When Jadon Sancho signed a big-money deal with Manchester United last summer, he was signed to address the club’s long-term hunt for a right-sided winger.
United, who will kick off their Premier League campaign against Leicester City at Old Trafford on April 2nd, had been watching Sancho for several years and we’re determined to land him. He was listed as their top aim to become their future first-choice right-winger.
However, the 21-year-old has been most impressive on the left side this season. Under former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, he struggled to find a place in the team, and it became evident that he would need more time to acclimatize to the demands of the Premier League after playing in the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund.
Nonetheless, in the last few months, Sancho has begun to go through the gears and is demonstrating why United was so eager on getting him. However, this is due to interim manager Ralf Rangnick using him on the opposite flank to the one he was signed to bolster.
In 2022, he has two league goals and three assists, with all of his efforts coming from the left side. Those stats, however, will come as no surprise to Jamie Carragher, a former Liverpool defender.
That is because, when giving his predictions for this season back in August, the Sky Sports pundit said that he believes Sancho is equally capable of producing to the best of his skills on the left as he is on the right. He had crunched the figures and made his prediction based on his results.
“I honestly believe he has the potential to be a superstar,” Carragher told Sky Sports. “Look at his stats in German football. Gary [Neville] has stated that they need this guy on the right side, but based on his stats, I believe he is equally as good on the left.”
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Carragher faced the danger of being mocked when his forecast of Sancho as his ‘one to watch in August was revisited in December. However, the former England defender remained firm in his assessment, and Sancho’s form over the last eight weeks has proven him accurate.
“I’m not trying to back out of it,” Carragher remarked, just days before the end of the 2021 season. “I wanted to see Jadon Sancho because I’d heard so much about how well he’d done at Dortmund.
“And I believe we didn’t include him in our Euros squad at the conclusion of last season, and we took a lot of flak for it on social media. I hadn’t seen enough of him, and when I did see him in an England shirt, I wasn’t impressed.
“He was one to keep an eye on, as in ‘I want to see what he’s all about.’ Listen, it hasn’t begun well for him, but he’s still a young guy with lots of time, a few years at United, but you’d surely expect a bit more from him.”
Carragher has watched Sancho improve since he made that statement. Since the beginning of February, he has been undoubtedly United’s best player, and he has responded to Rangnick’s challenge.
