It’s been a turbulent couple of years that have seen managers come and go and Manchester United under-perform, even in the eyes of their staunchest fans. But perhaps the tide has turned with many already judging Erik ten Hag’s first season in charge as a success.
After all, he has added to the silverware for the first time in many seasons with the Carabao Cup win over Newcastle. There remains a chance that United will progress in the Europa Cup to the semi-finals at least and, in mid-April, the team remain a top-three Premier League club, all but certain to be playing European football in 2023-24. There’s also the small matter of a great run in the FA Cup to be taken into consideration.
He has achieved this by rejuvenating a squad that had looked tired and directionless before his arrival. And there’s one key player on whom his magic seems to have worked very well.
Sancho’s road to Old Trafford
Jadon Sancho’s footballing career started at Watford, but he was only 14 when he made the move up to Manchester City where he was ear-marked for first team inclusion as soon as would be possible.
But his time at City wasn’t a happy one and he made the move to Borussia Dortmund in 2017 where he enjoyed success until his transfer to United in 2021 for a reported £73 million.
After a relatively slow start to the season, he began to make his mark in November of the year.
He opened his scoring account for the team on the 23rd of the month with a goal against Villareal to seem them through to the knockout stage of the Champions League. Five days later he scored his first Premier League goal against Chelsea.
He went on to score a total of five goals for the season and was felt to be finding his feet in a season that saw United finish sixth in the League, some 35 points adrift from champions Manchester City.
This season so far
Now the team has been enjoying an altogether more successful season so far, despite some very unfortunate, and painful lapses. But, on the whole, there have been more positives than negatives.
This has also been reflected in the far shorter odds that the team has been attracting in leading sportsbooks and other betting sites operating in the UK. So, in all but the games against the big three this season of Arsenal, City and Newcastle United, they have generally turned out to be favourites. This is even true of the Europa League which many sportsbooks predict they will win outright.
Up until December 2022 Sancho was playing a fairly significant part in the team’s success. He seemed to have defined his role as a skilful and tricksy winger capable of bamboozling most defenders.
It very much seemed that ten Hag had started to bring out the best in him and he was showing signs that the previous season’s total of five goals would be beaten even before the mid-point of this year’s games.
But then the wheels seem to come off. From October, Sancho started to be missing from the starting line-up, not even making it onto the pitch as a substitute.
During November and December’s World Cup United players not involved in the tournament went on a training camp to Spain, but Sancho was not included. Instead, he headed for the Netherlands for an individual training programme.
In the run-up to the finals in Qatar there were stories that he had been ill. But some observers believed that the real issue may have been his disappointment at not being included in the England squad.
Given his good form at the start of the season, as well as sound performances in Nations League games against Italy and Germany, his omission was sure to have dented his confidence and mental equilibrium.
Even on his return from the Netherlands in January ten Hag was reiterating that Sancho still wasn’t physically and mentally prepared for a return to first-team action. However, the tone was very much that the team would be there to welcome him back as soon as he was fit and ready.
The triumphant return
It certainly seemed like the manager’s patience paid off. When Sancho made his eventual return to the first-team line-up on February 8th, he scored in the 2-2 draw with Leeds. Since then, he has scored once more, against Leicester, and become an almost permanent fixture in the first team line-up for both domestic and European games.
With United very well placed as we head towards the end of the season, it seems very likely that Sancho will continue to be a key player. While some clubs may have let his pre-Christmas drop in form in form to define his future, it’s a testament to ten Hag and United that this has not been the case.
His goal tally had also reached his debut season’s number of five across all leagues and competitions.
