From The Athletic
JADON SANCHO IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS AT ASTON VILLA – HE MUST PROVE HIMSELF QUICKLY
A gash to the top of his head, Donyell Malen made his way past the Holte End on its feet.
“Malen again, ole, ole,” echoed around Villa Park.
Malen had two goals to his name but was coming off, his impact leaving a greater mark than the attempts of some Young Boys supporters who launched cups at him after both of his goals.
The 26-year-old is steadily becoming impossible to ignore. Six goals in his last nine matches — made even more impressive by playing an average of 45 minutes per game — demonstrates the effect he continues to have, despite curbed game-time.
If Malen tends to be Unai Emery’s first attacking change, Jadon Sancho continues to vie to be the next. Sancho is yet to start a Premier League fixture for Aston Villa, reduced to just 14 per cent of all available minutes.
The Manchester United loanee’s career remains in a state of drift, compounded by the lack of rhythm that regular starts bring and confusion around what type of player he is.
Sancho has been around for some time, long in the public domain, and has drawn more attention and scrutiny than most. Lots has been written and said about a man who was once a boy star, yet very few really know what his footballing profile is.
The nature of such contradictions carried onto Thursday night, where Sancho’s individual data from Villa’s 2-1 victory against Young Boys shone favourably. The six chances created were the most of anyone on the pitch, with only two players creating more in a Europa League game this season.
At surface level, Sancho’s display was encouraging and provided a glimpse of the skill that once put him at the avant-garde of the exciting, young English players developing abroad.
“He had a good match,” Emery said after. “He had three or four chances to score. Now he has to be demanding of himself to score in those actions. Hopefully, he can help us with his qualities during the season. Today, I think he took a step forward.”
In truth, Sancho’s performance only exemplified the curiosity of him from a footballing standpoint. The numbers tell you his chance creation was high and regular, but the eye test shows a player who still appears inhibited and unlikely to convince Emery of a Premier League starting berth.
Sancho was neat in possession, aside from a wayward long switch of play that went out for a throw-in in the first half, and from 56 passes he registered an 89 per cent accuracy rate. However, delve into the weeds of those figures and a more telling gauge of his impact was the frequency of completed passes in the final third, which was just four.
A similar echo of his conservatism in possession was demonstrated through his dribbling. Sancho was once defined and measured by his ball manipulation and dribbling. Here, though, he failed to complete a single dribble, having only attempted one. His most threatening moments came when he was on the end of opportunities, skewing his best one wide in the final stages after a clever left-to-right blind-side run.
Following his signing, there was a feeling among some members of Villa staff that Sancho could turn out to be anything; very few were willing to assume how well the straight loan would go, with the Midlands club covering around 80 per cent of his weekly salary in the region of £200,000 plus a loan fee.
Sancho was not tracked in the same way as typical new recruits, explained by how swiftly the deal came together in the final days of the window and the fact he was among a narrowing pool of wide players available — the position Villa were badly in need of. Fundamentally, Sancho was a practical, albeit expensive, risk.
It was tough to envisage any club other than Villa, who have a manager in Emery who seeks to rehabilitate once precocious, now directionless, talents, taking a chance on him.
“Unai likes players who he thinks nobody can change,” says one observer.
Since arriving on a season-long loan, Sancho has largely been used to garnish Europa League matches Villa have been expected to win, rather than truly determine matches in the way Malen has or, arguably, what his talent as a youngster warranted. So against Young Boys, it was encouraging that Sancho played a full part — the first time he has completed a match since April.
“He finished tired, but we need a player with his skills,” Emery added. “We need him to improve, getting fit and feeling confident.”
Sancho is gradually becoming attuned to the coaching staff’s demands around professionalism and tactical responsibilities. These are cases of progress behind the scenes, yet the inescapable evidence on the pitch is that he is without a goal or assist in his ten Villa matches.
A home game against Young Boys offered the perfect conditions to Sancho, a newly low-cut sock wearer, and Villa’s other attackers.
Defensively, Young Boys’ set-up was conducive to how Emery wanted to attack. They had a back five with outside centre-backs who could be dragged into deep areas by the No 10s, including Sancho, leaving space for Malen to break into. Sancho’s direct marker, Tanguy Zoukrou, showed visible hesitancy in knowing when to apply pressure and when to hold his position, resulting in stuttering, back-and-forth movements that resembled the Hokey Cokey.
Consequently, the 23-cap England international was able to receive in the left half space, while being given license to drift across the final third and combine with team-mates. This, in theory, seemed favourable to a player who prefers to beat opponents through short, sharp interchanges which mitigate for his lack of explosive pace.
It is that particular drawback which seems to jar with modern football trends, based on fast transitions, direct wingers and a discernible shift away from slow, possession-based build-up.
In fairness, Emery is one of the managers who should suit Sancho stylistically, considering he still opts for control. With Sancho playing from the left, he invariably has a left-back behind him wanting to occupy high positions to overlap from.
Sancho is a work in progress from a Villa perspective, but his time at the club is finite. It is a season-long loan, coinciding with the end of his contract at United. He will almost certainly be a free agent in the summer. This would have seemed unfathomable not so long ago, especially in those early, most halcyon days at Borussia Dortmund.
Reinvigoration needs to happen swiftly, and so too does figuring out what type of player he is and, most crucially, what type he wants to be.
