Why Southgate has done well by offering an England spot to Jadon Sancho
According to the Metro, English wonder kid Jadon Sancho recently signed a new long-term contract for Borussia Dortmund which should keep him at the club till 2022.
A product of Manchester City’s youth system, the 18-year-old English prodigy left his boyhood club in search of greener pastures. He joined Borussia Dortmund in 2017 for a whopping £10million and has burst on to the scene with some amazing performances for the German outfit.
As a result, he recently received a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad (h/t The Mirror) and it goes without saying that nobody deserves it more than the youngster.
The 18-year-old has registered more assists, 6, than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues. It may not sound all that fabulous but the jaw-dropping fact is that he has played a total of 124 minutes in the Bundesliga. In fact, each of his six appearances has come from the bench. He also made his bow in the Champions League this season, playing the first 69 minutes of Dortmund’s 1-0 victory over Club Bruges.
Sancho has made a name for himself as a game changer off the bench in the Bundesliga and proved his worth yet again as he came on as a substitute against Bayer Leverkusen and helped Dortmund overturn a 2-1 deficit into an eventual 4-2 victory, providing two assists in just 22 minutes.
A part of the England squad that won the FIFA U17 World Cup last year, Sancho was withdrawn from the competition by Dortmund as the club needed his services in the Bundesliga. The youngster was a regular name in England’s youth system, having excelled in the U16 and U17 set-ups before being named in the U19 squad for the first time in 2017.
England manager Gareth Southgate has included him for England’s UEFA Nations trip to Croatia and Spain. Currently, all the players in the English squad ply their trade in the Premier League and suffice to say that Sancho has created history.
Although Southgate did hand a debut to Ben Chilwell and included Demarai Gray in the squad, rising talents like James Maddison and Phil Foden have been overlooked. But regardless, Sancho certainly deserved a spot.
A left-winger by trade, Jadon Sancho’s style of play is outlined by technical brilliance and mesmerizing dribbling skills. His wonderful close control allows him to run comfortably with the ball at his feet and he combines his technical abilities with pace, agility and athleticism to leave the defenders for dead.
He has the ability to weave through narrow spaces and create extra yards of space for himself with sharp turns. Not only does he cut inside with his pace and links the play with short passes but can also test the goalkeeper with powerful shots from the edge of the box.
He needs to work on his composure and decision-making but those are attributes a player develops with age.
The recently introduced UEFA Nations League is an excellent platform for the European Nations to play regularly and it also plays a part in the qualification to the Euro Cup. England should use this opportunity to try out several young players at the international arena and build a strong squad for the UEFA Euro Cup 2020.
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Sancho has all the makings of becoming one of the best dribblers England have ever produced and if he continues to develop, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him racking up the numbers in terms of goals and assists in the coming days.
That said, he definitely deserved the England call-up as an incentive for his meteoric development.
