Jadon Sancho: The tell, the versatility and the eye-watering creativity - here's what Manchester United are getting (2024)

Jadon Sancho has a “tell”. Before a dribble, he often raises his right arm to shoulder height, a bit like a praying mantis that’s ready to catch and devour a fly. Countless Bundesliga defenders have nevertheless fallen victim to his quick shuffle of feet and feints, unable to stop his advance. They knew what was coming. But they couldn’t do much about it. It’s the Arjen Robben paradox.

In Sancho’s last game for Borussia Dortmund, the 4-1 win over RB Leipzig in the DFB-Pokal final, his arm went again up after five minutes, just for a brief moment, on the left edge of the RB box. His opponent Nordi Mukiele backed off him, expecting the 21-year-old to run at him. But this time, the south Londoner opened up his body and curled the ball into the corner of Peter Gulacsi’s net.

4️⃣ ➡️ 6️⃣

Just a couple of final goals from @Sanchooo10 to finish as the 2020/21 #DFBPokal's top scorer 🔝⚽ pic.twitter.com/0eTi222sLf

— The DFB-Pokal (@DFBPokal_EN) May 14, 2021

We don’t know if the England international was selling Mukiele a dummy by making a wilfully deceptive arm movement, if arm and feet were not quite on the same page or if the tell has subconsciously evolved to signify him “going for it” in a broader sense. Regardless, Sancho proved largely unplayable in that game. Again. He scored a second, provided an assist for Erling Haaland’s brace and nearly departed the scene with a hat-trick. After the win, which earned Dortmund their first piece of silverware in four years, L’Equipe described him as a “wunderkind”. Sky Sports Germany went for “a magician of the ball”.

Manchester United supporters should be excited as well. After years of rather pedestrian and narrow movement on the flanks, Sancho’s arrival will herald the return of some good, old-fashioned, wing-play joy. There are few things more thrilling than a player running at the defence with ball in tow. Sancho’s unique skill set — a combination of individual wizardry, less obvious but consistent ball progression up the pitch and an eye for a killer pass — will add plenty of depth to United’s attacks.

You can add versatility to that list. Because of his continued omission by Gareth Southgate during the Euros, there’s been plenty of debate whether Sancho is better used on the left or the right, and whether he needs a specific type of full-back behind him — an auxiliary winger such as Achraf Hakimi for example — to be most effective. Hakimi’s departure to Inter Milan last summer was blamed for Sancho being less impactful on the right during the first four months of the 2020-21 season, which was largely underwhelming by his standards — four assists in the Bundesliga.

But the numbers tell a different story. In 2019-20, Sancho’s best season at BVB (20 goals and 20 assists in all competitions), he spent only 29 per cent on the right wing directly ahead of Hakimi, the marauding wing-back. He mostly played in a more central role (50 per cent, plus eight per cent as a striker) and sometimes on the left (13 per cent), as the graphic below shows.

In 2020-21, a season defined by Lucien Favre (and his successor Edin Terzic) switching to a back-four system with an additional central attacking midfielder, Sancho was more of an orthodox winger, albeit on both sides: 45 per cent of his minutes were on the left, 37 per cent of them on the right, as shown in the graphic below.

On the left, he was supported by the offensively-minded technician Raphael Guerreiro. On the right, it was the rather less-refined Thomas Meunier, a player more impressive in his own box. Yet Sancho’s attacking output and style was quite consistent on either flank, as we can see by using smarterscout, a tool that uses advanced metrics to give players a rating from zero to 99 based on how often they perform a specific action compared to others playing in their position, or how effective they are at it.

The first pizza chart shows how he rated in different categories when playing on the right wing for Dortmund last season…

The second pizza chart below shows how he rated on the left wing for Dortmund in 2020-21.

It’s on the left where he was at his most dangerous for Dortmund last season, by creating chances for others and also finishing. An expected goals (xG) from shot creation of 88 out of 99 is up there with the very best in his position at the elite level. Playing in front of Guerreiro rather than Meunier might explain why there was a bit more end product on the left but you shouldn’t read too much into that. Sancho’s move to the left largely coincided with Terzic taking over a Dortmund team that had looked slow and sluggish in attack.

Also, Sancho had spent the winter months putting in extra fitness and gym sessions with the blessing of his club to become stronger on the pitch. His form duly picked up again after the winter break on the left but it’s impossible to separate cause and effect, especially since his all-round game had improved so much as well.

The local broadsheet Ruhr Nachrichten noticed the England international’s willingness to put himself at the service of the team and make plenty of defensive runs. “That part of the game has never been as pronounced,” the newspaper said in May. It’s safe to say Sancho can be equally devastating on either flank.

It’s his ability to get the ball where it matters — to attackers in the box — that’s particularly eye-catching. Among under-23 midfielders and forwards with 900-plus minutes, Sancho’s rate of 0.48 assists per 90 is unrivalled in the Bundesliga and only bettered by Real Madrid’s Rodrygo across Europe’s top five leagues last season. Only RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku had higher expected assists than Sancho’s 0.3 per 90 — he was making passes worthy of an assist once every three games. He has shown great maturity, decision-making and the vision to pick out threatening passes in a role that has been integral to Dortmund’s attack.

But his influence goes far beyond playing the last ball. As you could see in the pizza charts earlier, a key trait of Sancho’s is his ability to progress the ball upfield. His xG from ball progression (when on the left wing in 2020-21) — ie, passing, receiving, carrying the ball upfield — is rated 94 out of 99, which shows he is one of the best in his position at advancing the play.

In terms of running with the ball, he is truly in a class of his own. Statsbomb data via FBref shows that no other under-23 midfielder or forward in Europe’s top five leagues has carried the ball more frequently than Sancho’s 60.7 per 90 minutes. The extent of those carries is even more impressive: his 10.4 “progressive” carries per 90 — defined as carries that move the ball towards the opponent’s goal five yards or more, or any carry into the penalty area — are among the top five in Europe for his age. They underline his directness and drive forward.

Interestingly, he doesn’t tend to shoot all that often on a per-touch basis, and doesn’t frequently receive in the box for a player in his position. That’s likely to be due to the fact he has so many touches on the ball — 77 per 90 according to Statsbomb via FBref, putting him in the top two per cent of attackers in the last year.

Sancho is clearly comfortable with the ball at his feet, and he is not afraid to try to beat his man either. His 7.1 attempted dribbles per 90 minutes is the highest of any player in the Bundesliga, a skill that makes him a threat both on the break and when trying to unlock packed defences.

As you can see below, he may not always be successful in beating his man, but you would be wary of getting too tight to him knowing that he will frequently look to get past you in a one-v-one situation. Because he’s mostly attacking on the wing, losing the ball in those areas does not pose an immediate threat to his own team’s defence. On the contrary, it can open up opportunities to counter-press defenders who don’t have many options.

The risk-reward equation of succeeding in more than 50 per cent of dribbles is thus still very advantageous: every time Sancho gets past his man, which happens more often than not, the game opens up in attack. “An absolute world-class player who will only get better,” is how one member of the Dortmund coaching team described him recently, with a rueful undertone.

Last year, his stock might have been higher after a season that broke all sorts of records for an under-21 player but then his numbers had been somewhat inflated by some fortunate breaks. He outperformed his xG by 60 per cent, scoring 17 goals from 9.3 xG, which pointed to some astonishing finishing that was unlikely to be sustainable. Players might heavily outperform or underperform their xG for a while but, over an extended period, they are all likely to hover more closely around the number of goals they are expected to score. That’s precisely what’s happened in 2020-21.

His underlying performance numbers haven’t dramatically changed from 2019-20, but his goalscoring has simply become more closely aligned with expectation when looking on a per-90 basis. In other words, that slump in form that many bemoaned at the beginning of the season wasn’t so much Sancho playing badly but him not converting all manner of difficult shots that had miraculously ended up in the net in the previous campaign.

That hasn’t made him a worse player, even if his less impressive goals tally might have helped Ed Woodward to keep the transfer fee down this summer. The €85 million paid for him does not appear a lot of money for the amount of cut and thrust Sancho so regularly provides.

There’s little doubt that he’ll make a most exciting — and telling — impact on United’s attack for years to come.

(Photos: Getty Images/Design: Tom Slator)