Alexis Sanchez

[Stew]

Also, Shaw looks much better in an attacking sense playing behind Martial. And yesterday Sanchez didn’t bother his arse tracking back with left Shaw exposed. Which was supposed to be a strength of his.

[Deleted]

Sept 23, 2018 6:14:14 GMT Jayrannasaurus said:

I don't think it's all Sanchez, to be honest.

I feel like our build-up play has been pedestrian since he's been here. Since Sir Alex, even.

He thrives on quick, incisive one-touch football which, to put it lightly, has not really been our gig under Jose.

I see your point and I do think it plays a part on occasion but Martial and Rashford were both performing 100 times better within the same system last season and I doubt the style of football suits them either.

I think the way we play probably suits none of our attackers tbh but some have still come out of games or a run of games with credit over the last 2 1/2 years. Lingard, Martial, Rashford and even Lukaku have all performed well at varying points.

Sanchez just hasn't. He's been poor in almost every game since he arrived.

[Stew]

He’s also nearly 30 and has clearly lost a step. That doesn’t come back. Supposedly he was going to tear it up after his first break in years, we’d see the real Sanchez. Well that hasn’t happened. He’s been as bad as last year.

This only goes one way.

[Rustin Cohle]

www.football365.com/news/f365s-early-loser-alexis-sanchez-and-little-sign-of-improvement

F365’s early loser: Alexis Sanchez and no sign of improvement

“His performances, they have to improve. They can’t get any worse to be honest with you…”

Paul Scholes did not sugarcoat his opinion of Alexis Sanchez at the end of his first half season at Manchester United. The Chilean might have argued that he had contributed more assists than any team-mate since he moved to Old Trafford in January but Scholes had a valid point: United were entitled to expect more from the attacker they made the highest-paid player in British football history.

The expectation was that a full pre-season during his first summer with United would enable Sanchez to show what he can really do for his new club. That was Jose Mourinho’s assumption. “For sure next season will be better for him,” the manager said back in March. “Of course, he is learning how to play with us and we are learning how to get the best out of him.”

Six games into his first full season and we are yet to see any evidence that either Sanchez or United have sussed each other out. It’s not that the 29-year-old has been wretched but there seems little sign of the improvement that was required. There were very few positives to take from his performance against Wolves and he could not build a convincing argument to say Mourinho was wrong to substitute him on the hour just after Joao Moutinho forced United to go looking for another goal after Fred’s first for his new club.

Mourinho did not seem convinced that Sanchez would come good when he was asked earlier this month. “I hope so,” he said. “I hope we can see it,” which certainly lacked the conviction in his answer when the same question was put to him six months ago.

The manager bought Sanchez to solve a problem few believed United had. The former Barcelona and Arsenal attacker offers cover across the forward line but in his primary position coming off the left, Mourinho already had Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial. Neither provided the consistency that Mourinho demands but their youth offered the duo some mitigation. Sanchez doesn’t have the same excuse, nor any other.

Since moving to United, Sanchez has started 16 out of 20 Premier League matches, missing two and starting another couple on the bench – once when he wasn’t fully fit and also at Bournemouth last season when Mourinho rested key players ahead of the looming FA Cup semi-final.

It is the kind of involvement Rashford dreams of and with Sanchez having not kicked on from last season, perhaps now is the time to offer the 20-year-old England forward a similar run in the side.

Of course, Sanchez is not Mourinho’s only problem. Tonight, the manager will be more concerned at his side’s collective lack of spirit and desire more than any individual disappointment. But when he comes to analyse his players’ contribution against Wolves, he will look at each of his front six with similar levels of irritation.

Paul Pogba showed his infuriating inconsistency, first creating Fred’s opener with the most sublime of touches, before giving possession away just inside his own half to let Wolves break and score their equaliser. Jesse Lingard was anonymous before he was hooked; Romelu Lukaku was starved; while Marouane Fellaini, when he was told to step off his centre-back’s toes, created little mayhem as United pressed.

United’s defence has caused Mourinho most headaches this season but those issues have taken the heat off their uninspiring attack. With his rearguard appearing more settled, the focus has to shift to the Red Devils shortage of creativity. Unfortunately for Sanchez, his form and the options available to Mourinho mean he is most vulnerable.

[Rustin Cohle]

According to The Daily Mail:

- Sanchez was 'stunned' to be left out of the squad against West Ham
- He 'made it clear' behind the scenes how upset he was at this perceived slight
- Jose criticised Sanchez for his poor form in front of his teammates before the West Ham game, further upsetting him
- There is a feeling he regrets his move here (you and me both pal)
- He wants to play through the middle where apparently his best spells for Arsenal came (not sure that's true?)
- His wages are creating problems as other stars at the club see them as the benchmark for negotiations

This is one thing where Jose is 100% right, albeit about 9 months too late! And the wages thing was entirely predictable, even if he had been great for us. But given how bad he's been practically every player with a good 45 minutes under their belt this season can reasonably ask for a pay rise.

[weetomsligaments]

Why wont Mourinho play Sanchez on the RW? It addresses so many problems in the game day squad.

[ratbag]

Oct 1, 2018 13:58:19 GMT weetomsligaments said:

Why wont Mourinho play Sanchez on the RW? It addresses so many problems in the game day squad.

Doh! Because that might make some kind of sense...

You really need to get with the programme...

[Rustin Cohle]

Oct 1, 2018 13:58:19 GMT weetomsligaments said:

Why wont Mourinho play Sanchez on the RW? It addresses so many problems in the game day squad.

I think that ship has sailed now. I can't see Sanchez's form turning around. He's genuinely Rooney 2016 levels of bad most games. 

[weetomsligaments]

Oct 1, 2018 14:02:13 GMT ratbag said:

Oct 1, 2018 13:58:19 GMT weetomsligaments said:

Why wont Mourinho play Sanchez on the RW? It addresses so many problems in the game day squad.

Doh! Because that might make some kind of sense...

You really need to get with the programme...

One of the more maddening aspects of this whole debacle. United need a RW. United buy a player that excels at RW. Mourinho plays him at LW and banishes the young duo of LW to the bench/stands. United STILL need a RW.

This alone removes any and all sympathy I had for Mourinho. It is his own fault that the United attack is unbalanced and toothless.

[GeniusCantona]

We can go back to a 4-2-3-1 and have Sanchez play just behind Lukaku. But then that further unsettles Pogba who wants a more advanced role. Sanchez just needs to shut up and produce.

[weetomsligaments]

Oct 1, 2018 14:29:06 GMT Rustin Cohle said:

Oct 1, 2018 13:58:19 GMT weetomsligaments said:

Why wont Mourinho play Sanchez on the RW? It addresses so many problems in the game day squad.

I think that ship has sailed now. I can't see Sanchez's form turning around. He's genuinely Rooney 2016 levels of bad most games. 

Never thought of it like that. I assumed his poor first touch and inability to complete a pass was down to attitude. As in he is trying to fit in instead of just taking over. An erosion of skill is something else entirely.

If so, Mourinho has just cancelled out his only contribution ... getting rid of PHC.

[Rustin Cohle]

www.football365.com/news/sympathy-for-the-most-creative-of-devils-alexis-sanchez

Sympathy for the most creative of devils…Alexis Sanchez

‘Alexis Sanchez showed game intelligence and harried Europe’s toughest defence in Turin…his display could be the turning point in kickstarting his career at Old Trafford’ was the headline on one piece about Alexis Sanchez that ended ‘Mourinho will surely be faithful to Sanchez this weekend’. How naive of an experienced journalist to assume that an outstanding performance against Juventus in possibly United’s finest hour since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement would then lead to a place in United’s team to face City four days later. How naive indeed.

Sanchez was said to be incensed to find himself back on the bench. Put aside one-eyed club loyalties and green-eyed anger about him being the Premier League’s best-paid player and you should be able to summon some degree of sympathy. Having joined Manchester United over City, not purely for money but also because he believed that he would be first choice, Sanchez has found himself playing less top-flight football than even Fred. His wages make him an incredibly easy scapegoat but his form – though by no means extraordinary – absolutely has not.

Two compelling statistics tell a story of Sanchez’s season. The first is that he creates more chances than any other Manchester United player. And when we say ‘more chances’, what we should say is ‘a f***-load more chances’. He creates 2.8 chances per 90 minutes in the Premier League without being on set-piece duty; for comparison, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba’s figure is 1.7. Sanchez has created five Big Chances this season; that he only has two assists cannot sensibly be considered his fault. He throws his hands up in exasperation – and in turn exasperates everybody watching – because it transpires that leaving Arsenal did not automatically mean he was playing with better players. You can see why he might end up alone and unloved in the dressing room (as he allegedly did at Arsenal) but that should not preclude his inclusion in a struggling side. His performance in Turin demanded another start.

Which brings us to the second compelling statistic – that Manchester United’s six defeats this season have all come when Sanchez has not been in the starting XI. The Chilean has a P7 W5 D2 L0 record in matches he has begun this season, which is astonishing in such a poor season for his club. That fact alone should surely have kept him in the team for the visit to the Etihad, even if you blindly ignore his performance in Italy. Injury? Jose Mourinho did mention “his little problem in Turin” but then said in the next breath that he was “fully available”; his non-selection was not about a niggle but solely about the manager opting for a pacey front three in a game he expected City to dominate. Considering Sanchez had more than played his part against an equally dominant Juventus, that must have stung.

Sanchez is clearly not an easy man to like – it has been reported that he ‘cuts a deeply unhappy figure’ at United, where his style is predictably at odds with his manager’s. Mourinho is said to consider it a ‘mystery‘ that Sanchez has not been a success. Which is itself a mystery to every single one of us who thought this was a disaster waiting to happen. Sanchez is apparently a shouter and a sulker, and there is room for only one of those at Old Trafford. The two have clashed.

Arsene Wenger has watched from afar and diagnosed a lack of confidence – he knows that the Chilean is not a player motivated by competition but propelled by momentum. He may have been over-indulged at Arsenal, but the contrast between Wenger and Mourinho is clearly too great. It is a yawning chasm. He has swapped inclusion regardless of performance for exclusion regardless of performance. How much of Sanchez’s current demeanour is born from the regretful knowledge that the sensible half-way house would have been Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City? There he would have been coached and nurtured – without being mollycoddled – and he may have progressed rather than regressed. He would certainly have been judged fairly in comparison to City’s other attackers. It has to hurt that Riyad Mahrez is playing more football for a brilliant City than Sanchez for a flawed United.

In less than two weeks, Sanchez has seen his United career seemingly kickstarted and then stalled again. Pity is in short supply for a man who earns a reported £500,000 a week, and plenty will enjoy watching him suffer, forgetting that money does not revoke human being status, but Manchester United’s most creative footballer deserves more faith than most. You don’t have to like his face to conclude that it’s far from simply his fault that he is not thriving at United. After all, he is creating chances and winning football matches. That surely has to be worth something.

[Rustin Cohle]

Lukaku and Sanchez scored 49 league goals between them in 2016/17.

This season to date they have 5 between them.

[weetomsligaments]

Nov 26, 2018 13:27:59 GMT Rustin Cohle said:

Lukaku and Sanchez scored 49 league goals between them in 2016/17.

This season to date they have 5 between them.

Its the boards fault.

[Rustin Cohle]

I don't have a car, and I live in London, but I will buy one and drive it to Manchester just to personally chauffeur him to the airport.

www.football365.com/news/raging-sanchez-wants-out-at-united-after-mourinho-slight

‘Raging’ Sanchez wants out at United after Mourinho slight

Alexis Sanchez is more set than ever on a move away from Manchester United after his latest snub from Jose Mourinho, according to reports.

The Portuguese coach left Sanchez out of his squad for United’s Champions League clash with Young Boys – which they narrowly won 1-0.

And the Daily Mirror reports that the Chile international is at ‘breaking point’ after not even making the bench for the match.

Sanchez has ‘set his heart on a move’ to Paris Saint-Germain with the ‘latest slight’ from Mourinho leaving him even more determined to leave Old Trafford after only a year at the club.

The report continues by claiming that Sanchez doesn’t believe he has a future under Jose Mourinho after less than a year at the club.

Mourinho confirmed that Sanchez wasn’t injured for the clash with Young Boys but didn’t explain the reasons for the Chilean not making the 18.

Not since the FA Cup final have United lost a game Sanchez has started but he has only scored one goal this season albeit an important winner against Newcastle.

The 29-year-old is on over £500,000-a-week and, despite telling ‘pals’ he wants to leave Manchester, his wages could be a stumbling block if he is looking to leave in January.