up the field and angles his run towards the space ahead of the trailing defender to cut him off. Normal.
As Haaland builds up speed, Jadon changes his angle to clear the lane for his teammate. He even clears the lane of the central defender, who is forced to shift across to meet Jadon’s advance. Nice, but normal.
La pausa draws in the defenders, makes them forget about Haaland, and communicates to his teammate that the inside lane is a decoy. Sublime.
Sancho reacted to Haaland’s run, then took control of the creativity and communicated to Haaland with the way he touched the ball. Reacting and creating in the same play. It is near impossible to show the weight of a pass in stills, but this is one of Jadon Sancho’s best qualities.
Haaland of course gets to the ball first and finishes smoothly over the keeper. Sancho knows his teammates and their strengths and is able to play to those elements.
The next sequence further exemplifies Sancho’s creativity and intelligence. The obvious pass here seems to be to Guerreiro as his run splits the defenders, but Sancho sees the MGB center back anticipating that pass. Sancho turns the defender’s defensive awareness against him realizing Haaland will be open if the defender steps towards Guerreiro.
Once Guerreiro collapses the 3 defenders, Jadon turns inside knowing the space will have now opened for his favorite target, Erling Haaland.
Sancho takes a little too long her and the central defender recognizes the decoy run and stops to turn back towards Haaland.
Sancho again uses the defender’s awareness against him as he plays the ball in the space from where that defender had just come. I would have never guessed that this would have been the lane used to set up this goal, but Jadon Sancho has an extraordinary ability to see passing lanes 2 and 3 movements before they exist.
The weight Sancho puts on the ball matches Haaland’s run perfectly.
Jadon Sancho ~ Finishing
Sancho has a unique ability to sell a shot in the flow of the game and hit a completely different shot with good accuracy and power. In this first image, Sancho’s hips and plant foot both point left, indicating he plans to put his laces through the ball and hit it far post.
Instead, he surprises the defender and the goalkeeper by opening his hip and foot and knuckling a ball to the near post. Notice how flat-footed Langer is in goal.
The next image shows the same finishing skill, except on the opposite side. His hips show a far post shot to the right, but he gets his foot around the ball and shoots it near post for the goal. As in the previous example, the timing is important. The goalkeeper is pushing off his right leg, left leg lifted, in anticipation of the far post shot.
Jadon Sancho ~ Pressing
I have heard that the concern with Sancho is that he does not get back and defend. This was not my impression when watching him, so I had a closer look at this in the highlights. While I did not find evidence that Sancho, as a matter of habit, does not track back, I did find a recurring concern when he does.
This play in der Klassiker illustrates the point. Sancho’s initial pressure on Gnabry is good. He does not overcommit, but he pressures enough to plug the space between the Delaney and Meunier behind him.
As Gnabry turns and carries the ball to the outside, where Lucas Hernandez is waiting, Sancho takes a good angle and continues good pressure, squeezing Gnabry towards the sideline.
This is where it begins to go wrong for Sancho. He plants his left foot and changes his angle of pressure. This gives Gnabry more space and time, allowing him to think about the play that is developing.
Meunier is now forced to play both Gnabry and Hernandez. Sancho, at this point, has all but given up on the pressure. He is merely running alongside Gnabry now. It’s confusing, to say the least, why Sancho made the decision to abandon what started as good pressure.
Now that space opened up in front of Hernandez, Gnabry plays him into the corner. There is a Polish predator waiting to feast on his prey in the box, a fearful sight for any team.
Sancho’s weak pressure created the opportunity for this goal, and the big Pole showed no mercy.
Sancho’s suspect pressing is confirmed in the stats as he only completed 93 successful pressures compared to 115 for Reyna on the other flank despite Reyna playing 90 minutes less.
Passing stats narrative
Despite how the Bundesliga may differ from the Premier League, Sancho’s role in the build-up for his team is strong indicator of how he will be used at United if he is employed to his strengths.
- 2nd most progressive passes for BVB (148), and 2nd most progressive passes received (218). Just 4 shy of Haaland’s 222 despite playing 550 fewer minutes.
- Most shot-creating actions on the team (125).
- Most key passes (108), most dribbles leading to shot (11).
Jadon Sancho is key to his team’s plans to break lines of pressure and create shots because he is pivotal in both the passes he makes and the passes he receives. This is good news for FPL managers because of the involvement in plays that lead to FPL points, but it remains to be seen what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (OGS) will require of him defensively.
If OGS plays Sancho on the left, it would make sense for United to hold Aaron Wan Bissaka and remain in a back 3 when in possession as Shaw ravages the left w/ Sancho the way Guerreiro has done. If Sancho plays on the right, he will combine more with Pogba and either send balls into the box or take defenders on 1v1, while AWB covers for Sancho’s defensive shortcomings. All of this, however, may take time to develop. We could see Sancho as part of a rotation initially, while United develop these roles and relationships between the players.
Lastly, I believe Sancho’s passing ability is a boost to the United fantasy assets. Shaw could see Trent Alexander Arnold level explosiveness combining with Sancho on the left, Bruno could see himself in more space as Sancho draws attention and spreads the defense, Cavani could see more opportunities and services from both Bruno and Sancho, and even Pogba’s role could be more like what we saw in the Euro when Sancho plays on the right. These are the upside scenarios. Whether the upside is worth the risk will be up to each FPL manager individually.
That will do it for my first article of the 21/22 season. This scouting report will be available at www.allaboutfpl.com along with so many other free tools and resources for FPL managers. Do yourself a favor and check out what is on offer there. It truly is one of my favorite #FPL sites.
It is so good to be back with you all sharing our thoughts on futbol and FPL. I treasure all your interactions so please feel free to comment, question, criticize and share. Thank you for spending your precious time with my musings.
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How Structure and Approach can Shape your 2021/22 FPL Season
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