Lets discuss Sanchez for a minute

To say Pedro is better than Sanchez, thata fine. I am not 100% on that yet, but I see the logic and thats fair.

But to say Pedro has been better this season would be down right disrespectful.

When Pedro scored 3 games in a row wake me up, Sanchez has scored 7 times games in a row.

I will say again that I'm pleased with Alexis performance. I'm only dissapointed that Alexis is not the player they sold us. They sold us he was a world class dribler, goalscoring creator and very fast. And that's far from true. He has good touch, he is fast, but not that much, and has great work rate. So far he has also been quite good when it comes to goalscoring, but nothing that other Barça forwards haven't done before, and most of them better.

On the announced qualities, he failed. Even Tello dribles better than Alexis Sanchez as proved yesterday and is probably faster too. Cuenca ins't faster but he too dribles better than Sanchez.

Who is they?

The Franchise wrote:Who is they?

The press, Udinese representatives, Italian fans in this forum, Inmaculate_mole and the people who chose Alexis as the best player in Serie A, which he obviously wasn't.

Well didnt he win that award for best player?

And you can understand why people said those things, because we was doing those things in Serie A.

And now, its not like he is trying to dribble and failing, he isnt even trying. He seems content in running in behind and using his dribbling to get out of tight spaces rather then going in the 1 v 1.

Even Pep says he is great in the 1 v 1, so there must be some truth to it.

The Franchise wrote:Well didnt he win that award for best player?

He won that award, which it shows either those who awarded it know nothing about football or that italian football quality is lame if Alexis was really the best player in Italy (which he wasn't IMO).

Can't drible, can't create or isn't fast until he proves it.

no way alexis was the best player in serie a last season lol

Right. Well I doubt none of us are really qualified to say if he was or was not the best, it would take watching a TON lot of Udinese which I can say I did not.

By the way, you can argue he cant dribble untill he proves it. Its wrong because he has already done that, because things outside Barca do count but its somewhat reasonable.

But to say he cant create is horsecrap, because he has created goals for us, Messi especially.

Nes-T33 wrote:no way alexis was the best player in serie a last season lol

I think he won the award, thats all that was said.

And, his improvement did seem to have a knock on effect in that his team went from relegation battlers to 4th.

di natale was better than him,so was hernanes if youre going to judge players who lead meh teams

Nes-T33 wrote:di natale was better than him,so was hernanes if youre going to judge players who lead meh teams

Well Di Natale was the same player the year before and they still sucked, not untill Alexis became the player he became did they travel up the table.

I am sure those in charge recognised that when making the decision.

Hernanes didnt lead a team from as low as Udinese's was to as high as it finished.

You can see why Alexis won it tbh. Well, I can anyway.

Alexis standout player of Serie A last season..without a question..

Udinese lost 4 out of 5 games when he got injured and incidently those were the remaining few games of the season which would've decided Udinese's cl fate but then subsequently Sanchez recovered and they sealed Cl qualification..Prior to that they went on an amazing streak winning loads of games on the road and he scored when it mattered against big teams..

He wouldnt win 2011 Serie A player of the season for nothing.lol..

In my opinion, Sanchez is better than Pedrito in every aspect except for being a killer goalscorer. A topfit Pedro is probably one of the most stone cold finishers out there. Too bad he's been out of form for quite a while now. I just don't understand though, free_cat, why you dislike Sanchez so much. He's been at the club for half a year and already made an impact with some good goals. His workrate has been great. Pedro obviously has far more experience at playing in this team and league so directly comparing a topfit Pedro to this Sanchez (who is also younger) is not really fair in my opinion. Let's give him another year and see how he has performed. I think that an attaching line-up with Sanchez, Messi and Pedro (all in top form) would be epic.

Hell, even Adriano dribbles better than him, for us atleast.

1. I think the best player in Serie A in 2010-11 should probably have been Thiago Silva.

2. Can someone explain to me why if Alexis was so important to Udinese, they are still managing to do so well without him?

Because the entire team grew with the success they gained and players like Isla, Pablo Armero and some others have become very good players.

I think the fact when Sanchez became a "star" they went from relegation fighting to 4th isnt luck.

Poor Sanchez, Pep made the right signing for once but...

Well I think Sanchez is adapting still and his position and role at Barca must be quite different to his at Udinese. So often hes up front center as the lone strikers pulling opposition defenses out. Sometimes hes left or right.... teams parking the bus also doesnt help dribbling success, so I think these are some of the reasons hes performed differently than Serie A obviously. Im very happy with him though, just more final balls and goals would be it

And regarding Di Natali, can someone explain to me if he is really that good? He looks average whenever I watch him, for Italy for example...I know Udinese build their team around him and he scores tons of goals from them so he must have his qualities...but I just dont regard him very highly...

I think that injury vs Real Sociedad hampered Sanchez impact in our team. He was doing great till then. He isn't the same since comeback. He was dribbling past Marcelo in the Supercopa, very productive performance vs Sociedad, he has confidence. Now, I don't know if he is playing safe, or he just can't dribble past opponents and play as 'fake 9'. I hope he improves, for a money we paid for him I expect more from Sanchez. Just for now, he is better than Pedro which isn't accomplishment, I expect a lot more from him.

I wrote that he won't be hit or transfer flop, good signing but nothing more than that. For now it looks like that, nothing special, all this hype in the summer was just hype, on the field Sanchez looks like another good player, but not 'new CR', 'best Serie A player' like media called him.

Hmm I'm the other way around. I believe the injury gave him more time to observe the way the team functions both in games and training.

He didn't stand out before the Sociedad game hell he looked flabbergasted in first leg of the super cup. Yeah he skinned Marcelo "once".. big deal. And against Villarreal he looked like a square peg trying to get in a round hole.

He's getting better I'll leave it at that.

I still don't know why he has been playing in the middle, is that his best position? I know he was great as SS for udinese but isn't right wing his natural and best position?

Because he runs in behind the defence and plays on the offside line.

With Cesc an Messi joining him up front, we dont have anyone running in behind the defence using speed rather than surprise.

Pedro and Villa did that constantly, but without them, we do need it from somewhere.

Also, in the games where Sanchez has been most centeral, have been vs Madrid and those are tactical reason to free up Messi.

Sanchez played in the middle vs villarreal but I just don't understand why we don't have the most prolific goalscorer in the world in messi making those runs. Why is it that cesc and Alexis have deceived everyone and are pretty much just poachers in our system?

Well he only played 30 minutes, but also Villarreal were really pressing us and his speed in behind might of caused them to dropped deeper or give him chances to get through on goal. Neither really happened, but that was probably the idea.

Messi doesnt run in behind often anymore, the more the seasons pass the less he will do that. Its the natural order really.

The Franchise wrote:Well he only played 30 minutes, but also Villarreal were really pressing us and his speed in behind might of caused them to dropped deeper or give him chances to get through on goal. Neither really happened, but that was probably the idea.

Messi doesnt run in behind often anymore, the more the seasons pass the less he will do that. Its the natural order really.

I agree, but that should be when we have our forwards fit, without Villa and Pedro's runs we have to rely on Sanchez and Cesc to make them, which is why I think we need Messi to make them instead.

I'd like to see Sanchez and Messi as false 10 and false 9 respectively together at once though

Messi has been conserving energy he said himself, Dani mentioned....maybe its the stage of the season where he does get tired? Also tactically hes dropping deeper to get into the play and into the build up...Im happy with Sanchez though...either if its wide or central, he just need better finishing..