Sancho disputes Ten Hag’s reason for Man United benching

Jadon Sancho hit again at claims by Manchester United supervisor Erik ten Hag that he was dropped for the group’s Premier League defeat at Arsenal for poor coaching performances, saying he has been “made a scapegoat.”

Sancho, 23, was disregarded of the match day squad for the journey to the Emirates, which United misplaced 3-1, and Ten Hag mentioned after the sport that the winger had did not measure as much as requirements in coaching this week.

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“On his performance on training we didn’t select him,” Ten Hag mentioned when requested about Sancho’s absence from the squad. “You have to reach the level every day at Manchester United. You can make choices in the front line, so in this game he wasn’t selected.”

But inside an hour of Ten Hag’s feedback within the postmatch information convention, Sancho issued an announcement on X to reject claims he mentioned have been “completely untrue.”

“Please don’t believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue,” Sancho posted. “I have conducted myself in training very well this week.

“I consider there are different causes for this matter that I will not get into, I’ve been a scapegoat for a very long time which is not honest!”

Sancho added, “All I need to do is to play soccer with a smile on my face and contribute to my group.”

Goals in stoppage time from Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus sealed a dramatic win for Arsenal and consigned United to the second defeat of the season following their 2-0 loss at Tottenham Hotspur on Aug. 19.

After saying postmatch that midfielder Scott McTominay had missed the game because of illness, Ten Hag said Sancho, who was sent to the Netherlands to train separately from the squad last season, was left in Manchester after failing to impress in training last week.

Without Sancho, United had performed well and looked set to earn a 1-1 draw until Rice and Jesus scored their late goals.

But in a game dominated by high-profile VAR decisions — Arsenal had a penalty ruled out by the VAR before Alejandro Garnacho’s 90th-minute goal was chalked off following an offside review — Ten Hag said that his side was on the wrong side of big calls made by the officials.

“The [Arsenal] penalty was given however rejected, however [Kai Havertz] was not booked for it,” Ten Hag said. “There was a foul on [Rasmus] Hojlund within the penalty space, not even seen by VAR. And the disallowed aim from Garnacho, it was the flawed angle, I believe it was onside. Arsenal’s second aim — how can they permit that aim? It was a transparent foul on Jonny Evans.

“I think we deserved to win this game, but you don’t always get what you deserve. I look more at how we step up and if you see from the Wolves game to this game, there is big progression. Tonight was a team, I am really happy with this performance and the progress of our performance.

“We did nicely, we make progress, persist with the plan and consider and sooner or later we are going to win video games like this.”