Former Manchester United player Paul Ince has slammed new winger Jadon Sancho and chastised him – together with Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial – of showboating instead of playing ‘proper football’.
Former Borussia Dortmund star Sancho came on board United amid much glitz and fanfare at a peachy price of £73million in the summer, off the back of being one of the best wingers in the Bundesliga.
Unfortunately the England international has yet to come up to the mark at Old Trafford, instead finding it a tad challenging to settle in at the Manchester club so far, having started just twice in the Premier League without having completed a full 90 minutes yet in the league.
Having scored 50 goals and produced 64 assists in 137 matches for Dortmund, Sancho is yet to show his best form donning his new colors as the 21-year-old still has no goals or assists for United in his first seven appearances.
Ince reprimanded the mercurial winger for appearing to be more concerned with showing off his skills rather than producing real results on the pitch.
‘I get that Sancho is still learning, he’s still young,’ Ince told The United Stand.
‘But this is not a FIFA game, it’s not all about dribbling and dribbling and trying to beat two, three, four players or little flicks and that.
‘Yeah, it’s nice when they come off but the likes of Sancho and Lingard, all these flicks, just play proper football.’
Ince, who was an unflinching bedrock of the Red Devils’ imposing midfield in the 90s, said the way the United trio played irritated him immensely and brought up Ryan Giggs in comparison, the young superstar from his playing days.
‘Honestly, it winds me up! If you watch players like Giggs, they get it and they pass, one-twos and get one-on-one… we just want to keep running with the ball, trying little flicks, little backheels.
‘That’s what I saw with Martial, I saw it at times with Lingard and with Sancho and that’s where they need to learn that it’s not all about dribbling. Sometimes you can pass your way through players and get yourself in the box.’
Ince then proceeded to vent his frustration over Martial, whom he perceived to have no commitment to United by his lackadaisical attitude in the club’s 1-0 loss to West Ham in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
‘How many people are ahead of Martial now? Was he going to go in the transfer window? Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer) said no and he’s still part of his plans,’ he said.
‘I just looked at Martial’s body language and I was thinking, “Does he actually want to be out there on a Wednesday night?”, and some players do that. When they’re not involved in the first team on a Saturday, they think: “Why am I playing in the Carabao Cup?!”
‘You sense that body language with Martial. He didn’t want to be out there.’