Manchester United’s Alexis Sanchez during the warm up before the match at the Old Trafford in Manchester February 12, 2019. — Reuters pic
However, it is symptomatic of Alexis Sanchez’s decline in 16 months at United that the Chilean makes his comeback behind Marcus Rashford, Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s pecking order. Sanchez left Barcelona for the Premier League in 2014 in search of a more prominent role after being squeezed out by the arrival of Neymar at the Camp Nou and with Luis Suarez soon to complete a fearsome front three alongside Lionel Messi.
In four consecutive summers between 2014 and 2017, he helped Chile reach the last 16 of the World Cup, win two Copa America titles in two years and then make the final of the Confederations Cup. Now Sanchez is a mere spectator even to a United side that has scored just once in five Champions League home games this season and failed to manage a single shot on target in the first leg against Barca.
“We have one of the best goalkeepers in the world,” said the Norwegian, but De Gea’s future is far from certain as he holds out for a pay packet at least on par with Sanchez with his current contract set to expire in 2020.