Jadon Sancho and Diogo Dalot
By: Kevin Kemboi
Sancho and Dalot have developed an incredible dynamic in pre-season. The amount of off-ball work Dalot does for Sancho to receive in positions of qualitative superiority is insane. He overlaps, underlaps, positions himself high in the half space, and inverts, and it’s all for Sancho.
Dalot’s off-ball work enables Sancho to directly use him as a penetrative option or as somebody to combine with or to quite simply use the space that Dalot has created for him. So many times Dalot made unselfish runs and if Sancho is left in a 1v1 situation, you’re in trouble.
Thing is, it’s not like Sancho is some sort of 1v1 demon. He’s excellent in them, but not elite at them like other 1v1 wingers (Saka, Dembélé, Salah, etc). The difference is Sancho lacks the explosiveness to break free – he’s more reliant on deceit because that’s not his profile.
Sancho does a bit of everything. He’s elite at combining and interchanging but can also attack the box and dust his man in 1v1’s on the inside & outside on either flank. This combined with his top class ball striking makes him a special player, but more so in combo-heavy environments.
However, Sancho is so special that he can also play the isolation role where he’s mainly required to dictate attacks in 1v1 situations to a top standard too, but not an elite one.
However, that’s okay, because that’s not his profile. It’s like asking Ribery to do what Robben did
Ribery would still be good at it, but it’s not his A game. Either way, in the short-run, Sancho will likely be used as the first option at right wing despite that not being optimal for him. He’s United only attacker that can reliably cut inside and outside from the right.
United signing someone like Antony seems unlikely at the moment so Sancho will be the only reliable profile who can play on that side. Rashford is too one-footed & the rest of the options are subpar or unsuited.
It makes sense to pick him, but it’s not ideal for his development.
However, Ten Hag clearly wants a right winger. He knows United need an Antony-type profile to operate on that side of the pitch, and that’ll allow Sancho to return to the left where he can be the focal point of Ten Hag’s combination play on that side of the pitch.
But, again, this is largely a positive thread about Sancho. It speaks to the talent of the man that he can operate in so many positions and key roles when nobody else can. Even at that, when Bruno or Eriksen drift across, the combinations will be excellent. He’ll still excel there but not quite like the way he would on the left where nearly every time he received he’d be in a position to combine or with his preferred foot facing the goal. The right winger in Ten Hag’s team needs to dictate attacks, dominate in 1v1’s and be an outlet. That’s not Sancho’s game
However, if there’s one man who will certainly help that cause, it’s Dalot. His relentless off-ball running and ability to effectively combine and offer meaningfully threatening over/underlaps will create space for Sancho, and he will succeed due to those qualities Dalot offers.
That will be primarily useful against low blocks where others can drift across to combine with Sancho or when he gets a large volume of situations to beat his man in 1v1’s, but also in transition where Ten Hag’s structure will allow Sancho to receive in 1v1’s.
It’s in those moments where Sancho isn’t like a Salah who’ll relentlessly offer passes into space, but he’s still capable of making those runs & dusting his man in 1v1 situations where he has the technical skills to produce good end product. He’ll have a good year regardless.
By Kevin Kemboi.
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