SANCHEZ OFF TO WINNING START
Striker looks the part after nervy start as United crush Yeovil
ALEXIS SANCHEZ made his debut as Manchester United beat Yeovil 4-0 in the fourth round of the FA Cup . Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera, Jesse Lingard and Romelu Lukaku scored for the Red Devils, who were boasting Sanchez in their side for the first time since his move from Arsenal. ‘(Sanchez) is a fantastic addition,’ said United manager Jose Mourinho afterwards. ‘Good players want good players, and Alexis is a fantastic player for us. ’
IT WAS the third good booting of the night that did it. Alexis Sanchez took another mighty rap on the ankle, rolled around for a little and, with the game going on regardless, rose and ran to the touchline.
He appeared to have a conversation with Jose Mourinho, who looked at his watch. Around three minutes later, he was off. I’m a celebrity, get me out of here. Not to worry. He’d done enough.
‘What a waste of money,’ taunted the locals, but he won’t be. This wasn’t his best form, he gave the ball away 20 times in the first half, and looked surprisingly edgy on his Manchester United debut, almost too keen to show what he could do.
Yet he had a hand in the first two goals, making the crucial final pass for the second, the one that put the outcome beyond doubt. It was a trademark United counterattack, just as Yeovil were pushing for a way back into the game.
They had performed well in the first half and United’s opener, if not exactly against the run of play, had a degree of fortune about it.
The second did not. Juan Mata brought down the ball on the break and fed it to Sanchez, on the left where he had played all night. Ander Herrera was on the overlap and Sanchez’s pass was perfectly weighted. The midfielder made no mistake — much like three years ago when he also scored here, as United eliminated Yeovil from the FA Cup.
So Mourinho got what he wanted. A comfortable win — Jesse Lingard got the third stealing in after 89 minutes, Romelu Lukaku added a fourth in stoppage time — and 70 minutes of game time for Sanchez in readiness for Wednesday’s fixture against Tottenham at Wembley.
Having been lightly raced through most of January by Arsenal, he needed the game time to regain match fitness. And a turn at Huish Park won’t have done any harm either. Brian Clough famously made Peter Shilton bring the teas in at his own press conference on signing for Nottingham Forest — Mourinho played Sanchez at Yeovil. He rolled up his sleeves and got on with it, too. Took his lumps like one of the lads.
If the first half proved anything, it is that no matter the experience and confidence of a player, talk of fees and wages does have an effect.
It did not matter that this was Yeovil of League Two, it was no consolation that this was only an FA Cup fourth-round tie and Sanchez had been purchased to decide far grander occasions. It could not have settled him less that he was up against Tom James, a young full back who did not quite make the grade at Cardiff.
Sanchez was desperate to do well on his debut — so much so that he probably tried too hard.
He kept demanding the ball, as he always does. He remained convinced that he could dazzle if given the chance. Yet, time and again, his touch deserted him. Passes were overhit, snatched at, slightly skewed. He tried the ambitious when the simple would have sufficed — a crossfield delivery that could be read and picked off.
And each time he fell short, the locals let him know. The boos that greeted his every touch were so heartfelt one would have been forgiven for thinking he had rejected a better offer at Huish Park to make the switch to United.
Maybe it was a comment from the 21st club in League Two on the state of modern football — agents’ fees measured in tens of millions, monthly salaries that reach seven figures, too.
Sanchez earns substantially more across four weeks at United than Yeovil pay their players in a year. Obscene, Yeovil chairman John Fry called it. No doubt it seems so, at this level.
Either way, if Yeovil away was supposed to be a gentle introduction for United’s latest marquee signing, it was proving anything but. Sanchez gave the ball away 13 times in the first 25 minutes. And then Nathan Smith kicked him up in the air.
That is no euphemism. Quite literally, Yeovil defender Smith booted Sanchez as a fly half might a drop-goal. Sanchez took off and came down to earth with a bump.
Referee Paul Tierney brandished a yellow card, but it could have been more. It wasn’t so much a tackle, more an assassination, and terrifyingly late. How late? Well, Sanchez laid the ball off about 30 minutes into the game and by the time Smith arrived it was Saturday morning. Sanchez stood up, eventually, and tried to take revenge with the free-kick — but goalkeeper Artur Krysiak was equal to it.
Ultimately, though, there is a reason why Yeovil are where they are and it became apparent after 41 minutes. Sanchez and Marcus Rashford combined through the middle, United’s young striker striding into the box but the ball not quite within his control.
Then, a crisis entirely of Yeovil’s making. The herd of players that had shut Rashford down left it to each other to shepherd the ball back to Krysiak. James, Smith and Omar Sowunmi all failed to
take responsibility and Rashford nipped in and rolled the ball into the net.
It was a genuine pity for Yeovil whose first-half display had exceeded all expectations. Indeed, they had two excellent opportunities to score in the opening 15 minutes. For the first, after seven minutes, Ryan Dickson put through Jordan Green — a League Two Raheem Sterling — and he sprinted on goal before shooting straight at Sergio Romero.
Soon after, a free-kick from Jake Gray was met by Sowunmi, bundling Luke Shaw out of the way, but delivering an ordinary header that again required little movement from Romero.
A James free-kick from the edge of the area also provided a test in the 37th minute, Romero choosing to punch it clear as so many South American goalkeepers do, but succeeding only in creating an unseemly goalmouth scramble. YEOVIL TOWN (4-4-2): Krysiak 6.5; James 6, N Smith 6, Sowunmi 7, Dickson 7; Green 6 (Fisher 69, 6), Bird 6 (Browne 56, 6), Wing 6.5 (C Smith 83), Gray 6; Zoko 6.5, Surridge 7. Subs not used: Maddison, Whelan, Santos, Gobern. Booked: Sowunmi, Zoko, Smith. Manager: Darren Way 6.5. Referee: Paul Tierney 6. MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-3): Romero 6.5; Darmian 6, Lindelof 6, Rojo 5, Shaw 6.5; Carrick 7, Herrera 7, McTominay 6; Mata 6.5 (Lukaku 65, 6), Sanchez 6.5 (Lingard 72, 6), RASHFORD 8 (Gomes 88). Subs not used: Pereira, Smalling, Matic, Young. Scorers: Rashford 41, Herrera 61, Lingard 89, Lukaku 90+3. Booked: McTominay. Manager: Jose Mourinho 6.5. Attendance: 9,195.