How Sanchez’s Manchester United stats compare to Rashord & Martial
Alexis Sanchez has not enjoyed the happiest of starts to life at Manchester United – and his signing has left Jose Mourinho with a selection dilemma.
United were believed to have pulled off a coup by beating Manchester City to the signing of Sanchez in January, but he is yet to find his best form at Old Trafford.
The transfer has also raised doubts about the futures of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, but we’ve compared the stats of the three players to see who most deserves to be in Jose Mourinho’s starting XI.
Goals and assists
Martial is the top scorer of the trio, bagging nine goals for United in the Premier League this term, in comparison to Rashford’s six and Sanchez’s two since January.
Martial is level with Rashford on five assists, while Sanchez has already created three goals for team-mates.
Given he only joined the club in January, it is much fairer to instead look at how often the three players are producing the goods for the Red Devils.
Martial is once again the most productive, averaging a goal or assist every 98.4 minutes. Rashford averages one every 134.9 minutes, with Sanchez lagging behind on one every 155.6 minutes.
In terms of how decisive their contributions have been, Sanchez shows up well despite his late arrival.
The Chile international’s goals and assists have won United five points to date, while Rashford and Martial have both won the club six points with their efforts.
READ: Watch: Pundits discuss whether Martial and Rashford should leave Man Utd
Passing and attacking
When it comes to wider attacking contributions, Sanchez does create more chances per 90 minutes (two) than both Martial (1.8) and Rashford (1.2).
One notable aspect of his play since moving to Old Trafford, however, is that he averages far fewer shots. At Arsenal, Sanchez shot 4.1 times per 90 minutes, whereas he now averages 1.7. That figure is lower than both Rashford (3.1) and Martial (2.8).
The 29-year-old remains prolific when it comes to dribbling, averaging 3.9 completed dribbles per 90 minutes, at a success rate of 72.2%.
Both those figures are superior to his two rivals. Rashford completed 2.4 dribbles per 90 minutes at a rate of 49%, with Martial averaging 2.2 at 50%.
Mourinho does not like his players to be wasteful in possession, and Martial (81.8%) leads the way in terms of passing accuracy, beating Rashford’s 76.5% and Sanchez’s 74.3%.
Defending
One of Sanchez’s greatest strengths is perceived to be his work rate – something Mourinho has high expectations of from his wide players.
Sanchez may have the lowest tackle success rate of the trio – 47.7% compared to Rashford’s 53.3% and Martial’s 66.6% – but he still makes the most tackles per 90 minutes at an average of 2.1. Martial averages one, while Rashford makes 0.8.
This is also reflected in the number of interceptions each player makes per 90 minutes. Once again, Sanchez leads the way with 1.2, beating Rashford’s 0.5 and Martial’s 0.2.
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