Manchester United know that their Champions League destiny is in their own hands heading into the final three matches of the Premier League season.
Two wins from these games against Bournemouth, Chelsea and Fulham will ensure United’s passage to the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition and will certainly be a significant boost for Erik ten Hag heading into the summer transfer window.
Liverpool are currently sitting just a point behind the Red Devils, albeit having played a game more, and the clash against the Cherries this afternoon is a chance for them to stretch that lead to four points with just two games remaining.
During the 2-0 win over Wolves, several United players were on top form, with Bruno Fernandes running the show, making six key passes throughout while grabbing an assist, while teen starlet Alejandro Garnacho came on with just eight minutes left to seal the three points with a late goal.
Not everyone was in fine form, however, as Jadon Sancho delivered an underwhelming performance on the left wing.
Will Jadon Sancho start for Manchester United against Bournemouth today?
The Englishman didn’t exactly enjoy the most productive of games for United against the Old Gold last weekend. Despite making three key passes, he only completed a team-low 74% of his pass attempts overall, showing some recklessness, and failed to generate any sort of meaningful attacking intent, taking only one shot and failing to record a single successful dribble.
The £350k-per-week liability was also a lightweight in the tackling department, winning just one ground duel along with being dribbled past three times – whereas his replacement, Garnacho, went on to score despite being on the pitch for just eight minutes.
His season so far has been dogged with inconsistency. The 23-year-old began brightly enough, scoring the winner against Liverpool in what was his third start of the league season and added another goal against Leicester City just a couple of weeks later, and it looked like Ten Hag had had a positive influence on the player.
It wasn’t to last, with Sancho missing the World Cup and failing to make an appearance for United between October and February due to a loss of form and fitness. His previous ten league appearances have yielded just one goal and one assist, while he was even criticised by Paul Scholes following the Europa League clash against Sevilla, who said:
"During the warm-ups we were eulogising about the crowd and saying how aggressive and hostile it was.
"When the United players see and hear that, they need to go into the dressing room and think, 'I need to be ready for this and my first touch has got to be ready'.
"You see Jadon Sancho in the first five minutes tonight, the ball bounced off him three times, terrible weight of pass, too. I’m a big fan of the lad, but you’ve got to liven up and be ready."
Ten Hag should drop him to the bench against Bournemouth today and United may do better on the left wing as a result.