Gary Neville Fears Sancho Could Become Another Van De Beek At Old Trafford
Gary Neville has opined that Jadon Sancho risks becoming the next version of Donny Van De Beek at Manchester United due to his recent lack of involvement in the first team picture.
Sancho has failed to come off the bench in Manchester United’s last two games against Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspurs.
Given that the Red Devils splashed more than £70m to acquire Sancho from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, it would have been expected that he would play a part in their biggest games of the season.
After another no-show against Spurs, where United recovered from last weekend’s drubbing at the hands of Liverpool to record a resounding 3-0 victory on Saturday, Neville is dreading what could become of Sancho at Old Trafford.
Neville has compared Sancho’s situation to Van De Beek, who has hardly had a look-in since making a £40m switch to Manchester United from Ajax Amsterdam last summer.
"I can’t help thinking about Van de Beek," the former Red Devils captain told Sky Sports after the Spurs win. "Who has put their name on him? Who’s sponsoring that at Manchester United, that £40 million that’s been spent on that kid who’s been sat in the stand and not kicked a football for nearly 18 months?
"Sancho, if he’s not careful, is going to end up exactly the same. He’s played in some pretty appalling performances in the last few [weeks], not him… I mean team performances.
"He’s come into a club that’s looked completely disjointed in terms of their football. He’s played in a far better team and unit at Dortmund. He’s come in here and probably thinking, ‘what the hell am I in here? What is this?’. There’s no organisation, there’s no structure, the defensive work rate is poor.
"He’s actually the only player, when you look at the defensive running stats of Manchester United’s front players, that’s got anywhere near… I think he’s fifth or sixth out of the top four clubs’ front players, he was in the top 10. So he’s actually put a shift in.
"But he must be sat on that bench today thinking, ‘what am I doing?’, now he’s thinking, ‘where do I play in that system?’. Because I don’t see him in a three in midfield and I don’t see him in a two up front, so he’s probably thinking, ‘where is my career at Manchester United?’.
"And Van de Beek’s thinking the same. Today has been a good day but it does cause problems elsewhere."
