Manchester United, after suffering a setback in their pursuit of young Bayern Munich midfielder Renato Sanches, is now all set to secure the midfielder for a season long loan from FC Bayern. It is no secret that Jose Mourinho is looking for a young central midfielder in order to replace the ageing Michael Carrick. But is Renato Sanches a good option for the Red Devils?
The young midfielder came into prominence at the Portuguese LIGA NOS. Playing for Benfica as a central midfielder, his composure and technique duly impressed the Bayern bosses when they were taking on the Eagles in their Champions League knockout stage fixture. Renato performed well against Bayern, and also carried his form into the European Championships 2016. He helped his country win the coveted tournament and also got nominated for being the best young player in the tournament,
However, a season later, he completely failed to live up to the billing for FC Bayern. Sanches only made nine starts in all competition and overall made just 17 appearances in the Bundesliga. The much-hyped youngster couldn’t take the pressure of playing alongside the likes of Xabi Alonso, Thiago Alcantara or Arturo Vidal.
Sanches has been poor in literally all the games he has played for Bayern last season. He’s been dead average in the midfield and struggled against quick-paced counter attacking opposition more than once.
He clearly lacks the pace in his game, which makes him struggle against certain opponents. Therefore, he’s bound to struggle even more in the Premier League, where the game is played pretty roughly with players not having enough time to get settled with the ball at their feet. He also struggled to provide creativity in the final third, creating only four chances in 17 league outings.
Renato also gets caught dawdling on the ball many times and has a tendency of delivering a poor first touch at times. Although his passing accuracy is very good at 88%, he has just completed just 367 passes, meaning 21 passes per game. Whilst not being able to contribute much offensively, he also has a poor record of just one defensive action per game. He has been by-far the worst Bayern player last season.
In the pre-season friendlies so far, Sanches hasn’t been able to show much either. He was poor in their recent 4-0 defeat to AC Milan.
Bayern are being extremely smart in loaning him out to Manchester United this summer. The Bavarians clearly don’t need his services anymore as they have already secured the services of Sebastian Rudy and Corentin Tolisso, and if Renato does improve himself in the Premier League, they can try out the midfielder for themselves as well.
For the most part, we can expect Manchester United to gobble up the opportunity to sign the former Benfica midfielder on a permanent basis if becomes successful on English soil. However, it’s a huge gamble nonetheless, to sign Renato, who hasn’t been able to prove himself on the big stage, as of yet.
