Manchester United have been trialling Jadon Sancho as a right wing-back in training as they look to find a way to include their £73m signing in the starting lineup.
Sancho had been finding minutes hard to come by even before manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer switched to a 3-5-2 formation which includes no wingers.

He was an unused substitute in the first game in which Solskjaer used the tactic, the 3-0 win over Tottenham, before seeing three minutes against Atalanta and a frustrating 45 minute showing in the defeat to Manchester City.

The current system obviously doesn't lend itself to Sancho's qualities, so to try and shoehorn him in, The Athletic note that coaches have been deploying the Englishman as a wing-back in recent training sessions.

Yep, United spent over 12 months chasing a player, eventually paid £73m to get him, only to bench him and try play him as a defender. You couldn't make this up.


The suggestion is that Sancho could be used there against teams who will sit deep and defend for their lives, with usual right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka a little too defensively minded for those kinds of games.

The Athletic add that Sancho is still optimistic that he'll come good at United and nobody at Old Trafford is doubting that either.


He admits to being caught off guard by the speed of the English game but is working hard and coaches have been impressed with just how determined and eager to learn he has been.

Sancho has made an impression with his willingness to beat a defender and reluctance to give up even when things aren't going against him, and it's for that reason that this occasional position shift has been discussed.