As the Chilean national team prepares for the friendlies against Costa Rica and Honduras, the local press analyses the form of each one of their stars.
This Tuesday, newspaper El Mercurio compares the situation of Arturo Vidal at Barcelona and Alexis Sanchez at Manchester United.
El Mercurio takes the last opinion pieces from the Spanish media to show that Vidal has been doing well in Catalonia, as he was recently called a ‘good example’ for the likes of Ousmane Dembele.
The opposite goes for Alexis Sanchez, who besides living poor form for Manchester United, is also being criticised for laughing on the bench during the club’s loss to Manchester City last week.
It’s not the first time it’s happened, he was accused of the same at Arsenal, and whilst any evidence is circumstantial at best, these things are focused on when things go wrong.
So El Mercurio invited José Sulantay, who managed both of them in the U-20 World Cup in Canada in 2007, to talk about the situation. And the manager went heavy on Sanchez.
“It seems that Alexis was used to beautiful criticism, and when the ugly ones began to arrive, he did not know how to absorb them. In that aspect, Arturo has much more mental strength than Sanchez thanks to that incredible push that is very difficult to see in another player.”
Sulantay had also spoken to El Mercurio about Sanchez in September. That time, he blamed José Mourinho’s tactics for the player’s poor form.
