SANTIAGO, Chile – Alexis Sanchez confessed on Wednesday to having had a “rough” start at Manchester United, where he’s scored only once in 10 matches since his lucrative move from Arsenal in January.
The diminutive Chilean forward has been in the eye of the storm with a string of below-par performances as United struggled in the Premier League and limped out of the Champions League at the hands of Sevilla this month.
“It was a bit rough for me because it’s the first time I’ve changed a team in January,” Sanchez told reporters in Stockholm, where Chile are preparing to face Sweden on Saturday.
He said he had “expected something better” from himself during his first months under Jose Mourhino.
“It’s been very difficult. We were out of the World Cup, I arrived at my club which was at the time Arsenal, I got injured,” reflected the 29-year-old, who at the start of the season was close to joining Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
“At one stage the transfer broke down, I didn’t go to the other team. And at the end, I’m in at a team that is United, one of the biggest in the world.”
Family 🇨🇱 pic.twitter.com/8fhfIU7Obn
— Alexis Sánchez (@Alexis_Sanchez) March 20, 2018
Away from United, Sanchez hopes to get back to winning ways with Chile in what will be Colombian coach Reinaldo Rueda’s first game in charge.
The team has been hit by internal squabbling in the wake of their elimination from the World Cup, and goalkeeper Claudio Bravo’s refusal to go on the European tour.
Sanchez said the team was “a family” and that Bravo was “keeping the door open” to a return to the national team.