Jonathan Woodgate has told Match of the day 2 (22mins 10 secs) that Jadon Sancho would be ‘an unbelievable’ player for Liverpool.
The Reds were reportedly interested in the 21-year-old before he signed for Manchester United.
Whilst analysing the 21-year-old’s display against Leeds United, Woodgate was full of praise for Sancho.
“He can do it all day long. Like we saw when he was at Dortmund, he was exceptional,” said the former England defender.
“You need a little bit of time to settle in and you need a manager who will really, really believe in you and what you can do. He’s starting to play a lot of games for United now and he’s showing how good he is.”
Woodgate went on to say that the dysfunctional environment at United wasn’t helping the youngster.
“Coming back from Germany, you need that time. At United at the minute it hasn’t been great, so he’s going into that environment,” he said.
The 42-year-old then claimed that Liverpool would have potentially been a better fit for the former Borussia Dortmund winger.
“I tell you what, he’d be an unbelievable player for Liverpool. An unbelievable player. He’d fit into their system, no problem!,” Woodgate said to the surprise of fellow guest Dion Dublin, who laughed that his comments would ‘lose him friends.’
Should Liverpool have signed Sancho
Sancho was hot property when he left Dortmund to return to English football last summer.
He was brilliant for the Black and Yellow. He claimed an impressive 54 goals and 67 assists in 146 games for the club.
It would have made a lot of sense as a signing for Liverpool. As he plays largely from the left, Sancho could have made for an ideal succession plan for Sadio Mane.
At 21-years-old he has plenty of time to develop even further. There is little doubt in Woodgate’s suggestion that he would have thrived in Liverpool’s system.
But due to the price of the transfer, it never really seemed likely.
United eventually signed him for £73m. This looked a good deal at the time due to Dortmund lowering their demands from the previous year.
Since then, Sancho has struggled to impose himself on a desperate looking United side.
His two assists on Sunday were his first of the Premier League season. He only has two goals to add to that so far, too.
Liverpool instead signed Luis Diaz in January. Output can’t be measured in goal contributions alone, but the Colombian is already just one goal behind Sancho, having played just twice for Jurgen Klopp so far.
Diaz looks energetic and an absolute nuisance for defenders. This is in stark contrast to Sancho’s lethargic looking performances for United.
Of course, the £73m man could and probably will still turn out to be a brilliant player for Liverpool’s arch rivals. But we think The Reds made a smart decision regardless.
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