Erik Ten Hag Hails Jadon Sancho’s Comeback

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has hailed Jadon Sancho’s resurgence since he returned to his side.

The England international did not play for the United first team for over three months as he worked on an individual physical programme Ten Hag designed for him.

But since his return at the beginning of February Sancho has been in impressive form, and scored twice in the Premier League, including in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Leicester City at Old Trafford.

“He’s in the right direction, but I think he doesn’t achieve in this moment his limits,” Ten Hag said after the game. “There is a lot of space for improvement with him.”

“Now already he is on a high level and I’m sure when he keeps the joy of football, then it will really improve his performance and today you see when he’s coming on in the midfield position, he makes great runs, great passes. He’s good in position. But what also gives me a lot of joy is his defence transition.”

Sancho scored United’s third goal to confirm their win and cement their position in the Premier League top four.

“We are happy with the result, it is a great result,” Ten Hag said. “I think when you play every third day, you can’t always get your same performance to the limits of the game and today, the first half was really tough. Firstly, Leicester played brilliantly, but secondly, we were rubbish.”

“In our way of playing, we were really inconsequential, and undisciplined in our principles and rules of the game, and then we got problems. It was only due to David De Gea that we kept the clean sheet to half-time. We were lucky and we scored a great goal, it was a great pass by Bruno, great run from Rashy to go 1-0 up.”

“At half-time we could repair some stuff and I think the second half was brilliant. We came back outside and think it was the way I want to see our team playing.”

“It was a lot of pleasure, but it has to do with getting into the right positions. It has to do with playing simple football, playing between the lines, reaching behind and it was enjoyable, how we created so many chances and scored great goals.”

Marcus Rashford scored United’s first two goals against Leicester, to bring his total so far for the season to 24 goals, which already represents the highest of his career, but Ten Hag was keen to share the praise throughout his side.

“He’s getting in the right positions, but don’t forget the team. Because they are team goals. So I want to highlight Bruno, again with two great assists, one for Rashy, one for Jadon Sancho. Rashford has to receive the balls, otherwise he can’t score. Also the assist from Fred was beautiful as well.”

United are now third in the table five points behind the leaders Arsenal, who have a game in hand, to trigger growing talk they are in a genuine title race.

“We don’t think about that,” Ten Hag said. “But first of all we think next game and Thursday [against Barcelona], it’s going to be a big night, it has to be for us.”

“We have to fight the opponent with our fans and to make Old Trafford really a fortress and that is what we are thinking about. So the game plan has to be right and then we have to follow the rules and principles from our game.”

United’s next three games are all in cup competitions: a Europa League play-off second leg against Barcelona on Thursday, the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle at Wembley on Sunday, and an FA Cup fifth round tie against West Ham next Wednesday.