Alexis Sanchez

[evilhita666]

Do you consider Sanchez as dead weight?
This team is definitly strong enough to win the Cl this season.Don´t know why you would think otherwise.

Apparently if a player doesn't score a hat trick every game he is not Barca material...

It should be clear enough by now that our system is "give the ball to Messi", he gets the scoring chances because he can turn them into goals like no one else, so the fact that our wingers have been poor in front of goal is something that can be somewhat overlooked, especially in a season with the highest scoring rate in our history as a club...

That's not to say that Alexis, Pedro and Villa are doing fine, because it is known that they really need to step up in different areas of our game, but to consider one or all of them as dead weight is absurd... Just look at last game, one of the reason we took control of the match was because our wingers started to pressure higher on the pitch, and what may seem like senseless running to some, is actually quite important to our recent good form...

One thing that is also clear after last game is that Alexis is a whole different player when there's space in front of him, there where some glimpses of his Udinese/River Plate days, but space is something Barca rarely gets these days, so the real question to consider is if he can finally adapt his game to closer defenses and tighter spaces... I guess it all depends on the patience of the coaching staff, because to me it seems he is trying real hard...

 

[Malappapper]

Apparently if a player doesn't score a hat trick every game he is not Barca material...

I think most of us would settle for a brace a game by Alexis and Pedro nowadays.

 

[ryuken]

Even a goal every 2 or 3 games would be nice,

 

[misterplatin]

Let us just say Alex and Pedro make everyone else on our team look better. That is their current job.They do this by
1. Adding width to our play and stretching it so than our midfield can work in the spaces.
2.Applying quick pressure on opposition midfield and defense when we lose possession(while Messi is static)
3.Providing outlet to move the ball forward .
They are sacrificing a lot for our team which has helped us achieve the results this season.If they deserve anything from fans it is praise.

 

[JonM]

It can't be a coincidence that no Barça winger has been able to score consistently in the last 2+ years. It includes Villa, Pedro, Alexis, Tello, Iniesta, Cuenca, Bojan, etc.

Even if we bought the most in-form attackers in the world, I bet the result would be the same. The wingers play extremely wide, rarely shoot, rarely go into the box and rarely take on their defender. And they're most likely asked to do so. It's no surprise they score so little. Some of it has to do with poor finishing and poor decision-making, but it's mostly the system.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Okay let's pretend some more that Pedro and Alexis are valuable contributors in this system of ours. Messi scoring has been a dream, but no team should rely on one player as much as we do Messi. What happens the next time we face a Chelsea like parked bus in CL who focus solely on Messi? I'd much rather have distributed goals among three forwards than have all our goals go through one person. I guarantee you our players will be much happier then (see Ibra pissed, Villa pissed, etc etc). Problem is, Pedro has regressed and he hasn't improved on anything. He's quite bad now. Yikes right? I know it sucks to say I'm the biggest Pedro fan there is but I'm also a realist. Alexis can't do anything but hit the deck every time someone gets physical with him. The other half of the time he is losing the ball. It's like clockwork. Some asset.

 

[lessthanjake]

I think it's worth noting how few shots have been taken by Alexis and Pedro, particularly Alexis. According to whoscored, Alexis has only attempted 7 shots in La Liga this season. Obviously you'd hope a player to get 1 or 2 goals from 7 shots, but 7 straight shots without a goal is hardly a significant drought. I'm sure even Messi has gone 7 shots without a goal this season a few times. He has only shot 8 times in the CL with 1 goal resulting. 1 goal in 8 shots is not awful. He has not taken any shots in the CdR, nor in the Spanish Super Cup. Overall, then he has 1 goal in 15 shots. Overall, you'd like to see 1 or 2 more goals from that number of shots, but it's hardly a huge goal drought. He is just not put in a position to score. Furthermore, there's evidence that he has been unlucky. I don't remember all his shots or anything, but according to ESPNs stats, 9 of his 15 shots this season were on target, an impressive percentage.

So basically, Alexis is taking virtually no shots, getting most of them on target, and just happens to have only gotten 1 goal out of it. I don't see this as a huge issue.

Pedro has taken 36 shots for Barca this season, only getting 2 goals from 20 shots on target. This looks a bit worse than Alexis' since the sample size is a bit higher. He has definitely been more wasteful, but I think it's worth noting that Pedro still only shoots less than 2 shots a match, and does get more than half on target. Both he and Alexis tend to get shot opportunities from tough angles too, so you wouldn't expect a high rate of return.

But in any case, between the two of them, they have 3 goals in 51 shots. A world-class striker would probably convert about 10 goals from that. A good striker would probably get like 8. So maybe we should have expected about 5 more goals from Alexis and Pedro combined this entire season, but that's hardly groundbreaking. They still would only have 8 goals in 41 appearances between them. The main reason for their lack of goals is just their lack of shots, which comes down to the system rather than a lack of good runs IMO.

 

[La Furia]

And then the guys actually brought in to score goals - Ibra and Villa, are marginalized because they aren't comfortable playing with someone who needs the ball as much as Messi. Have you not noticed the trend here?

But don't worry, all we need to do is buy new expensive flashy forwards to play with and everything will get better...until they are pushed to the side and forced to play bit roles to Messi and the central midfield, and reviled by their own fans.

So basically, Alexis is taking virtually no shots, getting most of them on target, and just happens to have only gotten 1 goal out of it. I don't see this as a huge issue..

It's an issue because he's not a flashy toy the way Aguero or Cazorla are, depite neither being forced on the flanks and forced to play off ball.

 

[Malappapper]

Okay let's pretend some more that Pedro and Alexis are valuable contributors in this system of ours. Messi scoring has been a dream, but no team should rely on one player as much as we do Messi. What happens the next time we face a Chelsea like parked bus in CL who focus solely on Messi? I'd much rather have distributed goals among three forwards than have all our goals go through one person. I guarantee you our players will be much happier then (see Ibra pissed, Villa pissed, etc etc). Problem is, Pedro has regressed and he hasn't improved on anything. He's quite bad now. Yikes right? I know it sucks to say I'm the biggest Pedro fan there is but I'm also a realist. Alexis can't do anything but hit the deck every time someone gets physical with him. The other half of the time he is losing the ball. It's like clockwork. Some asset.

Agree 100%

This system "ideology" thrown around all the time in order to protect failed forwards is becoming very cheap right now. All the forwards that have been said to have suffered from our "system" have been missing sitter after sitter, plus, they have also been quite mediocre in taking on their man.

 

[Paganinisrvnge]

I could care less if Alexis never takes shots but besides his off the ball runs, a few good passes, and his workrate; he has contributed little. He is supposed to be able to beat defenders and create chances but all he does is either lose the ball or fall over the second he is touched. The diving is by far the worst part.

 

[Malappapper]

I could care less if Alexis never takes shots but besides his off the ball runs, a few good passes, and his workrate; he has contributed little. He is supposed to be able to beat defenders and create chances but all he does is either lose the ball or fall over the second he is touched. The diving is by far the worst part.

Correct post. He has been consistently underwhelming, no doubt about it.

 

[CatalinR10]

I could care less if Alexis never takes shots but besides his off the ball runs, a few good passes, and his workrate; he has contributed little. He is supposed to be able to beat defenders and create chances but all he does is either lose the ball or fall over the second he is touched. The diving is by far the worst part.

The worst part is even though he really is fouled ,the referee doesen't give a crap anymore. All this started after his dive against PSG.

 

[JonM]

Agree 100%

This system "ideology" thrown around all the time in order to protect failed forwards is becoming very cheap right now. All the forwards that have been said to have suffered from our "system" have been missing sitter after sitter, plus, they have also been quite mediocre in taking on their man.

I wonder what's more plausible? Every single forward not named Messi becoming awful when they put on a Barça shirt or every single forward not named Messi being mostly used to create space in the middle?

I'd like to see the sitters they've been missing, especially Alexis who is barely shooting at all.

As for taking on their man, it's difficult to be mediocre at it when you don't even do it. Tello used to do it a lot, with quite a bit of success, when he started playing for the first team last year, but stopped all of a sudden. Was it because he was mediocre or was it because he was asked to? Who knows?

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Ibra and Villa still scored 20+ goals a season in that secondary role. Hell, any top rate forward in this system in the world would be in the same position including CR, so I'm not saying let's go get X or Y forward. Atleast yet. Thing is, that Ibra and Villa are dangerous and demand attention from defenders while Alexis and Pedro have not been dangerous or shown at the very least some consistency far too long. Too long for forwards in a caliber team as this Barcelona.

Give Alexis a light shove and he falls over, is that what we are considering acceptable right now?! Let Pedro go scoreless for half a season while players like Villa are reduced to the bench? Or f*ck it even Tello with his one-trick has looked lethal than them (and I have about had it with him too).

I love our position in La Liga, but realistically it hasn't been that hard with possibly the greatest player of all time leading us with freakish goals and runs for half a season.

But in CL, things could and have changed for the worse because while Messi is the best, he can still be made to look human by certain disciplined defenses who exploit our current lack of goal scoring prowess aside from the goat.

In summary, last season's coined "Messi Dependencia" has not gone away. That is the scary part of it all. Nothing has changed.

 

[Malappapper]

Ibra and Villa still scored 20+ goals a season in that secondary role. Hell, any top rate forward in this system in the world would be in the same position including CR, so I'm not saying let's go get X or Y forward. Atleast yet. Thing is, that Ibra and Villa are dangerous and demand attention from defenders while Alexis and Pedro have not been dangerous or shown at the very least some consistency far too long. Too long for forwards in a caliber team as this Barcelona.

Give Alexis a light shove and he falls over, is that what we are considering acceptable right now?! Let Pedro go scoreless for half a season while players like Villa are reduced to the bench? Or f*ck it even Tello with his one-trick has looked lethal than them (and I have about had it with him too).

I love our position in La Liga, but realistically it hasn't been that hard with possibly the greatest player of all time leading us with freakish goals and runs for half a season.

But in CL, things could and have changed for the worse because while Messi is the best, he can still be made to look human by certain disciplined defenses who exploit our current lack of goal scoring prowess aside from the goat.

In summary, last season's coined "Messi Dependencia" has not gone away. That is the scary part of it all. Nothing has changed, and that's the troubling part of it all.

I am new to the forum, but this is the best post I have seen as of yet.

:beer2: