Here’s our Fantasy Premier League New Player Profile article where we look at the Manchester United signing of Jadon Sancho. We take a detailed look at his detailed stats and his FPL prospects
Fantasy Premier League New Player Profiles – Jadon Sancho To Manchester United
Manchester United have agreed the transfer of Jadon Sancho from Dortmund for a fee in the region of £73m. Given that Sancho is at the Euros with England the transfer hasn’t been completed and is still subject to a medical
Sancho is a right footed 1.80m (5′ 11″) 21 year old Right Winger.
Sancho has made 21 appearances for the England senior team and scored 3 goals and 5 assists in little over 1,000 minutes which is impressive.
As the transfer has yet to complete he is yet to be listed in FPL.
Stats
Stats are from Understat
Here’s his basic stats over the last 3 years in the Bundesliga for Dortmund
Here’s his underlying stats over the same period
So what do these stats mean?
So the first thing to state is that while Man Utd maybe pleased with themselves for the reduced fee compared to what they were being asked last season they are certainly getting a reduced statistical player. To be fair Dortmund as a team dropped off last season finishing 3rd instead of 2nd and scoring 75 goals compared to 84
The 19/20 stats were fairly mind blowing from an actual and underlying basis although in both 19/20 and 18/19 he massively overperformed those stats. 20/21 saw a fall off in the the actual returns and underlying stats and his ability to over perform them
Using my midfield player rankings article when I convert underlying stats to FPL attacking points Sancho’s stats last season would have seen him in 7th place and justifying an FPL value of around £8.5-£9.0m.
His Key Passes per game and xA90 would only have him behind De Bruyne and Grealish last season which shows his creative strength.
That’s assuming you can translate Bundesliga stats to the Premier League. It’s worth remembering that Werner and Havertz came to Chelsea also with very impressive stats and both have failed to replicate anything like that form. Now Sancho is English so that may afford him some sort of transitional advantage but he hasn’t played a minute in the Premier League and has only played around 600 minutes total in Premier League 2.
So what sort of player is Sancho?
Firstly it’s worth stating that Sancho is primarily a creative assist based player rather than a goalscorer. You can see that from the balance of goals and assists as well as his underlying stats.
Last season in the Bundesliga he was 3rd in Key Passes per game and 5th in xA90. Compare that to his rank in shots per game of 14th and 39th in xG90. He’s more of a De Bruyne who dribbles than he is a shoot on sight Mo Salah type wide forward.
What will really be of benefit to United is his dribbling ability. United last season struggled against teams employing a low block or as you might more colloquially put it “parking the bus”. Sancho’s ability to go past players will give them an option they don’t currently have in order to unpick these massed defences. That is a huge part of his attraction to United. Last season in the Bundesliga he was 6th in successful dribbles leading to a shot.
Where will he play for Man Utd?
Solskjaer primarily plays a 4-2-3-1 and Sancho will start and be first choice on the right side of the attacking midfield 3 probably with Bruno Fernandes as the CAM and Rashford as the LAM. It’s worth noting that last season he played as much on the left as the right for Dortmund. However given that United’s RAM position has been a problem in the sense that Dan James is really only a counter attacking player and Greenwood a striker who constantly moves inside then I expect Sancho to start here. Expect interchanging positions during the game though.
How will he effect other players?
Firstly he will take some of the creative burden off Bruno Fernandes and have the ability to relieve him at the CAM position. Man Utd were reliant far too much on Fernandes for creativity and he was well over played by Solskjaer.
Last season Fernandes was 3rd ranked in the Premier League for key passes per game. Shaw incredibly was 5th but the next player after that was Rashford in 56th! Sancho will take some of that burden away and maybe even allow Fernandes to concentrate more on goalscoring positions to add to his 9 non penalty goals last season which can surely be improved.
His interplay with Wan Bissaka should also help to improve Wan Bissaka’s attacking game as well even if it’s only to give him a more consistent partner on the right flank.
How this affects Greenwood will be interesting. I imagine Greenwood will share striking duties with Cavani and possibly Martial but I think it will result in a lot less consistent gametime for Greenwood and Cavani. Cavani wasn’t exactly consistently used anyway but Greenwood was starting to feature more regularly as an RAM.
Outright sports betting on the Premier League title this season should be more popular given the emergence of Chelsea and the defence returning to Liverpool. Certainly, Sancho joining will definitely help Man Utd’s title aspirations and reduce their odds where they are mainly seen as 4th in line. Sports betting on events like the Premier League is widely popular in the UK, especially as many sportsbooks now have apps and compatible mobile sites. So, keeping an eye on transfer news and big moves like Sancho to Utd will help fans determine who has the best chance to lift the title in 21/22.
What about the Euros?
Liverpool manager Klopp has said he will give players coming back from the Euros 3 weeks rest before they start pre-season. If Solskjaer were to follow this then it’s difficult to see Sancho lining up in GW1 given that he will report for pre-season training at the beginning of August less than 2 weeks before GW1. Then there’s the question as if he’s introduced does he start straight away or do we see a couple of games as sub to ease him in.
How do I see him as an FPL asset?
Obviously it’s hard to be definitive before seeing his price but I’m guessing £9m?
If he isn’t back for GW1 then he’s not really an immediate consideration. In some ways whether you have him could depend on whether Bruno Fernandes is in your team as that with United’s good fixtures to start the season that’s a lot of investment in a Man Utd attack that at times did stutter last season.
As I just said above he very well could not be available for GW1 anyway. I personally am thinking I will start with Fernandes and would not consider Sancho.
