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This series of articles started when there were 13 days until Manchester United’s next game against Brighton at Old Trafford.
13 days to make the necessary adjustments to remedy a poor start. 13 days to implement tactical changes which will improve the team’s performance. 13 days to regain and rally the spirit which was carefully cultivated last season.
13 days to fix United’s season essentially.
Over these 13 days, The Peoples Person team are looking at 13 areas United can look to improve upon before their next Premier League fixture. An article a day until Erik ten Hag’s issues have drifted away.
Today we are focussing on an unexpected, disappointing and, frankly, totally unnecessary problem in the Old Trafford dressing room, and that is the potential disruption caused by Ten Hag’s public spat with the club’s biggest earner, Jadon Sancho.
The story is simple: the manager did not include Sancho in the travelling squad to face Arsenal last weekend and when asked at a press conference what was the reason, he referred to poor performance in training.
This prompted Sancho to publish a statement on social media suggesting he was applying himself perfectly well in training and that he was being scapegoated.
Thus far in his tenure, Ten Hag has ruled with an iron fist and has been backed to the hilt by the club, but this situation might be a little more challenging than the others – even that of Ronaldo. A major reason for that is Sancho’s friendship group within the dressing room and thus whether other members of the squad might side with him and start to question Ten Hag’s authority.
If that were to happen, the strong bond and happy team spirit that has typified Ten Hag’s reign could be threatened and we could return to the divisive days of the Mourinho, Solskjaer and Rangnick eras that left many fans feeling that some players did not care about the club and were not fit to wear the shirt.
Reports have been published saying that the opposite is the case and that members of the squad are fed up with Sancho and his approach to training.
But eagle-eyed fans also saw that Marcus Rashford initially liked Sancho’s post on social media. While the like was removed quite quickly, it was there long enough to suggest that his instinct was to support his friend. This in turn suggested the removal of the like was perhaps political and diplomatic rather than anything else.
Every Manchester United fan in the world would love to see Jadon Sancho play for their club the way he played for Borussia Dortmund, but in a sense, losing the player, if that is what the fall-out comes to, would not be the real disaster. After all, there is plenty of cover on the left wing in Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho and plenty on the right in Antony (assuming his own off-the-pitch antics don’t also render him unavailable), Facu Pellistri and Amad Diallo.
The bigger concern than losing the player, for Ten Hag, would be losing team harmony.
Whether he decides to come down hard on Sancho or to try to put the issue behind them, the boss has to handle this delicate situation in a way that keeps the squad together and all pulling in the same direction ahead of the resumption of their season on September 16th. If he does not, a bigger can of worms will be opened that could be much, much harder to keep under control.
