Erik ten Hag warns Jadon Sancho to ‘just deal with it’ after being left out of squad for Man Utd’s season opener

ERIK TEN HAG has warned Jadon Sancho he will just have to ‘deal with it’ after being left out the squad for the opening game of the season.

And that goes for the rest of Manchester United’s players as the manager juggles his team this season.

Sancho was left out the squad for the Fulham game with the club citing “illness” although they are actively trying to offload the player.

It looked like he was being reintegrated into the United team after playing as a false nine in the pre-season having made peace with Ten Hag.

But asked if he will figure in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off the manager was giving nothing away and added a warning to all his players who may find themselves sidelined this season.

Ten Hag said: “We will see. We have a squad, I hope we will have a squad with double positioning and when we go into the season after September 1, that means you can’t select all the players but you need them all throughout the season.

“We have to manage it, the attitude of the players is very important, sometimes they will be disappointed, they have to deal with it, but you win as a squad.

“The prizes are decided next May and until then we need all the players in the squad and highly motivated, that is not an expectation, that is a demand on the squad.”

One player who will definitely be on the starting sheet is Joshua Zirkzee.

And Ten Hag is convinced his dream debut will lead to a goalscoring spree for Manchester United.

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The £35.7million striker came on against Fulham to grab the only goal of the game to give his Red Devils career take off.

By contrast last season the then great hope up front Rasmus Hojlund took until Boxing Day to get on the Premier League goalscoring trail with that dramatic late winner against Aston Villa.

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Ten Hag believes things could have been different in the 3-1 home defeat to Brighton if not for a VAR decision early in the season.

Ten Hag said: “The comparison with last year and Rasmus Hojlund and when he scored against Brighton and the VAR looked and five minutes later came to the conclusion the ball crossed the line in the assist and he had to wait three months for first Premier League goal.”

There was no doubts about Zirkzee’s finish and early involvement in a great move that set up the chance as United got off to the perfect start.

Ten Hag said: “Very pleasing that a player who is a striker scores his first goal in his first game. “That will give him the confidence, I‘m very pleased that it’s happened. It gives him confidence and gives us confidence as a team.”

Striker Zirkzee was one of the star Signings in a positive transfer window for Ten Hag that also saw the arrival of defenders Mathijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich.

Leny Yoro also bolstered the back line with his arrival from Lille only to suffer an injury in his opening game of the US tour against Arsenal.

He is out for another two-and-a-half months.

United have not stopped either and are still working on bringing in midfielder Manuel Ugarte from PSG.

Ten Hag said: “We’re very pleased. It shows we’re going in the right direction, we know as a club we have to catch up but it shows our ambition, the way we want to go, we have done good business, very good players, quality players who will add, contribute to our squad.”

As for more signings?

Ten Hag said: “Be patient, sit, wait. We will keep working very hard, we will always try to make the best squad possible, we have a couple of days and we will always improve, as long as we have the opportunity we will look for it.”