Anthony Elanga has handed Erik ten Hag another headache this summer after explaining his favoured role at Manchester United.
Elanga is currently on international duty with Sweden, and caught the eye of United fans on Sunday after scoring his first goal for his country in their 2-1 defeat to Norway. After coming off the bench, the 20-year-old linked up well with Dejan Kulusevski before supplying a superb curled finish to halve the deficit late on.
The goal came with Elanga playing on the opposite side to where supporters saw him make his breakthrough with United during the 2021/22 campaign. Having been deployed mostly on the right at club level, the youngster was given the chance to show what he can do from the left at the weekend.
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It gave him the perfect opportunity to cut inside and shoot on his natural right foot, as he did for his goal. And the academy graduate has admitted he prefers to play out on the left, giving his new manager another problem to resolve.
“It suits me very well,” Elanga told Fotbollskanalen. “At United I play a lot on the right but now I get the chance to play on the left, that is my favourite position. I can do more there. I can go both inside on the pitch and also the outside.”
Elanga’s comments provide another issue for Ten Hag as he gets to work on his squad for his first season in charge at Old Trafford. The right wing proved to be a problem position for United in the recently-ended season, although Elanga’s emergence seemingly provided something of a solution.
Jadon Sancho had originally been brought to the club to line up on that side, but became more effective over on the left as the season wore on. Marcus Rashford meanwhile has always favoured the left-hand side, and has struggled whenever deployed down the right.
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