It's the Champions League final and Rashford and Martial are both injured. Do you pick Sanchez or Ashley Young?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Sanchez was man-of-the-match in his last match for Arsenal at Crystal Palace when he bagged a brilliant brace. He has not played anywhere close to that level at Man Utd. In his last four months at Arsenal (first half of the 2017/8 season) he scored 8 goals in 22 matches and was still quite easily Arsenal's best player. At Man Utd he has only managed 3 goals in 23 matches. After he left for Man Utd, Arsenal were awful and had the worst away form out of the entire 92 clubs in the professional league. How is that not a sudden dip in form?
Ashley Young. At least he can whip in a dead ball and still crosses superbly.
It does remind me of the situation with Rooney. I still have hope it is our system and style of play that is making it look worse.
Sanchez was my favorite premier league player before he joined us. He looks a shadow of himself from just a couple of years back. One of the things he keeps trying to do is a quick pass in the final third and make a sprint towards the goal. At Arsenal, players would find him when he made that run, here we just kill the attack before it develops.
Sanchez looked more comfortable as striker in the US tour.
What about Sanchez as the striker and Lukaku on the right focused on running the channel?
copycat
I'm surprised to see so many people being so shocked at an attacking player rapidly declining at 30. It was the norm ten years ago!
Gotta disagree here mate. I'd been a fan of him his entire career, and it's clear his overall game declined following the injury against Bayern in 2010. He was the third best player in the world that season, and although he was still a very good player after it, the decline had began. He actually adapted his game into a goal poacher in the 2011-12 season and had a great goalscoring season. Once we brought RVP in his limitations were more visible again as he dropped deeper. Had he remodelled himself permanently into an out an out #9 goal hanger like he did in 11-12 I think the decline would've seemed far slower. Putting him at #10 really exposed how far he'd dropped. He was still a pretty good player (but nowhere near his best) in 13-14, decent in 14-15 and absolutely finished by 15-16. The Rooney of 2006-2010 was absolutely unplayable on his day & far better than Sanchez has ever been imho.
Ibra & Ronaldo be changing peoples standards!
Sanchez didn't go to Russia so had the whole summer off so has no burnout excuses. This week he was rested for the CL match to make sure he is ready for Wolves. Yet none of this is helping. And this is the highest paid player in the PL.
Absolute disaster of a signing. Not completely at fault for our drab performance yesterday however he was bought to score goals.
Arsenal fans have even said he was declining since January 2017, but the media have been painting this narrative that Alexis has been carrying Arsenal, no matter how bad he’s been at times. No doubt progressively worse for us. Look at things now, they are ahead of us without him.
Sanchez was on the decline in the last season at Arsenal just like Torres before he switched to Chelsea. Arsenal got the better deal. They got to start over fresh without their fading star who didn't exactly spread joy around the dressingroom.
Of course they are not 100 % the same but in as much as they are/were two hugely underperforming players on obscene undeserved salaries they are significant similarities
He will of course end up in the MLS in a few years so you are right it won't be forever.
In pointless friendlies against teams going through the motions to getting fit. How is that relevant.
I don't buy the Sanchez is suddenly past it and is now crap stuff - he was devastating on the break at Arsenal but we just don't play like that so he's expected to make something from nothing when teams have regained their defensive shape and inevitably runs into traffic all the time (much like Martial ). Our players shouldn't be expected to be beating 2 and 3 men all the time we should be breaking at pace and in numbers and pulling teams apart. Stop blaming the players and start asking why so many previously excellent attacking players have become suddenly sh*t since joining us. (Hint : Jose's tactics maybe?)
Lukaku's main strength at Everton was running onto balls at speed using his pace and power and then beating the goalie one on one he did it week in week out - how many times do our tactics get him in this position ? - how often do we utilise his main strength? - but i suppose he's just crap as well...
Beats me how this manager consistently buys players and then sets up to negate their strengths and effectiveness.
Lukaku's main strength at Everton was running onto balls at speed using his pace and power and then beating the goalie one on one he did it week in week out - how many times do our tactics get him in this position ? - how often do we utilise his main strength? - but i suppose he's just crap as well...
Beats me how this manager consistently buys players and then sets up to negate their strengths and effectiveness.
I have been slating him a lot but how come he was world class for Arsenal, comes here and looks like Bebe? How come Pogba who I rate as top 3 best CM in the world only has a good game 3/10 games for us? How come Lukaku scored 25 his last season at Everton yet here he only ended up with 16? How come Martial who was one of europes most highly rated talents is rotting on the bench? A lot of players are getting slated but I feel like under a manager who prioritizes attack these guys would all flourish. The way Jose sets us up to play is beyond depressing and I have completely lost that feeling of looking forward to whenever we have a game instead I absolutely dread it.
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I also believes he still has it somewhere but i would bet good money that you will never see it under Mourinho.Barcelona-Arsenal-United: pick the odd one out in terms of playing style. It was such a bad career move from him, he just had to wait a few months in London and just go and make a mint at City while collecting a trophy or two. And an even worse move from United, i still don't understand the motive to do it. As someone else said if there was a player to break the bank for and taunt City at the same time it was Mahrez.
Martial-Lukaku/Rashford-Mahrez would have been really scary
No it wasn’t!
He's absolutely terrible. I mean, with Rashford and Martial's fortunes fading, at least you'd expect this expensive, experienced pro we signed in their position to perform well. But he hasn't and we've landed into a situation where we've got three LWs and neither of them, nor the club has benefited. Rashford is worse. Martial is much worse and wanted out. Sanchez is looking a rubbish signing.
What a fine mess Jose has managed to get us in, from a what was a decent position in January 2018, when it came to our LW position and key attacking position.
What a fine mess Jose has managed to get us in, from a what was a decent position in January 2018, when it came to our LW position and key attacking position.
People expect everyone to be a Giggs, Ronaldo or Ibra, despite the fact that the three of them are extreme exceptions to the norm. Even the great Messi has had a small drop off in his performance level as that insane burst of acceleration he once had has gone away.
It wasn't a bad career move financially though.I also believes he still has it somewhere but i would bet good money that you will never see it under Mourinho.Barcelona-Arsenal-United: pick the odd one out in terms of playing style. It was such a bad career move from him, he just had to wait a few months in London and just go and make a mint at City while collecting a trophy or two. And an even worse move from United, i still don't understand the motive to do it. As someone else said if there was a player to break the bank for and taunt City at the same time it was Mahrez.
Martial-Lukaku/Rashford-Mahrez would have been really scary
Alexis isn’t taking enough responsibility on the pitch. He’s the king of the lay-off. Anywhere near the box and he looks to give it to someone else rather than shoot and miss. What happened to the Alexis that could burst the net from 20 yards. He’s getting into good positions but he looks more scared of shooting and missing than of dropping points. Instead of growing into the #7 shirt he’s let it crush him. Broken player.
Makes you wonder what a genius Ryan Giggs was to be able to completely change his style of play once his physical attributes dropped off. And still be an influential player in title winning sides.
He started pre season extremely well because he was playing as a second striker or as the main forward which allowed him to drift across the pitch and focus his explosive energy on movement in and around the final third and be on the shoulder of the last defender. His movement looked better and he looked sharp and a goal threat. With his legs having gone a little, he can’t really be used out wide any more at the top level and his role needs to be adapted if we’re going to squeeze out any top performances out of him.
Come start of the actual season and he’s back to being an orthodox winger again, not to mention with our style of play even if you did have a Sanchez in his prime - he’d be having to start from very deep compared to a wide forward under say Pep or Klopp - thus wasting a disproportionate amount of energy in defence or in the midfield battle rather than focusing on impacting the final third.
Sanchez could conceivably be totally past it but tactically he’s not really been helped at all. Someone mentioned Giggs but once his legs went, he was turned into a central midfielder to compensate for his lack of pace as an elder statesman. I’m not seeing us to try to use him as a striker or a second striker - off the bench if we’re adamant our staring formation is 4-3-3, then you got Martial left with Sanchez up top and maybe Lukaku/Rashford on the right or just drop Sanchez altogether. And against weaker teams, or if we’re chasing a game - maybe 442 with him and Lukaku up top, with Martial and Rashford on the wings.
At the moment, he almost certainly deserves to be written off but I would still argue that based on pre season, he showed he still had something but we haven’t made it easy for him at all from a tactical perspective.
Come start of the actual season and he’s back to being an orthodox winger again, not to mention with our style of play even if you did have a Sanchez in his prime - he’d be having to start from very deep compared to a wide forward under say Pep or Klopp - thus wasting a disproportionate amount of energy in defence or in the midfield battle rather than focusing on impacting the final third.
Sanchez could conceivably be totally past it but tactically he’s not really been helped at all. Someone mentioned Giggs but once his legs went, he was turned into a central midfielder to compensate for his lack of pace as an elder statesman. I’m not seeing us to try to use him as a striker or a second striker - off the bench if we’re adamant our staring formation is 4-3-3, then you got Martial left with Sanchez up top and maybe Lukaku/Rashford on the right or just drop Sanchez altogether. And against weaker teams, or if we’re chasing a game - maybe 442 with him and Lukaku up top, with Martial and Rashford on the wings.
At the moment, he almost certainly deserves to be written off but I would still argue that based on pre season, he showed he still had something but we haven’t made it easy for him at all from a tactical perspective.
We need to help him because something is clearly not working - maybe he needs to go up to as striker with Lukaku.
We need to change something. He did look good at preseason so I don't know where it's gone wrong since then.
We need to change something. He did look good at preseason so I don't know where it's gone wrong since then.
It really is something. We all probably thought we could easily replicate this with others, but it never really has happened with a big name in modern football since I think?
It really does seem to be the Torress syndrome at play here. Torres was poor for his last 6 months at Liverpool and was completely finished at Chelsea, and it seems the pattern has repeated with Sanchez to.
He's finished, he cant even beat a man these days. His passing is shite, he's so weak and tiny he get outmuscled most of the time and he's a whiney, moody bastard.
Bench and get rid in Jan, even if we have to pay him off to terminate his contract.
Bench and get rid in Jan, even if we have to pay him off to terminate his contract.
Who would swap him tomorrow if given the chance? Or let me re-phrase that, who believes that he will really still come good?
It is still a game even if it is a friendly, Sanchez thrived as a striker for Arsenal and had his best seasons in that position. He showed better movement in the friendlies so i am just putting two and two together.
Pretty relevant if you ask me.
he should be competing with Lukaku for a striker, as he should just play closer to goal, he's still good goalscorer and creator in the final third, just need little time, other than that he's too incosistent passer and absolutely off pace to play on the wing so sell him to Italy for pennies if he can't pick it up.
On the other hand Mourinho's system doesn't work for him, I mean who is really good in this system, we have a poor manager who make players underperform, so there might still be in Sanchez but probably will start decline even more devoid of joy playing football before the next manager comes in
On the other hand Mourinho's system doesn't work for him, I mean who is really good in this system, we have a poor manager who make players underperform, so there might still be in Sanchez but probably will start decline even more devoid of joy playing football before the next manager comes in
Giggs was an excellent passer, with great vision and good positioning, Sanchez is a bit like Rooney, has a good pass in him but too inconsistent and runs around like headless chicken, his game revolves around aggression, poaching, scoring which means he's probably done as a winger, at leat under Mourinho. Giggs also played as a CM for that reason even though we had to play another midfielder there, I don't think he was always a starter there as our game was heavily slowed down but he could find a pass at times so was a useful player
Didn't he play as a striker in preseason? More than happy to try him there properly.
Yeah he did
Rubbish.
No European clubs with these insane wages we're giving him.
Its going to be a long, cruel 4yrs until he leaves. Just imagine how poor he'll be in say, two years time, as well. Nightmarish.
Worst transfer in the history of the club, I reckon. When you take everything into consideration and how much we're paying to be saddled with him.
Worst transfer in the history of the club, I reckon. When you take everything into consideration and how much we're paying to be saddled with him.
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