[Jazz]

He needs to stop trying to do everything. Just get basics right for a start and then go from there.

He seems very anxious to me. That's a result of the United No.7 shirt and the pressure coming from everywhere.

I do believe Jose should have started him as a sub for the first few games at least, and have extra training sessions for him and the rest of the attackers, so he could get a chance to slowly develop an understanding with them imho.

 

[el3mel]

He simply has no clue which player to close down, whether to press or not etc. Everyone including him is trying to figure what his role in this team is. That could be somewhat down to bad coaching and tactics, but his random lobbed balls into the box are bizarre - they are neither played to the striker's feet nor to their heads; he just punts it into the box with no real conviction to find anyone in particular.

That's the problem of Jan signing. We don't really have any time to form a coherent link between him and his teammates who were playing at specific pace and linking together before he came. Games are coming thick and most of them are crucial, no time for performing a link between him and his teammates in training now so we have to figure it out during matches. That's why pre-season exist in summer.

 

[bosnian_red]

He needs to stop trying to do everything. Just get basics right for a start and then go from there.

He seems very anxious to me. That's a result of the United No.7 shirt and the pressure coming from everywhere.

I do believe Jose should have started him as a sub for the first few games at least, and have extra training sessions for him and the rest of the attackers, so he could get a chance to slowly develop an understanding with them imho.

Nah it's not that. He's been at an equally big club before in Barcelona, he's used to being the main man on a team and carrying all the pressure on his shoulders, he's used to winning trophies with Barcelona and Chile. What it is, is that he joined in the January transfer window in a team that was more then struggling, especially offensively. One that has nobody in the entire front 6 performing consistently and really being someone who can be relied upon just yet. We want Sanchez to be the main star in the attack, Pogba in midfield, Lukaku to be a reliable goalscorer... none of that has happened. Needs time to bed in and everyone clearly needs more time training and working on what the gameplan is to be more consistent. He had a rough half season for obvious reasons at Arsenal, and you can't suddenly just come into a new club where not everyone is used to your playstyle and you aren't used to the tactics and suddenly everything just clicks... Doesn't happen. Takes a bit of time. Saying that, you still put him on the pitch because he can make something out of nothing and still have a big impact himself and on others.

 

[Water Melon]

A bit on a different wavelength compared to his teammates. Needs a bit of time to get to the same page.

 

[Jazz]

Nah it's not that. He's been at an equally big club before in Barcelona, he's used to being the main man on a team and carrying all the pressure on his shoulders, he's used to winning trophies with Barcelona and Chile. What it is, is that he joined in the January transfer window in a team that was more then struggling, especially offensively. One that has nobody in the entire front 6 performing consistently and really being someone who can be relied upon just yet. We want Sanchez to be the main star in the attack, Pogba in midfield, Lukaku to be a reliable goalscorer... none of that has happened. Needs time to bed in and everyone clearly needs more time training and working on what the gameplan is to be more consistent. He had a rough half season for obvious reasons at Arsenal, and you can't suddenly just come into a new club where not everyone is used to your playstyle and you aren't used to the tactics and suddenly everything just clicks... Doesn't happen. Takes a bit of time. Saying that, you still put him on the pitch because he can make something out of nothing and still have a big impact himself and on others.

Yeah fair enough. Still think we shouldn't have thrown him into the matches as a starter. Yeovil ok, but not Spurs for e.g..
In any case, let's hope he improves.

 

[Garethw]

Hopefully it all clicks for him soon.

 

[Giggs86]

Not worried about him at all. We all know he is world class and he got the right attitude. He doesn't seem like the Di Maria / Miki type of a shell shocked defeatist when the going gets tough. Takes some time to get "rendered" into the same wave as his new team.

 

[svastian99]

Finally Alexis playing more to the right ... I hope it is something more permanent, and that we maintain an attack with Martial / Lukaku / Alexis.
It shows that when he does not have the ball he gets a little desperate and he tends to get disordered. We all know what kind of player he is, he needs to understand his role in the team and that will only happen when we work based on a constant line up.

Mou must forget the 4-2-3-1, and play 4-3-3 (or 4-4-2 against ultra-offensive teams).

 

[Ban]

Ok I'm going to post a rare, drama/body language post, but did Lukaku brush him off when celebrating his goal?

No, he wanted to thank Martial first for the assist......

 

[Devil81]

Is it me or did he seems to have more time on the ball whilst at Arsenal, I can't remember a time where he's had the ball with room to even strike a clean shot during his time at United.

I think that's why he's snatching at chances when he get's them.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Thought he played well today, but its clear he is new, and plays very differently to the rest of our squad. Seems to only play the ball out to the full back as an absolute last resort, and ran into trouble a couple of times by refusing to do it. He insists on playing through the middle and always looks for that option. Not suggesting that's a bad thing, as we lack players who want to pick the defence apart, so it's good to see we have an outlet through the centre. A few times Valencia and Young were bombing forward in acres of space but he wasn't interested. Perhaps he knew they'd do next to nothing with it, instead he looked to go direct and central, and it resulted in the equalising goal. Usually, a player in his position would be looking for the wideman, but Sanchez isn't doing that.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

He was pretty bad, but he doesn't look acclimated with the team yet nor the team with him.

It'll take time.

 

[DocRockter]

Doesn't track back, doesn't hold up the ball very well but almost all could be forgiven if he'd be a force scoring goals or at least creating some.. Rashford deserves a start over him against CP.

 

[Marcelinho87]

Doesn't track back, doesn't hold up the ball very well but almost all could be forgiven if he'd be a force scoring goals or at least creating some.. Rashford deserves a start over him against CP.

Doesn't track back? I think he works extremely hard at getting the ball back and is also our only attacking player who actually presses.

One thing you can't use against him is hard work.

 

[acnumber9]

Is it me or did he seems to have more time on the ball whilst at Arsenal, I can't remember a time where he's had the ball with room to even strike a clean shot during his time at United.

I think that's why he's snatching at chances when he get's them.

That’s what happens when you aren’t controlling the ball cleanly. Seems to get the ball trapped under his feet a lot. He’s reminding me a bit of Rooney currently in that you can see the quality is there but there’s doubts as to whether he’s physically capable anymore.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Needs to calm the feck down.

 

[KM]

Not a surprise we're not seeing the best of him as according to Mourinho himself, he was as a 4th midfielder rather than an attacking player. Played well in that ten minute period mark where Martial was subbed off and Lingard was given Sanchez's responsibilities freeing him but was then himself substituted off after our goal.

 

[roonster09]

Not a surprise we're not seeing the best of him as according to Mourinho himself, he was as a 4th midfielder rather than an attacking player. Played well in that ten minute period mark where Martial was subbed off and Lingard was given Sanchez's responsibilities freeing him but was then himself substituted off after our goal.

In 5 games played, he won more tackles than anyone in 3 of the games.

 

[KM]

In 5 games played, he won more tackles than anyone in 3 of the games.

*resists urge to not go on an anti-Mourinho rant*

 

[NinjaFletch]

*resists urge to not go on an anti-Mourinho rant*

That's how he plays? Have you never seen him play before we signed him?

 

[KM]

That's how he plays? Have you never seen him play before we signed him?

In the four matches he has played for us so far, his tackle state is 2.3, while for Arsenal it was 1.1. I know how he plays but last match against Chelsea he was almost playing as a 4th midfielder which is a colossal waste of his talent.

 

[devilish]

This team is screaming to move to a 4-3-3 formation. 2 DMs would win the ball possession while letting the likes of Lukaku, Martial, Rashford, Pogba and Sanchez all the time they need to cause damage.

We also need to start playing players in their natural roles. Sanchez and Martial are both left wingers. You can't expect them to play together.

 

[shield]

Pretty poor today, we could do with him finding his feet real soon.

Think he is still adjusting and getting used to playing for United. Did not see anything really special in yesterday's performance and missed a really easy chance. Was closing down players fine, with greater speed than Lingard does, which helped us, but overall, was not involved that much (made a great pass for the first goal). Could be down to tactics though, because he spent the first half close to Drinkwater, so that might have affected his freedom to roam and make runs.

 

[NinjaFletch]

In the four matches he has played for us so far, his tackle state is 2.3, while for Arsenal it was 1.1. I know how he plays but last match against Chelsea he was almost playing as a 4th midfielder which is a colossal waste of his talent.

Small sample size.

He had 1 tackle yesterday so according to your own use of stats he worked less hard than he did at Arsenal then? Or perhaps the tackle stat tells you little about how hard a player works?

I find it very, very hard to complain about how he was used yesterday. Seemed to have a great deal of freedom to do what he wanted in the final third, and on another day he scores his chance in the first half and goes from there.

He had a bit of a stinker but I find it hard to believe that the player who has always run around like a maniac without the ball is only doing it because he's being instructed too.

I also reckon we've probably got the only fanbase in the world that would complain about a player working too hard.

 

[KM]

Small sample size.

He had 1 tackle yesterday so according to your own use of stats he worked less hard than he did at Arsenal then? Or perhaps the tackle stat tells you little about how hard a player works?

I find it very, very hard to complain about how he was used yesterday. Seemed to have a great deal of freedom to do what he wanted in the final third, and on another day he scores his chance in the first half and goes from there.

He had a bit of a stinker but I find it hard to believe that the player who has always run around like a maniac without the ball is only doing it because he's being instructed too.

I also reckon we've probably got the only fanbase in the world that would complain about a player working too hard.

He runs around a maniac but he was also instructed extra defensive responsibility too which hampered in his attacking play. Here's from Jose itself:

The mission Alexis had, to be the third attacking player but at the same time the fourth midfield player to try to cover the area in front of Scott. I think everyone made a big effort."

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...ll-news/man-utd-news-chelsea-sanchez-14336629

I seriously think you watched some other match if you think he had "great deal of freedom to do what he wanted".

 

[NinjaFletch]

He runs around a maniac but he was also instructed extra defensive responsibility too which hampered in his attacking play. Here's from Jose itself:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...ll-news/man-utd-news-chelsea-sanchez-14336629

I seriously think you watched some other match if you think he had "great deal of freedom to do what he wanted".

I said that he:

'seemed to have a great deal of freedom to do what he wanted in the final third'.

He had defensive responsibilities when we didn't have the ball, (but would have taken it upon himself to do that regardless) but when we did he roamed across the attacking positions and was given a far freer reign (or took one) than Martial who operated almost entirely form the left (you can look up their respective heat maps if you don't believe me). Putting his poor performance solely down to him being 'restricted' is far too generous on Sanchez. He just simply didn't have a good game.

 

[Bobski]

It was a fairly typical match from Sanchez given this seasons form he has shown for both Arsenal and Utd. Some nice touches, important contribution to the equalizer but also a lot of frustrating moments. Been a pattern of his career but his decision making can be highly erratic, leading to wasteful spells in games.

His play for the first goal is how he is most effective, close quarters, short passing with options around. Utd get far too stretched as an attacking unit, long balls up to Lukaku, not patient enough when they do pen a team in, generally get the ball out wide and just toss a rubbish cross in the vague direction of the striker.

 

[KM]

I said that he:

'seemed to have a great deal of freedom to do what he wanted in the final third'.

He had defensive responsibilities when we didn't have the ball, (but would have taken it upon himself to do that regardless) but when we did he roamed across the attacking positions and was given a far freer reign (or took one) than Martial who operated almost entirely form the left (you can look up their respective heat maps if you don't believe me). Putting his poor performance solely down to him being 'restricted' is far too generous on Sanchez. He just simply didn't have a good game.

I'm not saying that his position was the only reason why he had a poor game(and if implied that in my previous posts then I didn't mean it) but yes I do believe that Mourinho's tactics didn't help either.

 

[Varun]

He's just arrived. Needs time

 

[Hellboy]

6.7 for his last 7 games ? More like 5.7, disappointing so far but hope he will kick on.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Needs to calm the feck down.

Yeah I agree.

He just seems so erratic and rushed at times. That leads to bad execution and wrong decision making. Appears to be trying to be too influential if anything. We need him to be an important cog rather than the entire machine. We have enough quality elsewhere.

 

[Sp00ks11]

He's just arrived. Needs time

This. Patience on this forum is shocking.

 

[Litch]

This. Patience on this forum is shocking.

This. How many games, 7? and signed in Jan so no pre-season to get to know players, the team or style of play. Honestly this place can be an absolute joke. Can you believe some are criticising him for trying to hard. I give up.

 

[breakout67]

Alexis Sanchez has been our most productive player since he joined, he has the best goals+assists/min ratio. You cannot say that he does not contribute in attack.

He is also our most hard working attacker, regularly winning the ball back and pressing the other team into mistakes.

Yes he loses the ball a lot, and has missed a few chances but this is a player that is basically playing using his own quality because he has very little experience with the team.

 

[Litch]

Alexis Sanchez has been our most productive player since he joined, he has the best goals+assists/min ratio. You cannot say that he does not contribute in attack.

He is also our most hard working attacker, regularly winning the ball back and pressing the other team into mistakes.

Yes he loses the ball a lot, and has missed a few chances but this is a player that is basically playing using his own quality because he has very little experience with the team.

Agree. I must admit I'm still pinching myself that he's here. It's a shame that he's joined during a period where there is no much negativity around at the mo. I think the media did their best to take some of the shine off the signing too which has equally tainted it. They have continued with the negativity implying it's created disharmony in the camp and also implying that it's related to Pogs drop in form.

 

[VeevaVee]

He is also our most hard working attacker, regularly winning the ball back and pressing the other team into mistakes.

This has been the key for me. Means there's plenty more to come imo.

 

[Greck]

Have defended him saying the poor attacking structure is behind his woes but can't say he doesn't contribute to some of his own problems. He's making the same mistakes Pogba has at times been guilty of and is no surprise Jose has been pulling him off the past 2 games (these signings are usually 90mins untouchables). Like he thinks he's expected to create something from nothing with his every touch. The ball sticks when it gets to him when it might be wiser to keep it simple and pick his spots. I'm sure he'll figure it out sooner or later

 

[Bobski]

Have defended him saying the poor attacking structure is behind his woes but can't say he doesn't contribute to some of his own problems. He's making the same mistakes Pogba has at times been guilty of and is no surprise Jose has been pulling him off the past 2 games (these signings are usually 90mins untouchables). Like he thinks he's expected to create something from nothing with his every touch. The ball sticks when it gets to him when it might be wiser to keep it simple and pick his spots. I'm sure he'll figure it out sooner or later

But this is who Sanchez is, it is just that watching him closely brings home some of the more frustrating parts of his game. I don't expect to see a massive change in his game, just something similar with increased productivity. If you are easily frustrated by players who take on the high risk, give the ball away a lot and can be tunnel vision at bad times then Sanchez is going to be tough love.

There is a reason why perhaps his prime years were spent at Arsenal, as talented, as gifted as he is, his game has not always translated well to playing in a team system. Having said that he should fit Utd perfectly as we have no system worth talking about and rely almost entirely on our individuals.

 

[Greck]

But this is who Sanchez is, it is just that watching him closely brings home some of the more frustrating parts of his game. I don't expect to see a massive change in his game, just something similar with increased productivity. If you are easily frustrated by players who take on the high risk, give the ball away a lot and can be tunnel vision at bad times then Sanchez is going to be tough love.

There is a reason why perhaps his prime years were spent at Arsenal, as talented, as gifted as he is, his game has not always translated well to playing in a team system. Having said that he should fit Utd perfectly as we have no system worth talking about and rely almost entirely on our individuals.

Many didn't only start watching him when he got here. He didn't gain a reputation as world class losing the ball every 3rd touch and making bad decisions consistently. There's more to his game than you realise and he'll start showing more of it once he's settled in

 

[Hugh Jass]

Alexis Sanchez has been our most productive player since he joined, he has the best goals+assists/min ratio. You cannot say that he does not contribute in attack.

He is also our most hard working attacker, regularly winning the ball back and pressing the other team into mistakes.

Yes he loses the ball a lot, and has missed a few chances but this is a player that is basically playing using his own quality because he has very little experience with the team.

This.