Rumoured Alexis Sanchez

[Rmpr 8,977]

I don't know how he was at Udinese, but I watch him at Barça. Actually, I can understand where they come from. Indeed, his finishing this season has been quite frustrating ; he has bottled a lot of chances (I believe that the match au Parc des Princes embodies this fact). Also, his season has been mixed between hot and cold. He has made his way into the team just as quickly has he got benched, and thus it has provoqued a lack of consistency (alternating between the good and the poor). So yeah, it's not a very good season for his standard — and for Barça's standard as well.

Though, we can find some kinds of explanations for this. As I aforementioned, he has been continuously in and out of the starting team, thus altering his consistency. Also, it's not like he is the first choice, for the two spots remaining in attack. They are shared between Villa, Pedro, Tello and him (and sometimes Fabregas) ; they have respectively played 35, 39, 30 and 39 games. And finally, one could say that the graft didn't take ; Alexis doesn't fit Barça, and vice versa (kinda like with Ibramovich). At the end of the day, it still has been an average season and frustrating as well, though I do not believe who should right him off.

The question now is, would Alexis be a good addition to our squad ? Hum, into my eyes, it might. I believe he would add something different that what Oscar, Mata, Hazard and Moses can offer. Indeed, he is a lot more direct than these players. At the contrary of the players we already have, he is not really the type of guy wainting for the ball to come into his fit, he will lurk around defenders to try and make runs behind the opponent's back-line. In that sense, he would add another dimension to our squad. Furthermore, being a part of the Barça team, his ethic regarding the work-rate is pretty good. Not the best work-rate out there (less good than Pedro or Oscar, for instance), but he puts in a lot of work and is mobile — that's what we tend to lack from Hazard and Mata. Then again, one could argue that it would be another "midget" in the team... Though, he is pretty robust for size.

The cons would be his finishing — which tends to be dubious (he will miss the easiest goals, though score the hardest) — and his tendancy to make things way more difficult than they actually are (he tries too many dribbles and has his eyes on the ball — which is part of the frustrating taste he gives to the Barça fans).

It might be wort a try, considering we could have him at an interesting price. Barça is not renowed (in recent years at least) to try to make profits when a player want to leave, or when they want to get rid of a player. Chygrinsky, bought for £20m, sold for £10m one year later ; Hleb, bought for 15m euros, cancelled his contract by mutual consent with Barça after numerous loans ; Ibraimovich bough £40m + Eto'o, sold for £20m one year later. I could go on. My point being that we can assume that he will not be too expensive.

All in all, to my belief, some of his abilities (like his directness, work-rate and will to take on opponents) would be welcomed into our squad's abilities range. And for a sensible price, I would be happy with him.

As for his goal record this season, it's always a bit tricky when it implies Barcelona... It's kinda like when you say that Iniesta and Xavi have poor goal records. Indeed, when it comes to goals, there's Messi, and then there's the rest. Villa's scored 14 goals out of 35 games, Pedro 8 goals in 39 games, Tello 8 goals in 30 games, Fabregas 13 goals in 42 games, Iniesta 5 in 35 games, etc... so yeah, that's pretty homogeneous behind Messi, in term of goals. By the way, he has scored 7 goals this season, not 5 (he scored twice in El Copa Rey ; your stats didn't ake into account this later competition), in 39 games (and had 11 assists). It's true that doesn't change the world, though..

Like some people have already stated, your size does not define your strength. There are many more factors ! For instance, how your body his built, and how muscular you are. But there is also your balance, and how do you use that balance ; even a tall and big man can be throw to the ground by a smallish man if he is off balance, for instance.

Alexis might be small (1,69 m), but as you can see on the picture posted by Spike, he has a lot of muscles, is robust/tough and is stocky as Spike said. To compare with our own players, Oscar is 1,80 m and McEachran is 1,78 ; Alexis is significantly much more stronger than them — hell, Josh could be throw into the sky by a gust of wind ! The Chilean is stronger than Hazard, Mata and Oscar, believe me, and he would not be jealous of Moses' strength. So writing him off because he is 1,69 is not a valid reason.

And I do not understand people who say that our team would be weak because our three AMs would be small... As Rmpr stated, you can have physical strength elsewhere ! If we buy Falcao, we won't have a physical weak striker ! And sooner or later Lukaku will come back, and in the meantime we will have Ba ! We will most likely have strength and physicality within our defense and defensive midfield, too. So that's not exactly as if our team will be full of 1,69m-players, huh ?!

And people like to throw in the recent decline of Barça as argument against having small players in the team. Barça problems are much more complex than this question of size. I can guarantee you that even if Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro and Alexis were all 1,85 m, they still would have lost to Bayern... Probably not in such a fashion, but they would have lost. I won't develop much further because it isn't a discussion about Barça, though I can tell you that Barça problems have wayyyyy more to do with their Messi-addiction (and other flaws as well) than with their small size.

Finally, as I have already stated, I believe it is a good option for our squad. First off, we do not have any right winger. Even though Alexis is not exactly a right winger (he is more of a second striker), he would be perfectly fine on our right wing — significantly better than any of our options at the moment. And he will add to our squad abilities we do lack at the moment. He likes to provoke and to take on defenders (something we do cruelly lack) and he is much more direct than Mata and Oscar, and I believe a tad more than Hazard. That addition would add variety to our squad which is something nice. Moreover, he is also a player with a good ethic when it comes to work-rate and to accomplish his defensive duties ; we all know that Mata and Hazard aren't the best in this aspect.... As a matter of fact, we won't have anymore to play Oscar out of position in order to have defensive abilities within our three Ams. The only downside is his finish product, which tends to be a bit off.

Regarding his not so good form at Barça, I am not too bothered. I have already explain why on the last page, so I will be brief. I do believe that he can re-catch the spark which made him so special at Udinese if he plays in a team which suits him. For something around £20m, I do believe he is worth the gamble and I would gladly welcome him here ! By the way, he was bought for 26 millions euros, which makes today £21m ; if Barça wants him out (or if he wants to leave), they will likely not be looking to make profit (for the reasons I explained in my last comment on the previous page), thus his price tag might be less than £20m...

THIS!

[Leif 6,006]

Read this. 2 months old and it's about a possible transfer to City/Liverpool but it's worth a read:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/alexis-sanchez-transfer-manchester-city-1736673

[OneMoSalah 8,783]

Alexis is same mould as Nasri.

He might have muscle and all, but he loves to dive. I want our winger to push through defence, not going down to ground all time...

What gives you that idea? Nasri is not stocky like Sanchez? Hes also not in the same mould in terms of playing style either. Nasri is a attacking midfielder where as Sanchez is a winger. Sanchez is a player capable of drawing a lot of fouls like Hazard and Moses due to his speed and ability to ride a challenge if he wants to, yes he has perhaps gone to ground a bit easy sometimes for Barca but this can be ironed out of his game as it was with Ronaldo at United and more recently Bale at Spurs. He could also work and try to improve his finishing and working on his composure when hes in good goal scoring positions.

[The Skipper 20,593]

If the Schurrle transfer wasn't so nailed on I'd love if we went for Sanchez, he's definitely a player made for the BPL. One other player I'd like to see us getting from Barcelona is Song. Both for £40m would be a great deal.

Then you could easily have a team of:

Cech

Azpilicueta - Luiz - Terry - Cole

Song - Oscar

Sanchez - Mata - Hazard

Lukaku

A scary team IMO, especially on the counter with Sanchez, Lukaku and Hazard bringing their devastating pace to the game and Song and Oscar launching those defence splitting passes/initiating the attack.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Cech

Azpilicueta - Luiz - Terry - Cole

Song - Oscar

Sanchez - Mata - Hazard

Lukaku.

Why is Cech doing a Pep Reina?

[The Skipper 20,593]

Why is Cech doing a Pep Reina?

LOL I don't know? Ask the TalkChelsea forum for not formatting my post correctly. Fixed though.

[SinineUltra 1,170]

Alexis while being a shortass is very stocky and muscular. Height does not equate to strength. Sure taller people are more likely to be stronger but that doesn't count for every case, there are outliers.

For example: (warning shirtless men)

Fernando Torres 183cm

Alexis Sanchez 169cm

Peter Crouch 200cm

Michael Essien 178cm

For a person that's a novice in training it may seem that way. 3kgs of muscle on Essien looks more than 3kgs on Crouch visually - does that mean Essien is 100% stronger? No it doesn't. Same goes for Torres Sanchez comparison. On both examples the height difference is almost 12cm or more. Though had you compared Sanchez with Messi or Mata, I'd say he is way stronger than them both. Now... I'm not saying he wont be successful with us or that he is a bad player, but we shouldn't handicap ourselves with only having to send the two center backs in for corners, especially in a league like EPL, where he will be playing against teams/players way more physical than in the Italian, Spanish leagues. Though to be fair, only real muscular powerhouse from the pictures is Essien.

Comparison with City is off, because they are arguebly a more physical side.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I wish he has a better finishing rate in his locker. So we would reduce the way we miss chances in our team.

I can barely count pple in our team that will surely finish off their chances.... Ba, Lamps and no one

That's the only reason I'm not really fund of him coming here. I want someone with better finishing than the AM'S we have to seriously improve our team.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I wish he has a better finishing rate in his locker. So we would reduce the way we miss chances in our team.

I can barely count pple in our team that will surely finish off their chances.... Ba, Lamps and no one

That's the only reason I'm not really fund of him coming here. I want someone with better finishing than the AM'S we have to seriously improve our team.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

His finishing will improve with confidence,He was fairly clinical for udinese.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

I am surprised that there is no topic for this guy, especially considering he is still one of the best winger in the world and Barca are clearly interested in selling him. We could even get him in a swap with Luiz somehow, which is even more great. Anyway post your opinions or rumors about him.

Btw, he scored a cracker yesterday against Atletico too. Here are some rumors with him atm, surprised that Liverpool being mentioned:

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/379319/EXCLUSIVE-Liverpool-chasing-Barcelona-star-Alexis-Sanchez

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10836784/Barcelona-offer-Alex-Song-to-Chelsea-as-part-of-David-Luiz-swap-deal.html

[The Skipper 20,593]

Goal yesterday:

[Jase 43,479]

I am surprised that there is no topic for this guy,

Merged with the old thread...

[Special Juan 27,439]

Incredible strike that was.

[Yeboii 1,844]

Would love to see him here

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Right winger that adds goals and width to game. If price is around 20m, why not...

Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Sanchez, Schurrle, Salah...however I see no point in having Salah then...

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

 

Right winger that adds goals and width to game. If price is around 20m, why not...

Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Sanchez, Schurrle, Salah...however I see no point in having Salah then...

 

Much needed competition for Oscar. Salah works better as a supporting striker imo.

[Tomo 21,733]

He would be unreal in a counter attacking system.