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BBC Match of the Day’s presenter, Gary Lineker, believes Jadon Sancho’s 2020 Euro heartache with England is behind his poor career at Old Trafford to date.
The England winger made a big money move to Old Trafford in June 2021 and played a bit-part role in England’s run to the delayed Euro 2020 final.
The attacker performed in fits and starts for the Red Devils but never really got going as he only scored 12 goals in 82 appearances for the Mancunian side and could never nail down a permanent starting berth in any of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick or Erik ten Hag’s sides.
The winger then publicly fell out with the Dutch coach in September after being left out against Arsenal and was subsequently banished from the first team before sealing a loan move back to Borussia Dortmund in January.
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, Lineker delved deeper into the issue of Sancho’s form and compared his response to penalty shootout failure to Bukayo Saka at Arsenal.
On the matter of reacting to the adversity of missing a penalty that cost England Euro glory Lineker stated “well look at Jadon Sancho. I don’t know whether that was a contributing factor but it could have been”.
The presenter compared Sancho to Saka in terms of their reaction to the final disappointment and the United man was found wanting.
Commenting on the Arsenal attacker, he said “he was about 18-years-old, and not many players would have been able to handle that in the way he has done. He has come forward and he takes really important penalties at big moments, and he always comes across as this really sweet lad, but you can see how competitive he is”.
Sancho for his part, has adapted back to life quite quickly in Germany with some solid performances for the Bundesliga side.
The 23 year old has played four games back in Germany and he has contributed two assists in that time.
However, his return from injury against Freiburg hardly went to plan as he missed three big chances in the seven minutes he was on the field.
Sancho’s future is very much up in the air as he is clearly happier in Germany, asserting that he has been welcomed back “like family” there but there have also been murmurs that if Ten Hag were to be sacked at the end of the season, he would be content to return to Old Trafford to work with a different manager.
