What explains Alexis awful season by François St-Amant
Hello Gooners! Like most people, I think Sanchez has been nothing short of awful this season. Most will blame this on the fact that he doesn’t want to be here or that Chile’s world cup hopes were shattered a few months back, which all leads to a lack of motivation.
However, to me, his predictability has been the source of his troubles. Certainly, he can’t be blamed for his lack of effort, both offensively and defensively. What hurts him is that defenders all know what he is gonna do.
He has never been the best at dribbling past a player. But this season, every time he gets the ball, the Chilean will simply drift inside and slow the play down. While he may be able to get past a defender once in a while, midfielders know his game, and simply block his runs through the middle. From there, all Sanchez can do is keep going towards the center of the pitch, or pass it backwards. All this is highly inefficient.
Last year, this issue not so obvious because Monreal was the one making runs out wide, forcing defenders to stay in position. This year Kola hasn’t been able to replicate that as he doesn’t have the same chemistry with Alexis. Until he figures out how to occasionally attack the defenders by going wide, he won’t be able to create much offensively.
Do you agree?