Barcelona or Manchester City: Which Team Suits Alexis Sanchez More?

With the Copa America set to start on July 1st, it’s clear why the bids are coming thick and fast for Udinese’s Alexis Sanchez right now; a stand-out tournament for the Chilean would undoubtedly inflate his already considerable transfer value further and with Barcelona looking likely to beat Manchester City for the winger’s signature, a move to the Nou Camp appears imminent. The question is: which team would he fit best?

Barcelona

Despite winning La Liga and the Champions League in swashbuckling style last term, Pep Guardiola continues to refine his team and as the last few seasons have seen Barca’s forward line evolve from Eto’o to Ibrahimovic to Villa, Sanchez now appears next in line to step up to the task.

Playing mainly as a forward last season, Sanchez scored 12 Goals and made 6 Assists in 31 games. His 3.0 Successful Dribbles, 1.61 Key Passes and 1.9 Shots per game show just how much of Udinese’s play depended on Sanchez as the chief orchestrator, but a move to Barca would see him utilised in a different way altogether.

While there’s no chance Guardiola will alter the 4-3-3 system, he’s not afraid to change things around up front; loaning Ibrahimovic to AC Milan and moving Messi into the middle from out left has allowed the little Argentine to flourish further; Sanchez, therefore, would be likely to play wide left or right.

A look at the average season stats of Barca’s two most-used wide front men is revealing:

David Villa: 3.3 Shots, 0.97 Key Passes, 0.8 Successful Dribbles per game.
Pedro: 1.5 Shots, 1.06 Key Passes, 0.9 Successful Dribbles per game.

It’s clear that their roles within the current system require neither Villa or Pedro to travel/dribble with the ball much. Neither is the team heavily reliant on their creativity; their positioning is more critical as it not only allows the pair to get amongst the goals (Villa grabbed 18 and Pedro 13 last season ) it also allows Barca to get the best out of their four most creative talents- Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Alves.

A look at this average position map taken from the 2-0 home win over Espanyol sums this up best. Pedro’s deep role on the right allows Dani Alves to bomb forward from right-back and offer his talents as an attacking option; with 15 Assists, only Messi had more last season for the champions than Alves.

On the left, Villa plays much higher -on the shoulder of the last defender- thus affording Andres Iniesta the freedom to roam forward from midfield as a major goal threat; it’s no coincidence that with 9 Goals, Iniesta scored more than any player, bar the front three.
 

For Sanchez to come in and play his “Udinese” game would create an imbalance in the XI; less dribbling is required for the respective roles and his creativity would also have less chance to shine. His above-mentioned stats clearly indicate Sanchez is a quality player and with a little more tactical discipline, should adapt to Barca’s system without complication.

Villa’s role, in particular, has less involvement in the game than any other position in the Barca side; for example, their first home game of the season, a 0-2 home defeat to Hercules, saw Barca have 77% Possession and manage 15 Shots, but Villa had just 33 Touches and made 20 Passes, as he was caught Offside 4 times. On the other flank Bojan, and replacement Pedro after half-time, had a combined 74 Touches and made 53 Passes, an example of how the wide left role differs from wide right. With his ability on the ball, Sanchez could be more of a threat to Pedro’s starting role on the right.


One area where Villa and Pedro perhaps suffered last season was their consistency of finishing. Playing higher up allowed Villa to average 3.3 Shots per game and, over 34 appearances, saw him score 1 Goal every 6.2 Shots, but a dip in form saw him net in just 3 of his last 18 games in all competitions.

Pedro managed 1.5 Shots per game which, over 33 games, was an average of 1 Goal every 3.8 Shots but he also suffered a loss of scoring touch at the same time as Villa, scoring in just 3 of his last 19 games. Sanchez’s average 1.9 Shots over 31 Games was 1 Goal every 4.9 Shots and indicates his clinical finishing will be a crucial addition to the squad, if the goals dry up again for either Villa or Pedro.

Manchester City

City’s real strength clearly lies is their back-four; they had more Clean Sheets (18) than any other Premier League team and had the joint-best defence, conceding just 33 goals and scoring 60. In spite of such a bloated squad, they are too heavily reliant on Carlos Tevez- he scored a third of their Goals (20), had most Successful Dribbles (2.0) and was their second most creative player, with 1.71 Key Passes. More flair and goal threat is required, and Sanchez would fit the bill.

With Mancini’s penchant for inverted wingers, the right-footed Sanchez would expect a starting berth on the left of a 4-2-3-1 and the area was a problem one for City last season; Kolarov, Balotelli, Milner, Silva, Adam Johnson and Tevez all started league games in this position for City.

The attack stats for City’ three main attacking midfielders last season read:

Adam Johnson: 0.9 Shots, 1.13 Key Passes, 1.1 Successful Dribbles per game. 4 Goals, 5 Assists.
David Silva: 1.1 Shots, 2.09 Key Passes, 1.0 Successful Dribbles per game. 4 Goals, 7 Assists.
Yaya Toure: 1.1 Shots, 1.06 Key Passes, 1.5 Successful Dribbles. 8 Goals, 4 Assists.

Sanchez’s 3.0 Successful Dribbles was the highest total in Serie A last season and his skill on the ball would clearly boost City here, with Toure the best of the trio on 1.5. Silva and Johnson only bagged 4 goals apiece, a contribution that undoubtedly needs improved upon; if their wide men can hit double figures, in addition to Tevez’s goal haul, they could be in with a chance of the title.

Small and tricky like Silva, Sanchez would hope to adapt to the more physical Premier League quicker than Silva last season; the little Spaniard had a poor first half to his debut campaign, adapting slowly to the more physical English league before to score 3 Goals and make 6 Assists in his last 18 starts.

Mancini has a tendency to allow both his wide men to swap flanks at random, as shown by the average position map in their last game of the season against Bolton. Silva (21) and Johnson (11) continually moved from wing to wing, which gives their average position as middle. The Italian remains unconvinced by Johnson, however, with 16 of the winger’s 31 appearances coming from off the bench and a move to Eastlands for Sanchez would come at his expense.

With a solid back-four and two defensive midfielders behind him, a move to City should allow Sanchez to display more of his Udinese form; his respective role would be more crucial within the team in comparison to his role at Barca, and the Chilean would be given greater licence to wreak havoc in the final third of the field. While silverware and goals would be almost guaranteed at the Nou Camp, his Eastlands performances would likely be more eye-catching, with Sanchez playing in a system that is set up to get the most out of his creative talents instead.