Football Digest: Maguire gets Southgate's support amid Man Utd woes
Former Manchester United midfielder Gordon Strachan has advised Jadon Sancho to apologise to Erik ten Hag. Sancho recently deleted a defiant social media statement, written in response to Ten Hag publicly criticising his performances in training.
The winger was left out of United’s matchday squad for the defeat to Arsenal before the international break. After the final whistle, Ten Hag confirmed that Sancho’s omission was due to not meeting the required standards in training.
A matter of hours later, the former Borussia Dortmund man addressed fans directly on social media, telling them ‘not to believe everything they hear’ and revealing that he is fed up of being made a ‘scapegoat’.
With Sancho’s United career on the rocks, Strachan believes that an apology and a sense of understanding from the 23-year-old is the only way to move forward.
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“First of all, I think that Jadon Sancho needs to understand that Erik ten Hag hasn’t sat down and started talking about the player of his own accord,” he told gamblingzone.com. “He’s simply answering a question from a reporter. Players always want the truth from their manager.
“In this instance, Erik ten Hag has answered the question honestly and the player hasn’t liked his response, but Jadon needs to learn to handle the truth. Jadon needs to look at himself and figure out what he’s doing wrong, rather than feeling as though he’s being attacked. Of course, we don’t know the whole story, but that’s how I see it from the outside.
“The first thing I would say to a player is ‘have a look at yourself’. Look at yourself before anybody else, it’s as simple as that. Go and look at your games and tell me if that’s as good as you think you can be. If it is, then you can’t play here because the standard is far bigger at Manchester United than anywhere else. If I was that young man, I would have a look at myself and apologise to the manager.”
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Sancho is yet to start a game in the Premier League this season, drawing a blank in goals and assists across 77 minutes of first-team action. Ten Hag’s first season in charge showed promise, but things are yet to click for the Dutchman this term, and United have sat 11th in the table during the international break.
Observing the quality of the Red Devils’ midfield, Strachan believes that his old side’s main problem is a lack of aggression from attacking players, which is leaving those in the middle of the park exposed.
“Individually, United have some brilliant players,” added the Scotsman. “Casemiro, [Bruno] Fernandes, [Christian] Eriksen – they are great players. As a group, something isn’t working. When you have a midfield three like that, you have to also ask if your three players up front are doing enough or offering these players enough protection.
“You need to have that work-rate from your front three players. They need to make the opponents’ life a misery when they have the ball by either pressing or holding a shape that doesn’t allow the opposition to move the ball forward.”
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