Jose Mourinho's patience with Alexis Sanchez starting to pay off for Manchester United

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Bengaluru, May 1: Alexis Sanchez did not enjoy the best of starts for Manchester United since his high profile January move from Arsenal. But he has now established himself as a a feared playmaker in Jose Mourinho's squad as was evident in his dominating performance against Arsenal over the weekend.

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While everyone expected Sanchez to fire immediately after his transfer, the player admitted that it was hard adjusting to Manchester United. The latest turnaround, however, was possible because of Mourinho's patience with the Chilean.

"He was playing in our competition for years - we all know how good he was," Mourinho said before the Arsenal game last Sunday. "That's why he was chased by many teams and that's why we fought to have him here and since day one I was sure he was the right player. I don't like the January market but it was now or never for Alexis."

Mourinho's candid admission about Sanchez clarifies that he still believes in the player. Sanchez has had an underwhelming start to his Old Trafford career, being far from the player we saw at the Emirates last season. But he has shone in recent comeback against Man City and in the FA cup semifinal against Spurs.

The Chilean is not at his best yet. The Ex-Barcelona player assisted 10 and scored 24 goals last season for Arsenal, clearly the best player in Arsene Wenger's line-up.

Sanchez is a player who ticks all the boxes for any football fan - he’s fast, can beat players, has a tremendous work rate, that never give up attitude and the ability to play left, right and center. He is your complete footballer who has been performing at the highest level for quite a few years, an ideal candidate to be the new United No 7.

When United signed him, there was a feeling that they had snatched him from under the noses of arch rivals Manchester city, on whose radar the player had been for almost a year. Fans expected him to set the pitch on fire straightaway but Sanchez has so far had only 3 goals and 5 assists in his 14 appearances for United. There have been only glimpses of his quality. This could partly be due to the tactical shift from having the creative freedom under Wenger to having to follow strict positional discipline under Jose Mourinho. The result is that Sanchez the goalscorer has given way to Sanchez the creator.

Not being able to make those runs into the box, Sanchez tries to link up; he has made 17 key passes so far, much more than any other United player with Jesse Lingard the major beneficiary, receiving five of them. Sanchez has also started to link with Paul Pogba - he played that lofted ball in for Pogba to score the equalizer against City and the Frenchman returned the favour at Wembley. Pogba has made 48 passes to Sanchez in their last four starts much more than to any other player.

Things have started to take a positive turn and he should play a key role in helping Manchester United fight against City next season.