In an interview with United's official website, Ben Thornley, a winger who played for the team in the 1990s, talked about the position of Sancho and Rashford, and he believes that Sancho can try more to cross when he plays on the left.
In United's past few games, Sancho has started more as a left winger, while Marcus Rashford has appeared on the right, and in United's game against Burnley, Rashford has moved to the right to help Luke Shaw assist Pogba's goal, which shows that the two wingers often change positions in the game.
As a winger-turned-player, Ben Thornley said: "Honestly, if you have strong bipedal ability, it doesn't matter which wing you play on, I really think this kind of counter-foot winger is important for the team's progress now, but where is that old-fashioned winger? Can't you combine them? Like Rashford and Sancho, maybe Rashford prefers to play on the left and Sancho prefers to move on the right, but they're actually all right-footed players. ”
"We've talked about how good Sancho is doing right now, he looks like the kind of player who can make a difference. Sancho has a low centre of gravity when passing, his body movement is also very good, he can cut both inward and under the bottom on the left, and I think one of the things he lacks is to complete the bottom on the left and then send out the cross. ”
'In the last five years, the incier winger has been very popular and yes, it's important for the winger to send a cross or finish the shot near the corner of the big penalty area through the inside, but when you have two players like Sancho and Rashford, one of them has to do something different and I think this player can go out and break through the outside line when attacking.
Ben Thornley then added: "As United did against Burnley, this goal is the best example of Luke Shaw overlapping with Rashford. I feel like we have really good players on the flanks and I don't want Luke Shaw to stop trying that because that's a big advantage for us to attack. I still think we need not only players who cut inside, but also players who break through from the outside. ”
'Even if Sancho's dominant foot is not his left foot, he can try to go down when kicking on the left, which doesn't require very fast speed, he's very good at breaking through, and he's good at both feet, he just needs to pull a small amount of space from the outside and send out a cross, whether it's a low flat ball or a high ball.
He concluded: "I think this style of play works to some extent because I still support the old wingers. Let's break through the defenders like Giggs or Cancherski, the real old-fashioned wingers just want to break through the full-backs, and maybe that sometimes means you need to play a two-over-one with your midfield teammates and then use speed to get out of the defence. I don't see that style of play again, it's a style of play that's on the verge of disappearing and now the incision winger is more popular in the Premier League. ”
According to German statistics, Sancho has started 15 times this season on the left wing and appeared on the right seven times, while Rashford has started eight times against left wingers and five times on the right side.
(Luke)