Sancho is a very imaginative footballer who grew up in a large urban residential area surrounded by concrete, where he played football in small spaces. "Cage soccer" was the preferred form of the sport, forcing him to develop skills in narrow spaces and hard surfaces. So many boys know the way he's around the cage, I can tell you, says Rice Nelson, an Arsenal winger and Sancho's childhood friend. While Sancho is the biggest star to emerge, other cage football graduates in south London include Eberéez of Crystal Palace and Tammy Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi of Chelsea. Its impact on these players is no different than that of futsal in Brazil, forcing players to learn close control and improvisation.
Individualistic cage football helped Sancho thrive in the elaborate Bundesliga. Over the past three seasons, he has easily had the most successful dribble in the league (305) and boldly owned the most nutmeg (32, according to FBRef). Obviously, doing a lot of nutmeg doesn't make you a great player, but it illustrates Sancho's personal abilities. He is very talented when it comes to carrying the ball up close, and although defenders surround him, he is not affected by pressure and is willing to do things that others are afraid to do. Those goals and assists should tell you, yes, he also has the final result.
Sancho is arguably one of England's finest young players of all time, scoring or assisting 74 goals (not penalties) in the league before his 21st birthday. Rooney also had the entire country fascinated by his every touch at his age, and he completed 72 times. Previous prodigy Michael Owen played 73 times. Like Rooney before him, Sancho has offered a lot in his accumulation beyond goals and assists, which they admit in Germany. As a commentator on German television, Mönchengladbach midfielder Christopher Kramer was puzzled by Sancho's exclusion from the national team, and he could only imagine that "disciplinary reasons" were the reasons. They just don't understand why England would choose not to use talent like him.
Playing in Germany, some may argue that it would be harder to get recognition if Sancho played in his own country, after all, the Premier League is fully covered on television, radio and newspapers in England, and people have to look for topics in the Bundesliga. It's a bit narrow, but most Uk watchers or scouts just don't look at German teams unless they meet a Premier League club in Europe. Borussia Dortmund were injured in this season's Champions League draw with Manchester City. Fate deprived him of the opportunity to present his performance to a British audience.
He's not the first to suffer from this, and looking at Owen Hargreaves before he became England's standout at the 2006 World Cup, people have had the same view over the years. Even in this team, Atletico Madrid's Kieran Trippier suffered a similar fate. Southgate recognized this perceptual problem in Trippier's case. "People are still looking at players from a few years ago, not players who have played like warriors at Atletico Madrid over the past few seasons," Southgate said. So why didn't he do the same to Sancho?
Southgate wasn't late on Sancho hype. He first called up a winger back in October 2018 and has been there ever since. In Euro 2020 qualifiers, Sancho and Rashford are battling for their third attacking position after Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling, as England have averaged more goals per game than any other country, attacking and a fluid 4-3-3 formation. When Southgate's team ruthlessly destroyed the weak teams, Sancho looked lively in the system. But some lax defensive performances, notably the 5-3 win over Kosovo, seem to have caused a slight rethink. Southgate sees the French and Portuguese teams that have recently won the World Cup and European titles as a model to follow. These teams have been tight for a long time and want to rely on quality for just a moment. While that may not look good in the group stage, Southgate and others see it as the secret to success in the knockout stage. From this perspective, some of his choices make sense. While Kane and Sterling are his most reliable players and always have the possibility to start, he chose Mason Mount and Phil Foden over Sancho and Grellish. This seems to be thanks to their stronger tactical discipline and stability. Both are excellent players, but they are better suited to playing the role of cog in a highly structured machine, thriving in the complex tactical systems of Guardiola and Thomas Tucher.
Sancho is different, he does unpredictable things. It's understandable that Southgate would be a little nervous and conservative. But Southgate's doing so has left England too rigid in the game format. In the face of a steady defence, England lacked options in dragging players to the ball and making room elsewhere. Sancho can dribble through those crowded areas, opening up stable defensive space and attracting the attention of defenders will surprise the team. Even France, as calm and organized as Deschamps demanded, found room for individualists like Paul Pogba, who only needed a minute or two of talent to turn around a tense game. They play in different positions, but Sancho could do some help for England, who are solid defensively. Let's not lose our minds here, with Jordan Pickford not having much to do, England maintained two zero goals in the opening game. Southgate's plan to step up his defence worked because England were a difficult conundrum to crack. We're obviously cursing them here, but it's hard to imagine England being torn apart by Germany like it was in 2010. England are a good defensive team, but it comes at a cost in attack. This functional unit requires a little bit of unpredictability. As former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson put it: "Someone can put a tramp in their seat and get people out of their seats". Sancho was a maverick, the clown in his bag, a cage footballer who brought all these unteachable skills to the big times, and he was exactly what the English longed for.