21     Midfielder     Montpellier     France

Skinny

When full of confidence, Morgan Sanson doesn’t spend very long in possession of the ball. He is a brilliant tempo passer. He keep things ticking over, moves the points of attack and forces the defence to keep active as he tries to seek out gaps for his team to exploit.

At other times, he often finds himself caught in possession as he tries to play his way out of a funk. Sanson is never afraid of the ball – an admirable quality – but can sometimes try too hard to find the perfect pass when the simple motion to keep things moving is starting him in the face.

Signed from Le Mans in Ligue 2 in what appeared to be a shrewd stock-piling move by Montpellier in 2013, Sanson was always going to be second fiddle to Remy Cabella at the point of La Paillade’s midfield. However when an opportunity opened up in a deeper role thanks to injuries elsewhere it was Sanson that filled it.

He played behind Cabella, linked the play nicely, made smart passers and proved himself as a hard-working when going in the other direction. He showed himself to be able of doing the dirty work in midfield and improved his discipline.

2015 has been…

When Cabella moved on, Sanson stepped into his natural role with a more rounded game. He proved to be an asset defensively, rather than a player needing to be carried by the others and started to get involved in the whole scoring goals thing.

He scored six times and assisted three more in the 2014/15 Ligue 1, linking up brightly with Anthony Mounier and Luas Barrios in the Montpellier attack before injury brought his year to crashing halt in April.

Morgan ruptured his knee ligaments 51 minutes into April’s 0-1 defeat at the hands of Toulouse. It destroyed what had been an important season for Sanson’s development and has probably meant the majority of this year is a write-off as well. He had scored three times in the seven games before getting injured.

What's next?

In the last couple of weeks Sanson has made his return to the Montpellier first team. He played the last 17 minutes in the 3-1 victory over Reims before running out for the final 10 in last weekend’s handsome 4-2 win over Lyon.

His medium-to-long-term goal has to be getting back into his midfield groove and getting back into the starting line-up for his club. All of the chatter about big moves – Milan were supposedly interested suitors – will stay on the back burner until he can prove he has rehabilitated his knee correctly.

D             Injury has ruined things