Why it didn't work out for Sanchez at Manchester United?

[Sir Erik ten Hag]

Title is self-explained.

Sanchez was a painful memory for our club, and we seemed totally unable to let him go at that time due to his insane salary. Luckily Inter Milan (and Conte) did the favor.

Now after years have passed and the rage has died down, I figure it would be interesting to calmly look back and think why it didn't work out for us and him? Sanchez was a talisman attacker of the Premier League and he was monstrous just the season before joining us. What exactly happened?

 

[Glorio]

Should have been played at CF more - didn't have the pace for the wings and we kept on trying to make that work.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

His legs had gone by the time he came. He also choose money over Pep, not sure how motivated he was.

 

[Utd heap]

Scored two of my favourite goals that season. Equaliser v Spurs in the FA Cup semi final, and one at Arsenal away in the round prior.

Also great assist for Pogba in the City away 3-2 comeback.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Footballers decline - sometimes seemingly inexplicably.

 

[Skills]

Came into a toxic shithole of an environment created by a toxic manager. Momentum matters in sports - and he just never got going.

It's like the polar opposite of VVD - his early momentum at Liverpool, built his reputation, confidence and his invincibility shield.

 

[gajender]

Signs of physical decline were already there at Arsenal but were brushed aside due to his numbers and his desire to move .

 

[Sir Erik ten Hag]

His legs had gone by the time he came. He also choose money over Pep, not sure how motivated he was.

That was the narrative the British media wanted you to believe. They are City, you really think they got blown away by us financially? And our club got Mourinho back then too, Pep's supposedly "rival". The question should have been "Mou or Pep", not "Money or Pep". And they turned a blind eye to our prestige, tradition in the football world too. We were NOT PSG, like they tried to paint.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

I wish we had let him go to City and signed Mahrez in that window.

 

[sullydnl]

Footballers sometimes decline surprisingly quickly, there's not much more to it than that. It's particularly one of the risks associated with signing players in that older 30-ish age profile.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Always heard just before he joined us, he was starting to decline at Arsenal, and it was quite obvious for those regulars there. Maybe we got him at the wrong time.

 

[Sir Erik ten Hag]

Footballers sometimes decline surprisingly quickly, there's not much more to it than that. It's particularly one of the risks associated with signing players in that older 30-ish age profile.

Now about a certain English striker at Spurs...

 

[Oranges038]

Probably becayse he got a huge contract and just couldn't be arsed.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

Wasn't there a story about how he didn't really feel it when he first came, the training etc and actually asked his agent if it could all be undone?

Clearly his heart was never in it and in hindsight you can definitely say his decline had started at Arsenal.

You can't blame him for signing that contract though. Another example of gross financial negligence from the Woodward era.

 

[horsechoker]

His numbers were poor in that final half season he played at Arsenal but this was put down to form and being unmotivated there. However he was actually in decline. The skills he had didn't lend themselves to a loss of pace.

Perhaps in a better team with a different utilisation he might have yielded better results. However the player we got was not one of the best in the league but one in rapid decline.

 

[Stacks]

because he was finished. His goal/assist return masked his flaws at Arsenal so once they dried up at United he was a joke. He was hardly tearing it up since he left

 

[FrankDrebin]

The epitome of the Woodward era.

 

[Zetrio2002]

There's no doubt that Sanchez had some good abilities but he was on a decline even at Arsenal. His goals masked his actual contribution on the pitch.

Aubameyang is a similar case. Could score many at Arsenal but his goals did not actually reflect how well he did for the team overall. His general play was poor and that's why you know he's struggling to score at Chelsea now.

They need matches to get into the tempo and overall, I think united is also not a very good fit for Sanchez as united don't have many good passers and dribblers at that time.

When Arsenal had Giroud and Carzorla, they were more consistently top 4. When Sanchez and Ozil came, they were consistently position 5-7.

 

[Belisarius]

The epitome of the Woodward era.

We had just found a way to get out from under Rooney's contract and felt the need to tie ourselves to another over the hill forward on monstrous wages as a replacement.

 

[Witchking]

Pretty sure we will go through this again with Kane and ask the same questions. During Fergie times, it was a "no value market" and now we are taken for a ride with every signing. We do not make intelligent signings till recently. We then have trouble offloading the players as they are on a very high salary. We are a joke club when it comes to buying and selling players. Sanchez came in to a club which was run by prima donnas with a prima donna manager, plus he was getting slower at Arsenal. They sold him at the right time.

 

[bosnian_red]

We signed him at the edge of his cliff.

 

[pogbasformerbarber]

He was washed, it’s really that simple.

 

[AbusementPark]

I wish we had let him go to City and signed Mahrez in that window.

Seems City have tricked us into that twice now, once with Sanchez and again with Ronaldo.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

Seems City have tricked us into that twice now, once with Sanchez and again with Ronaldo.

Weren't they also apparently interested in Maguire and Fred before we signed them? Makes you wonder if they were trolling Woodward by feigning interest in players just to trigger us into overpaying for them *adjusts tin foil hat*

 

[RaddyRed]

That piano video was the beginning of the end for him.

 

[Zoo]

Played a lot of football for Chile every summer where they often progressed far. Even though he looked after himself well it still caught up with him.

 

[Lecland07]

Perhaps it is because he has Sanch in his name. Sancho isn't doing too well, either.

 

[Scandi Red]

Should have hired him as the team pianist instead.

 

[Giggsy13]

Even if he was deployed as a CF, we did not have enough quality in midfield or the wingers that would have got the best out of him. A prime Sanchez in this squad with our midfield now and wingers in Antony and Sancho would likely do very well. Wrong place and time for Sanchez.

 

[youngrell]

His massive physical decline, along with the way Mourinho had us playing was just not a good mix. Add to that the extortionate wages, which I'm sure made for poor morale within the squad, it was a catastrophe.

 

[Gazza]

That piano video was the beginning of the end for him.

i thought he was going to be a key player for us when I saw that video

 

[mu4c_20le]

Sanchez was a talisman attacker of the Premier League and he was monstrous just the season before joining us. What exactly happened?

He actually wasn't, he only scored 8 in 22 in his last season and the decline had been obvious.

 

[SATA]

His piano video to announce the transfer was probably, or rather easily the best unveiling ever in the history of sports. A pity the player and club didn’t live up to it one way or another

 

[RedDevil@84]

The whole thing was a classic Woodward sham. City were in for months and we weren't even looking at him. But then he kept asking for more money and finally City dropped the whole thing.
Woody became giddy at the prospect of bringing a new flashy toy to his circus. He was ready to pay any kind of money to get him, thus the silly salary and piano.
Suddenly Jose had a flashy new toy, more famous than Martial and had to shoe him in somehow and give him opportunities.

Unfortunately, Sanchez was not able to make the runs needed. His legs seemed gone. Add to that typical chaos in a Jose team and it went downhill pretty fast. From Sanchez side, he seemed pretty content to pick the checks every week, rather than earn them.

 

[2cents]

He was completely shite by the time we signed him, no other excuses.

 

[slyadams]

In my opinion it was a combination of:

1. He was already on the decline at Arsenal. His numbers were way down towards the end of his time. I guess we thought/hoped that was more because of Arsenal than him.
2. At the time we were a terribly coached side, we were consistently sereing players coming in and being a disappointment for us.

 

[Lay]

Legs were gone, he had no pace

 

[kundalini]

Each team is a system. The star players typically benefit from the work done by other players in the team. Take the star out of an Arsenal system in which Sanchez averaged 3.59 shots per 90 PL mins the previous season and 4.12 shots per 90 PL mins in the first half of the season before joining United in the winter transfer window, then use him in different way so that he is expected to create for others, taking only 1.62 shots per 90 PL mins.

In simple terms, the Arsenal system helped Sanchez at the expense of other players. The United system didn't help Sanchez at all. At Arsenal Sanchez was either a central striker or a wide player that moved centrally late on in the move to shoot. We already had Lukaku standing in the space that Sanchez wanted to occupy.

If you look at Sanchez's shot maps on Understat, it is clear what happened. During his amazing 2016/7 season he scored 8 PL goals from 12 shots taken inside the 6 yard box, another 4 goals from shots taken centrally just beyond the 6 yard box and 4 more from shots taken centrally from beyond the penalty spot but still inside the area. The following season he had 8 shots from inside the 6 yard box, of which 6 (2 goals) came during his time at Arsenal and only 2 shots (0 goals) after joining United. Similarly, those big chances from a central position slightly further away from goal dried up. Instead he was shooting from outside the box or from an angle.

Sanchez's record in Italy and France since leaving United suggests that the physical decline may have been a minimal factor.

 

[Plant0x84]

He was the kind of player to play every minute and he just burned out.
I think he was done at Arsenal tbh, but it was convenient for him to kick up a fuss, blame Arsenal and move to us plus we paid him loads.

 

[Herman Toothrot]

His legs had gone by the time he came. He also choose money over Pep, not sure how motivated he was.

Exactly this.