FA CUP 5th ROUND
STRUGGLING Alexis Sanchez has been ordered to ‘ketchup’ at Manchester United.
The Chilean has been an expensive flop since joining United from Arsenal on £500,000 a week this time last year.
Despite being one of the highest-paid players on the planet, Sanchez has scored just twice this season and has not been able to get into the team in recent weeks.
But United caretaker boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still believes Sanchez has what it takes to turn things around and become a success at Old Trafford.
To prove his point he has likened him to a bottle of tomato sauce, saying one big slap will see Sanchez’s talent explode again.
Solskjaer said: “I think he’s a very good player. He’s very talented, but of course there’s only so many things you can sit down and talk about with him and tweak.
“You saw against Fulham that when he gets his chance, he is so sharp in and around the ball, he wins the ball with his energy.
“If he could just get that goal I’m sure that would release his confidence.
“That’s what it’s about when you go through periods when you don’t perform up to your standard.
“We know there is a very, very good player there. It’s one of those things. You are that bottle of ketchup when it never comes, but when it suddenly comes, there’s loads.”
The form of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard has meant United have not missed a spluttering Sanchez.
But with Martial and Lingard sidelined for up to three weeks with injuries and Pogba suspended in the Champions League, following last week’s red card in the 2-0 home defeat to Paris St-Germain, Solskjaer needs Sanchez to find the form he used to show at Arsenal
Unfair
United travel to Chelsea tonight for their FA Cup fifth-round clash before hosting titlechasing Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Solskjaer says the time has come for the 30-year-old Sanchez to stand up and be counted.
He said: “He’s a man of 30, but he can still play for many, many years.
“He’s been here for a year. I’ve been here for two months with him and he’s been injured for the first part of it, so it’s unfair to just expect him to be at the top straight away.
“But I’m sure we’ll see the best of him before the end of the season. We need every player to perform to the best level.
“We are challenging to be top four, challenging against very, very good teams, so you need the players to step up now.
“You expect that at Manchester United at the end of the season. You always do well towards the end of the season.
“The players have had this little setback with the PSG game, maybe a reality check. There are quite a few heads there where their pride has been hurt. But I’m sure they’ll bounce back on Monday.”
The FA Cup might be United’s best hope of silverware this season.
Solskjaer said: “I’m not going to say it’s the last chance, because we are going to go to Paris and give it a go. But the chance of going through there is slimmer than before the first leg.
“Everyone loves to play in an FA Cup Final. It’s one of the best memories I’ve got, playing at Wembley when we beat Newcastle in 1999.
“I knew I wasn’t going to play the Champions League Final from the start, so that was my big moment that season. It turned out it was the Champions League, but the FA Cup Final is something we’d really want to go to, so we are going to go there and try to go through.”