Erik ten Hag critical of Jadon Sancho despite goal-scoring heroics – Man United News And Transfer News

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Erik ten Hag has voiced criticism over Jadon Sancho’s performance against Spurs yesterday evening despite the England man having scored a superbly struck goal for the Red Devils.

Sancho has struggled for form all season and at one point missed a number of games as Ten hag sent him to train with an amateur team in Holland to regain his mental and physical strength after a period on the sidelines.

The young star turned hero in the FA Cup semi final last weekend at Wembley when he volunteered to take a penalty, having missed one at the same venue for England that contributed to them losing to Italy in the Euro 2020 final.

This seemed to earn Ten Hag’s praise in the following presser and a suggestion he would reward that courage, which he did with a starting berth yesterday.

But despite his goal, Sancho was hauled off after an hour and replaced by Anthony Martial.

After the game, the manager was asked what he thought of Sancho’s performance and why he had taken him off.

“He scored a great goal,” Ten Hag said.

“I think he had to score another one.

“But yeah, we had quite a good performance, but we lose control and also in the pressing before half-time I already said about the defence organisation of [the] left side wasn’t great, the cooperation wasn’t great over that side and I hoped also to improve that.”

From what we have learned so far about Ten Hag, he is an excellent motivator and his words suggest he has decided that Sancho could be helped more by being pushed than praised.

Ultimately, the manager substituted three of the four wide players yesterday, with only Diogo Dalot surviving the cull.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Antony also looked to have inspired the manager’s wrath and it will be interesting to see if any changes are made to the line-up in those wide positions as United face Aston Villa on Sunday.

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