Alexis Sanchez makes admission after FA Cup final defeat

Alexis Sanchez says he has struggled to adapt at Manchester United in “every game” since he arrived in January.

The 29-year-old arrive at Old Trafford in January in a straight-swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitarayan ad signed a four-and-a-half-year deal, worth £14m a year after tax.

But the Chile forward has struggled to hit the heights he did at Arsenal and he was almost anonymous in Saturday’s 1-0 FA Cup final defeat to Chelsea, whilst also being the subject of criticism from Paul Scholes.

Sanchez has scored just three goals in 16 games and after the defeat at Wembley he admitted he has struggled to get to grips with Jose Mourinho’s style of play.

“I think that in every game I’ve played in I’ve maybe found it hard to adapt to the style of play and I’ve been getting to know my team-mates,” said Sanchez. “I believe we need to improve in all aspects.”

We need to be focused and concentrated in the big games and the same in the so-called lesser games too. That’s what the great sides do and I think United are a great side, so that’s what we need to do.

“Manchester United is a massive club that always aspires to win big trophies and that is what I’m trying to make happen. I want to try and keep improving so we can see the club winning trophies.

“I believe that United really is a very big club on a worldwide scale and even more so in England where it’s the biggest.

“They always want to win and to be fighting on all fronts and that’s the reason I wanted to come here.

“I also had some great players alongside me at Barcelona, some highly experienced guys who had great quality. I think that United are not too dissimilar as a club to them in their size and stature.

“However, we still have areas where we can improve, and we can do this day-to-day and a game-to-game basis.”

 

More from Planet Sport:

How Man United took a leaf out of Roger Federer’s book during 2008 UCL (Tennis365)

Ahead of the BMW PGA Championship, an exclusive chat with 2016 winner Chris Wood (Golf365)

Quiz! Test your Monaco Grand Prix knowledge (PlanetF1)

The top five most impactful innings of IPL 2018’s round-robin phase (Cricket365)