Chelsea winger accused of being too comfortable as competition for places fades | OneFootball

Chelsea’s gradual slide in form has meant that players who were getting tons of praise earlier in the season are now being criticised.

Jadon Sancho is surely on that list. He was a signing many people questioned, and while it’s ended up being Joao Felix who was ultimately squeezed out, with Mykhailo Mudryk already suspended all that’s done is reduce the pressure on Sancho to perform even more.

Mario Melchiot discussed the former Man City winger after a disappointing few games.

“I think the last couple of games, he’s gone a little bit too quiet. The [Manchester] City game quiet, you know, it’s too quiet for me, especially as a winger and the talent,” Melchiot said.

“He has the pace and the skill to make it really hard for a defender and at the moment, I can see he has comfortability the way he handles the ball.”

Sancho not helped by context – but still must do more to seize a game

Jadon Sancho playing for Chelsea. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Chelsea FC)

We agree with a lot of that. It’s really painful to see how incredibly gifted Sancho is when he’s on the ball contrast with how often he actually produces a moment that breaks apart a defence or leads to a shot on goal.

It’s all very familiar with what we saw from him at Manchester United.

We highlighted his relative lack of productivity in a piece which looked at all our current first choice 3 wingers and their combined lack of output. In part we pointed to Enzo Maresca’s preferred style as a reason that players like Sancho perhaps aren’t getting into dangerous positions as much as they could.

As with all of the these issues though, it would likely be massively helped by the presence of a really dominant number 9 in the box putting away chances at a high rate.