Alan Shearer savages Jadon Sancho after Aston Villa humiliation - 'Get your attitude right'

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Alan Shearer believes that Jadon Sancho’s poor attitude could be the reason behind his struggles after his Aston Villa embarrassment on the weekend. The Manchester United loanee was introduced as a substitute against Manchester City only to be hooked later on by manager Unai Emery .

Sancho has made a slow start to life at Villa in his third loan spell away from United in the past few years. Villa took a punt on the winger on transfer deadline day in September after he spent last season with Chelsea , where he contributed five goals and 10 assists in 41 games.

The 25-year-old is desperate to secure some regular game time, but that hasn’t materialised yet – and his opportunity against City turned into something very different. Sancho was sent on to replace the injured Emi Buendia in the first half but then suffered the humiliation of being taken off with 16 minutes still to play.

That was his second substitute appearance in the Premier League for Villa, with his game time totalling just 52 minutes. Premier League record goalscorer Shearer has little sympathy and believes the United loanee simply needs to knuckle down and prove himself to Emery in order to turn things around.

Shearer told Betfair : "I don't know what's going on with Jadon Sancho in terms of his training or his life, but he's got an opportunity at Villa now, and if it doesn't work out here, people will look back and say, 'Hang on, you've been given so many opportunities.' You can only have so many.

"I guess it is humiliating when you're put on as a sub and then taken off again. It hasn't worked out yet for him, but there's only one way around it and that is hard work. Get your head down, get your attitude right, and if you do that, things will turn around."

Emery admitted that his decision was "embarrassing" for Sancho, but explained that he isn’t the first player to go through it. “Yes, sure he's (Sancho) not happy but I did it before with Morgan Rogers, with Emiliano Buendia, with Leon Bailey, and he played 60 minutes on Thursday,” Emery said after the 1-0 win.

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“Today when he (Buendia) was injured, my plan was maybe in case he (Sancho) was going to play 30 minutes, but I decided to play more and he played 45 minutes. But my plan was when he was swapped with Emiliano Buendia, the idea was maybe not playing all the minutes until the last moment. And I told him as well, he can feel it, it's embarrassing.”

While Shearer believes hard work is the route forward, former Liverpool striker Emile Heskey has suggested Sancho needs to find his way back to Borussia Dortmund , where he has shown the best form of his career, before a £73million move to United derailed things.

“Jadon has a great rapport with Dortmund in the Bundesliga, so that is an avenue he could go down,” he said. “When he went back on loan there, he was in the Champions League final. So it's possible, and you would think he could always go back there, especially on a free transfer.”

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