Liverpool have been linked with a move to Borussia Dortmund star Jadon Sancho, and this is what happened when they signed him.
The former Manchester City starlet has been one of the best players in the Bundesliga and that’s lead to a host of teams, Liverpool included, being interested in Jadon Sancho.
Jurgen Klopp has been looking for someone who can compliment the existing line-up of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah and the Dortmund star can be someone who improves the quality of the squad.
We wanted to see what that would look like, so Football Manager got fired up and we put Sancho in the side using the data editor.
Sancho is an excellent dribbler and can create problems for any side. His dribbling is rated as 18/20, while a high first touch (16) and technique (17) mean that he won’t just kick it down the line and chase it.
Vision of 18, good decision making abilities and a high flair rating shows Sancho as a dribbler and a creator – although his low work rate won’t have impressed Klopp. Also, strength of eight might not go down too well in the Premier League.
Despite the low scores for strength and work rate, Klopp didn’t have many concerns about throwing the wonderkid in at the deep end and he ended up playing a lot of games for the first team.
He found a way to play Mane, Firmino and Salah an awful lot but that didn’t really do the side any good as they finished fifth in the league.
Mane had an excellent season as he ended up with 27 goals in all competitions, while Sancho cracked double figures and ended up with three assists with an average rating of 7.18.
So that’s a good personal campaign for the English youngster, but the squad won’t be happy overall as Jordan Henderson and Virgil van Dijk will have demanded more from them all.
Interestingly, Michael Edwards decided to bring in Ajax left-back Nicolas Tagliafico to play as cover to Andy Robertson.
Sancho didn’t improve a great deal over the course of the campaign and he could still work on that work rate and strength. Although his technical attributes are still outstanding, and he’s clearly well placed to be an important player for seasons to come.
In real life, the tricky part will come when Klopp wants to build a team with his preferred front three plus Sancho. But with Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones coming through the youth system, do they really need him?