What has happened to Jadon Sancho? Erik ten Hag opens up on Manchester United forward’s struggles

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag says he is at a loss to understand the downturn in Jadon Sancho’s physical and mental condition after the forward was sent to the Netherlands to undertake individual training away from the main squad.

United have been in Spain on a mid-season camp but Ten Hag instructed Sancho not to join up with the group, instead working with some of the manager’s trusted coaches in the Netherlands.

Sancho, 22, had begun the season so well, so what is behind his downturn? And what are his prospects going forward?

What has Ten Hag said about Sancho?

Ten Hag was asked on Tuesday whether Sancho will be back with the main United squad this week, as they gear up for their EFL Cup tie with Burnley on December 21, but didn’t have good news.

“I don’t think he will be back this week, no,” the Dutch boss said.

“We want to bring him back as quickly as possible, but I can’t give a prognosis of when that will be.

“Sometimes there are circumstances with fitness and mood. We got a drop of quality level and sometimes you don’t know why or what is causing it.

“That is what we are doing now to try to get him back there. It is a combination of physically and mentally.”

What are Sancho’s England prospects?

It’s hard to see how Sancho gets back into the England squad – let alone the starting XI – without a stunning resurgence.

Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford are the players currently ahead of him, but there are others – such as Jarrod Bowen – who Sancho will have to push past if he wants to represent the Three Lions again, having not done so since facing Andorra in September 2021.

“There’s huge competition with England,” Ten Hag said, as he gave his view of his player’s international situation.

“Even at the World Cup, every game is difficult to know who to start because there’s so much talent in the offensive line.

“When you don’t show it week by week you can fall out of the squad, which is what happened.”

How did Sancho start the season?

Sancho scored three goals for Manchester United in his first seven games this season. It was a purple patch which led some to think he had finally found his feet after a slow start since joining in the summer of 2021.

He recorded an assist against Spurs on October 19, but was largely peripheral from then on. He also only completed 90 minutes three times from his 14 appearances.

“On the [pre-season] tour he played well, and the start of the league he played some good games like Liverpool, Leicester and Arsenal,” Ten Hag said.

“Then his performance was lower. First you observe, but then the stats back it up.

“At the start of the season, he had goals, assists, key moments and key actions and it became less and less.”

What could be behind Sancho’s struggles?

Sancho missed the last four games of United’s season before the break for Qatar 2022, reportedly with illness, with Ten Hag stating this week that “we didn’t see him in the last games for United as he wasn’t in the right fitness state”.

It is unclear over the precise reasons for that, other than what Ten Hag said, but it would seem to be a contributing factor.

Sancho’s failure to break into the England squad could also be behind his drop-off. The ex-Borussia Dortmund flyer perhaps thought he had timed his early-season form perfectly to get into Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the September Nations League games with Italy and Germany that acted as a prelude to the World Cup, but he was ignored.

And that also meant he would not be going to Qatar 2022, which was likely a blow for his confidence.

Sancho was also one of the three England players to miss a penalty in the final of Euro 2020 against Italy, and had to deal with the resulting ugly fallout.

Separately, Sancho recently deleted all his Instagram posts, and turned his profile picture to a blank black screen.