Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag didn’t offer too much in the way of a Jadon Sancho update, but did hint that a decision had to be made following his conduct
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Jadon Sancho to train away from Man Utd squad until ‘discipline issue’ resolved
Erik ten Hag says he had no choice but to discipline Jadon Sancho - to reinforce his authority and maintain standards at Manchester United.
Sancho is not available for selection against Brighton tomorrow and has been made to train alone after publicly taking on Ten Hag and effectively calling his manager a liar. United winger Sancho was left out of his side’s 3-1 defeat at Arsenal on September 3 because of poor performances in training, according to Ten Hag.
Sancho took to social media to refute Ten Hag’s claim he was left out because of below-par performances on the training pitch. Although Sancho has since removed the controversial social media post, the 23-year-old has been exiled – with Ten Hag claiming he had no choice.
“Strict lines is the point,” said Ten Hag. “It’s what the club asked me to do, because there was no good culture before last season. So to set some good standards and that is what I did.
“That is my job, to control the standards. It has never been when someone makes one mistake, it is a whole process before you come to a certain outcome about strict lines. If staff, players or whoever, if there is a structure to cross lines you have to be strong, absolutely.
“It’s also with the generation, about team construction, the group dynamic and always about the team. That is above everything else, but within that everyone plays his role, there are different characters and you have to manage those characters.
Jadon Sancho is training on his own at Manchester United (
Image:
Matthew Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)
“Sometimes you have setbacks in seasons, players are injured or unavailable for other reasons, so you construct a squad. The squad is very good and the players who are available and motivated to give a good performance.”
Reflecting on United’s defeat at Arsenal, Ten Hag said: “We closed the game, we work on the feedback, the data team feedback, we played very well against Arsenal, we trained very well, we played very well, we deserved much more.
“It was not on our side, that was the outcome of our analysis, but you can see our progress against a good Arsenal side. The minimum we had to get was a draw there and we could have won. But we came back and we trained very well. We are ready for it.”
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As well as Sancho, Ten Hag is without Antony, Raphael Varane, Mason Mount, Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia and new loan signing Sofyan Amrabat. On Antony, who has taken a leave of absence to deal with allegations of physical assault against him, Ten Hag said he had spoken with him and added: “Of course he is disappointed but he is okay.”
Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof both available, after coming off against Arsenal.
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