Johnny_Blaze
Established Member
I don't think Alexis has been playing as a traditional CF for us - I liken his role to that of Messi's at Barca.
I'm not buying that. It's a convenient thing to say because we don't see Sanchez running behind defences or stretching central defenders out of position.
The Argie clunge has Neymar and Suarez alongside him. You're not telling me Wenger sees Özil and Walcott (two players who have never been consistent goalscorers season after season) as his Neymar and Suarez?? Bartha play a completely different formation. We've been playing 4-4-2, whereas they're a 4-3-3. Sanchez is supposed to be a CF.
The setup is closer to Atletico's front two, and Sanchez is meant to be our Griezmann...except Griezmann is a far better and more natural central striker, and a better all-round footballer as well.
I'm not really seeing what tangible difference the "Sanchez as a central striker" experiment has made. Giroud's biggest criticism was he didn't score in the big league games. Sanchez has scored one goal in our matches against Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool, Sp**s and Man Utd. He's been lauded for his effort and closing down in some of these games, yet rarely had a chance, and as if running around and closing players down made up for not scoring, or doing other striker-y things.
The only tangible difference, really, has been we've beaten the likes of Hull, Sunderland and West Ham by 4-1 or 5-1 instead of 2-1 in the Giroud years.
This is more of a criticism of Wenger rather than Sanchez. He moved his best wide forward out of position and bottled out of buying a top striker.