Sancho LW or RW?...

Numerous amount of times I've read that ‘Jadon Sancho is a lot better on the left’ or 'Oh my god, we didn't have a right winger for so long and we're trying to fix that by buying another LW, what a joke'.

Jadon Sancho is a winger, not RW, not LW, not an inverted winger, not an inside forward. He can do that all.

Anyways, I took the data from the last 2 seasons and looked at how frequently he makes things happen from wide areas (wing and half space).

On the left, he tends to interplay with Guerreiro (28% of Sancho's passing share from there, next is Brandt with 10%) or getting into the box to shoot. Rafa is their 2nd most creative outlet, he is comfy in half space as well and you can see them play in a similar way to Rashy & Shaw.

On the right he tends to either cut into half space or overlap for a cross, last season it was due to constant threat of Hakimi’s runs into the box.

Meunier on the other hand prefers to just hold width so Sancho has more time on the ball in the dangerous half space area.

Underlying numbers are interesting.

Sancho on the right creates on higher volume (incisive and prog. passes) and shoots less. However, he ends up having more chances created from the left. Why?

Let’s take a deep look at his key pass recipients in the following part.

Haaland is the main reason for that.

He is an unbelievable player but still FAR from being a complete forward. He isn't great in build-up nor heading and often just does one trick - running in behind from left and shooting far post. It’s perfectly described in a great article written by John Muller here.

He loves being played through.

Sancho is very good at this kind of pass and that added with Haaland’s left sidedness results in better productivity from the left. Simple.

They’re very good together.

When played together, Sancho completes 27% of key passes Haaland gets. Assists share is even more showing - 31%.

The gap between Sancho and others is mindblowing too. Guerreiro is the next key pass supplier with 15% share (12% difference), while the likes of Reus, Reyna, Hazard, and Brandt got 10% assists shares each (21% difference).

What a bromance they have (had).

Sancho's playstyle as RW will fit Manchester United perfectly.

One of his key strengths is progressive carrying, we lack that a lot on the right side, he tends to drop deep and receive the ball to then carry it forward. That's what Luke Shaw does for us on the left.

And as I said in my Pogba v Rashy LW thread on Twitter I can see Ole getting back to the beloved setup he started with at United. Rashford as inside forward/SS, another winger as 2nd creator to cut into half space (Mata/Pogba).

Sancho's numbers from half space are absurdly good.

That's how I think United will look at the final stage of possession.

Bissaka would not have much creative load and will focus on dragging opposition around and covering spaces left behind the attacking line.

This will also allow playing more aggressive midfield in some games as well.