Jadon Sancho is finally performing in the position Manchester United signed him for

Sancho's strongest position

Manchester United signed Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund to play on the right wing, but the player struggled to make an instant impact at Old Trafford following his arrival and he eventually showed form off the left flank.

The signing of Sancho was intended to address United's weakness on the right side, but it transpired that the club had signed yet another player that preferred to play on the left instead. United have spent £120m on players designed to play on the right across the last two seasons - Sancho, Amad and Facundo Pellistri -and yet the two players that played in that position last term were products of the academy.

Anthony Elanga and Marcus Rashford were those players, but Elanga recently declared that he prefers the opposite side while Rashford has always been ineffective down the right - playing there made it difficult for him to arrest his decline.

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With a clear dearth of options at right-wing at the club, there is an opening in that area of the pitch and Sancho has impressed there in pre-season. Sancho has started on the right in each of United's three games and he's looked bright, dangerous and confident. If Ten Hag can get Sancho performing in that position, it will be a huge pre-season positive.

Inverted full-backs

There have been glimmers of Ten Hag's philosophy in pre-season and the change of system with United's full-backs is an example of the Dutchman's influence. Ten Hag is the club's first tactically astute manager since Jose Mourinho departed in December 2019.

Pep Guardiola introduced inverted full-backs while at Bayern Munich and Ten Hag has used inverted full-backs during pre-season,