Sanchez is the new Torres – his best days are long gone
The warning signs should have been clearer to Manchester United
There is broad agreement that Alexis Sanchez has not been the same player since he joined Manchester United. Actually, this is slightly inaccurate. Sanchez has not been the same player for longer than that. The more I watch him in a Manchester United shirt, the more convinced I am his poor final year at Arsenal was not due to a declining team or loss of motivation as he prepared to leave.
Sanchez’s best years have gone. He is to Manchester United what Fernando Torres was to Chelsea.
It happens. As footballers, we enjoy peak periods and there is a common assumption this is usually between the ages of 27 and 32. With strikers, that is not always the case. Some of the best I played with – Torres being a prime example – were never better than in their early to mid-20s. Their appetite for goals and their match-winning potential means that when they burst onto the scene they not only want to play every match for club and country, but under-pressure managers cannot resist using them as much as possible.
There is a clamour for them to play, from supporters and the media, so they do not rest enough. After too many games, they suffer an increasing number of injuries, burning themselves out earlier than defenders and midfielders.
I witnessed this with Torres, a player who rose to world-class status, but then lost his explosive pace and could never get it back. I see history repeating itself with Sanchez. He looks like a footballer with too much mileage in his legs.
When Chelsea bid £50million for Torres in January 2011, there was consternation among Liverpool supporters. Although we could never state it publicly at the time, there was general astonishment in our dressing room. We thought Chelsea had not been watching him for the previous 12 months.
We knew Chelsea did not sign the player they thought. They bought a striker who – aged 26 – had already played 468 games, had not had a summer off for the previous three years and was constantly trying to repair his body.
Torres started to have a hamstring problem during the 2008-09 season, and also suffered an ankle injury as we finished runners-up to Manchester United.
The following season he had a groin and a knee issue and was a shadow of himself, despite still regularly scoring goals. Beyond Merseyside, no one seemed to notice, attributing poor displays to a struggling team. In training, we could see there was more to it.
The warning signs should have been clearer to Manchester United when they pursued Sanchez. The forward they signed had made 665 senior appearances for club and country before his 29th birthday. By any standards, that is a massive number. Copa America, Confederations
Cup and World Cup commitments have stopped Sanchez enjoying a summer break throughout his career.
The reports coming out of Arsenal during the final months of Sanchez’s spell were similar to those I recall about Torres at Anfield, his declining contribution attributed to a general malaise at the club as Arsene Wenger’s reign came to an end. No matter what the circumstances, no footballer wants or tries to play badly.
There had to be more to it, and Arsenal fans seeing Sanchez toil at United will be the least surprised at how the move is turning out.
Optimists will argue that this is a premature assessment, point to his winning goal against Newcastle United and claim he can still become the missing link. But we are not talking about a brief dip in form here. When it lasts this long, you have to be worried.
The occasional moment is nowhere near enough. Only a series of dynamic, 90-minute performances can repay United’s significant investment, and the fact Sanchez was dropped in the games preceding Newcastle demonstrates Jose Mourinho’s level of concern.
There were reports yesterday that Sanchez is upset with his role under Mourinho, but the manager is entitled to be unhappy with how his marquee signing is performing.
Sanchez is the elephant in the room for Mourinho and all those United supporters seeking to pin all the blame on executive vicechairman Ed Woodward for the imbalance in the squad and failing to secure transfer targets.
The forward they signed had made 665 appearances before his 29th birthday
I agree United needed to sign a centre-back last summer but, let us not forget, it was only last January when the capture of Sanchez was considered such a major coup because it was Pep Guardiola who missed out on a long-term target.
Sanchez had been destined for Manchester City the previous summer. It looked to be a onehorse race to sign the Chilean until Mourinho sensed an opportunity to show Guardiola how United could flex their financial muscle to pay what their rivals would not.
City may have walked away from the deal, but I did not hear a complaint from Guardiola. This was perceived as a symbolic transfer – proof that City do not always get exactly what they want.
All clubs and scouts are searching for the “no-brainer” – players who are proven – but there are few certainties in football. You might think you are signing a player at his peak when, in fact, he has just gone past it.
Established players recruited at that age tend to be the most expensive, if not in terms of their transfer fee, certainly when it comes to their contract. Sanchez’s salary is reportedly the highest of
any Premier League footballer and in the same ballpark as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
United thought they were signing a ready-made, world-class attacker, who would immediately elevate the quality of their side – a guarantee of goals and assists. Instead, Sanchez is one of the many problems contributing to a difficult period in United’s history.
After his late contribution in the last fixture, you would imagine he would return to the starting line-up against Chelsea today. There was a time when you would not even debate whether a player of his calibre should start.
Instead, Mourinho will be watching his training-ground performances knowing he has a dilemma, wondering if confidence has been restored to justify his selection in one of the toughest fixtures of the season or whether the tactical set-up at Stamford Bridge needs a different profile of player. There was once an expectation and anticipation that Sanchez would deliver. Now there is hope. That is the point at which you know a world-class player has lost his aura.