Alexis Sanchez Has To Step Up At Man United Or Give Up His Place!
When Alexis Sanchez arrived at Manchester United back in January, his signing was heralded as one that would take the club in the right direction. Man Utd managed to beat rivals Manchester City for his signature, that shows you how well regarded his talent is.
There’s no doubt that the Chilean international has a world class skill-set and he’s capable of changing games in the favour of his team.
Unfortunately for The Red Devils, they’ve not seen that Alexis Sanchez yet during his stint at Old Trafford.
His winter arrival actually seemed to cause more confusion within the squad rather than prove to be a catalyst to better things. Jose Mourinho shifted him around the forward areas, trying to get the best out of him and eventually he was stuck on the left wing and that seems to have stifled Anthony Martial’s development. Before Alexis arrived, Martial was starting to improve as a winger and getting used to that position.
In his twelve Premier League games for United in the 2017-18 season Alexis scored just two and created three for teammates.
It was thought that the twenty-nine year old would be raring to go for the start of this campaign, as he managed to get his first extended holiday in a long time.
Unfortunately it’s not really panned out that way.
Alexis still doesn’t look comfortable out on United’s left, he’s certainly struggling to get used to the Man United way of playing football.
He’ll run a lot but there isn’t enough end product in his game at the moment. Plus the forward just doesn’t seem as dynamic or as decisive as he was at Arsenal. The Chilean international no longer seems to have the appetite to get the game by the scruff of the neck and drive at opponents and dictate proceedings.
When you look at his stats in his opening four league outings; he’s not scored, in fact he has now gone 831 minutes without converting a top flight strike and he’s provided just one assist. His passing success rate is down at 73% and his shots per game average is down at 1.8 (at his peak with Arsenal it was up at 3.4).
Against Wolves yesterday, Sanchez had just fifty-one touches of the ball and the majority were just inside the opposition’s half before he was hauled off after sixty-three minutes. He needs to be in and around the penalty area to make a real difference. Alexis had a 70% passing success rate, making thirty-three passes in total. Again that’s just not good enough!
After the home draw with Wolves, Mourinho blamed is forward thinking players:
‘I was expecting more from my attacking players. There was not enough creativity, movement or dynamism.’
Now a few players will come in to that criticism but in truth the Portuguese manager will definitely be pointing at Alexis Sanchez.
The attacker is on a reported £500k a week and he’s simply not producing the goods for Manchester United. He needs to improve and do it quickly, if he doesn’t then he should be benched.
Some United fans are even talking about selling the player come the next January transfer window! That’s a sad indictment of his United career thus far.
Posted on September 23rd, 2018 by scott
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