The Sancho Spectacle — Part I: Reception and Positioning.
Speaking as a Manchester United fan, the three years it has taken for Jadon Sancho to step onto the lush green grass of the Theatre of Dreams have been insufferable. From then till now, I have watched every game with the hope that I would someday see him in a red shirt. Our dream as fans has come true. He, like many before him at Manchester United, will join the list of young attacking talents that embody everything the club is about. He’s 21, which is scary because well, he’s around my age and he’s already achieved so much.
Now, tracking this transfer has not been fun for anyone. It’s been long, often frustrating and just downright boring. Make no mistake however, the player is anything but. He’s finally here and I want to infect others with my excitement about why he immediately joins as one of United’s best forwards.
So, here is the Sancho Spectacle. Think of it like you would the tango dance, it’s a rich expression of a vibrant and playful style of movement. What is beautiful is that it is quite a paradoxical dance: though it’s centred around coordination, it’s also mostly improvisation, so much so you can’t keep your eyes off it. That is exactly Jadon Sancho. There is so much about him that is captivating, you want to learn everything. And that is what the Sancho Spectacle is for, breaking down the movement and characteristics that make up the player we see through our television screens.
We’ll look into everything, and yes, I mean everything. We’ll move slowly, take our sweet time, just like Manchester United have, and break down every facet of his game. Shall we start? Yes x
Today our dance revolves around where Sancho receives the ball and positions himself. You would think that it’s quite simple a concept, but ultimately, the spaces a player occupies on the pitch are very important. You may ask why, most players have a total of between 60 and 90 seconds of time on the ball in the entire 90 minutes. So what they do off it is imperative. It’s about opening passing lanes, making yourself available for teammates, stretching the backline and facilitating another forward’s run.
Yes, a right winger occupies the right spaces in the pitch. But it’s certainly more complex than that. Does he hug the touchline? Does he roam into the half spaces? Where is he found? We’ll answer these questions here.
Pass and Progressive Pass Reception
A pass is never just a pass, and the player who makes it isn’t always the one to be credited. It’s always important to look at who is receiving. It’s a two-way street. Is the player making it easier for his teammate to pass? If so, how? Is he creating space?
Let’s look at it in the most fundamental of its forms: where does Jadon Sancho receive the ball? To answer this question, it wasn’t enough to simply look at his past season. Jadon Sancho’s utility in pass reception is that he is comfortable in both wings. He understands the value in positioning yourself to receive passes high and wide. After all, it’s one of the most important and fundamental attacking principles of play. How does this add value? It stretches the opposition backline and allows chance creation in the central spaces, the most profitable spaces.
By consistently holding width and hugging the touchline, Jadon Sancho offers his team mates a good option to progress the ball around the congested spaces of the pitch, and given his danger on the ball, reeling in defenders and creating space. It also gives an outlet pass in transition to move the ball quickly up the pitch and exploit disjointed defences. In a world of inverted forwards that crave cutting inside, Jadon Sancho’s tactical understanding of holding width opens opportunities to isolation and creating 1v1 opportunities. Let’s take a snapshot.
Dropping relatively deeper to show himself for a pass from buildup, Sancho immediately attracts the attention of a defender when he was previously isolated. Let’s not focus on what he does on the ball, we will look at that in later parts. It’s rather how he keeps moving. It is that involvement from the initial phases all the way to the final third is what makes him very dynamic. He makes it easy for his teammates but difficult for the opposition.
But, Jadon Sancho is not one dimensional. He is not just about hugging the touchline on either wing. He is not static either. This shows up well in the spaces that he receives the ball, particularly when you look at the 19/20 season. He is versatile in such a way that he is extremely fluent in receiving between the lines. His mobility in attacking the central spaces and adaptability, while the fullback is offering width, means that no matter what flank he begins in, he is constantly offering himself as an option on the ball, and quite a dangerous one at that. Let’s look at that in more detail.
Looking at where Jadon Sancho receives progressive passes can help us gauge the good positions he is found in. His ability to drift inside when spaces open up in the opposition defensive block and understanding of space is truly valuable. No matter which wing he is on, he’s able to penetrate the penalty area. What’s special here is how he receives in such areas and what it leads to. The central spaces are the most congested spaces in the pitch, yet he maintains a very wide ranging territory.
How? It’s his ability on the ball. It’s the beautiful combination of his close control, quick shifts of direction, explosive movements that allow him to occupy such spaces well. His comfort in receiving in tight spaces is one that shows why he is good underlapping. So, when he’s receiving with his back to goal, whether it be wide or in the central areas, which although can be a pressing trigger, he can utilise his acceleration and quick touches to create and exploit space behind the backline. It’s his intelligence in understanding which spaces are the most threatening, but also quicker in getting the ball forwards.
What’s lovely is he’s always moving. How does he receive passes in the penalty area? Let’s take another snapshot.
In this sequence, Sancho starts off wide, receiving a pass from Gio Reyna before interchanging positions. After Sancho receives, he just keeps on running. It’s a deep understanding of space. There’s no dwelling, he just hits the accelerator.
He knows the defender’s attention is focused on the player on the ball and situates himself conveniently in their blindspot as he underlaps. So much so, by the time he’s found, they’re all too late to try to cover ground on him or close him down. Finding and creating pockets of space is what makes Jadon Sancho so valuable when it comes to reception.
And what’s truly intelligent is how he weaves those two spaces together. He can begin wide then cut inside as the ball dictates and carry it forward. He can receive in the central areas then attack wider. It’s double trouble.
Final Third Pass Reception Clusters
As important as it is to look at where Sancho receives the ball, it is important to look at how he is accustomed to receiving the ball in a structure like Dortmund’s, more specifically in the final third. We can immediately then gauge that Jadon Sancho is comfortable when it comes to receiving long distance passes, from a proliferation of locations, given how frequent such clusters are from all three seasons.
As the graphic above shows, Sancho maintains a balance of width. This is present in all three of his senior seasons to date. Why is that so? It’s because of his silky sleek first touch of the ball and his constant movement off it that that entitles him to be a perpetual creative outlet. Out of all 12 clusters, 10 of them are outside of the box. This suggests he can hold it up quite well, peel away from defenders as above but also, receive under pressure too. Mix that together and it means you have a player which you can utilise to transition directly into the final phase.
Let’s talk patterns. It’s always important to take into context the structure and play style when attempting to isolate, or analyse, a player’s key characteristics. Across all three seasons, there is no static progression pattern. He goes from a concentration of diagonals, to vertical progressions, then direct penetration. What does this tell us? He’s comfortable across many different systems. Whether it be a long ball deep from the centre half or link up play with the midfield. He’s tactically flexible, but so is his skillset.
Jadon Sancho engages in constant dialogue with his midfield. His consistency in positioning himself wide allows him to receive switches in possession at a very high volume. Why is that valuable? Changing the direction of attack allows Dortmund to gain an advantage over the opposition by either creating an overlap in attack or creating a gap for teammates to run through.
Finding Sancho on the left proves more valuable as it allows him a better angle to cut inside and curl the ball towards goal should he want to.
Most importantly, it allows teams to exploit defences cheating their way towards the ball. Therefore, the way that Jadon Sancho receives the ball is valuable because it is serviceable to an entire team’s structure, rather than just himself.
Who is Jadon Sancho receiving these passes from? Across all three seasons, the relationship between his fullback is important. Notice we never see Sancho receiving a cluster of passes in positions where he would overlap. That’s simple. He leaves that to the fullback. That is also why he does not occupy spaces very high up the pitch. His responsibility lies in finding and supplying his fullback’s overlaps, rather than being on the receiving end himself.
Fullback Pass Reception
So, the natural question that thus follows, if he is not receiving on the overlap, where is he receiving from his fullback?
Let us distinguish between the two fullbacks that have played the majority of minutes with Jadon Sancho across the past three seasons. Achraf Hakimi, the right fullback, and Raphael Guerreiro his antithesis. This gives us insight to the relationship of pass reception between both the opposing wings and the opposing fullbacks.
Let’s compare. What’s the same? Whether it be the left or the right, Sancho depends on his fullback. Under Lucien Favre’s 3–4–3 system, the wing-back’s role is to provide a wide outlet for teammates on the ball, Hakimi stays out wide and spreads opponents horizontally. For Sancho, having a willing runner in Hakimi is a perfect fit, allowing him to play balls in behind the opposition backline, supplying his overlaps. So, Sancho doesn’t have to occupy this space himself. This gives further space for Sancho to drive into.
What’s different? Jadon Sancho seems to drop at a higher equivalent rate in the left wing rather than the right wing. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course — you would like to have your forwards in advanced areas of the pitch — but there is utility in this tendency.
It allows him to receive on the half turn, which grants him greater autonomy. By taking it on his front foot, he can delay the attack and allow other forwards to get into advantageous positions.
In a 4–2–3–1, with Guerreiro, the Portuguese is naturally more reserved and this therefore leaves Sancho needing to hold width deeper but also with the added responsibility of receiving on the overlap.
First Pass of Possession Sequence Reception
Alright, let’s get a bit more technical, that’s always fun. I wanted to look at where Sancho receives the first pass of any given possession sequence, across each third and if the aforementioned sequence ended up in the final third. Let’s split and analyse with each third, shall we? It is here we can then see Sancho’s importance and contribution in every phase.
Sancho receives the first pass of a possession sequence the least in the defensive third. That’s quite obvious, he’s a forward. But what’s interesting here is that a significant proportion of all that he receives are short possession sequences, most with a duration of 20 seconds or so. This shows us where Sancho is useful when receiving in his own third. Sancho likes to help out initiating possession sequences from deep, albeit with short passing plays.
Therefore, his utility is not limited to the final phases of the pitch. He is valuable in initiating transitions and contributing to final third entries in both long and short possession sequences.
What you notice the higher you get up the pitch is how much of a progressive outlet he is. While he has a higher success rate at final third entries from the left, as we said he likes to drop deeper when on the left, we can see how he is a progressive outlet on the wings high and wide. Even more so, what’s noticeable is how quickly he can release the ball right after receiving it. Remember, he’s always moving.
It is when we get to the final third that we start to see his role as a creative outlet. Almost all possession sequences he receives in the final third, whether it be a short or long, remains in the final third. This is good as it gives us insight to how good he is at retaining possession, especially given that the types of passes he receives here are of longer distance. Even more so, it’s his creative outlet — his movement and positioning that means he is always an option on the ball as a creative outlet.
Pass Reception Prior to Shot Creations
So we’ve seen all the different roles Jadon Sancho embodies, whether that be transitionary, progressive or retentive, in all thirds of the pitch. Let’s look at his pass reception through one final lens: as a creative outlet. I asked myself: where does Jadon Sancho receive before creating a shot? The start locations represent where he receives the ball and the end coordinates are where he initiates a shot creation, also known as a key pass.
The results, were, well…engaging. Let’s see why. The reason that Jadon Sancho is such a good creative outlet is that he is able to create from both the deeper and advanced areas in the pitch. That means that anywhere he receives can be turned into value — simply due to his excellence on the ball. When he receives in the wide areas, through both flanks, he moves the ball infield. When he receives deeper, he carries and dribbles with the ball forwards. He is in constant communication with both the midfield and the fullback, weaving together team interplay. There’s so much range.
The central areas are my favourite, simply due to the nature of his receptions here. It’s the highest area in terms of one touch receptions and passes. Remember when we said, he occupies the central areas extremely well because of his brilliance on the ball? We see it here perfectly. When you have a player between the lines that can lay off the ball with precision and speed, it all the more supports an outlet for high volume chance creation, the initiation of attacks and quick combinations on the ball.
Conclusion
We have now learned everything about where, how and from whom Jadon Sancho receives the ball. We looked at it in terms of retention, progression, transition and creation, with a close attention to possession sequences.
We’ve also examined the relationship and chemistry he has between his fullbacks and his dynamism in pass and progressive pass reception from both wings and the central areas.
What’s our conclusion? It’s his excellence in reception and spatial awareness that allows him to perform his excellence on the ball. Sancho is quite a special contradiction: he spreads across the pitch like wildfire, yet understands the principles of positional discipline. He is skilful when receiving yet safe as England’s defence. He is a forward that holds width yet attacks the central spaces. It is this contradiction that makes up the player we see today.
The next part in the series is examining Jadon Sancho’s carries. See you then.
If you enjoyed the first piece of the Sancho Spectacle and want to contribute financially to support me in continuing to produce content, you can do so here. It takes a lot of time, effort and dedication so any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Note: this will not affect the continuation of this series. A special thanks to Ram for contributing to the making of this article.
