Manchester United legend Gary Neville has laid the blame for the dip in form of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford squarely at Alexis Sanchez’s door.
The pundit has been discussing the two young forwards, who were on the end of a fair amount of criticism after the club’s Friday night defeat to Brighton in the Premier League.
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Both players looked rusty and failed to make much of an impact for United, though Neville feels both started the season brightly before Sanchez came along.
The Chile international’s January transfer from Arsenal was one of the big stories of the season and it’s little surprise he’s instantly become a regular in Jose Mourinho’s starting XI.
However, Neville does feel this has come at a cost as the likes of Martial and Rashford seem to have lost their way since then.
‘If you look at the actual stats and you think about before Sanchez arrived at the club, they (Martial and Rashford) were playing quite a bit of football, they were scoring goals and contributing, they had assists,’ Neville is quoted in the Metro.
‘But since Alexis Sanchez has come to the club, obviously he’s played a lot of the games, and that’s what’s happened.
‘There’s been a big impact negatively, so they’ve got to get back to the standards they were setting earlier in the season and what they’re capable of.’
It’s also worth pointing out that Sanchez himself has not been particularly convincing either in much of his time at Old Trafford so far, so many fans will now be starting to question if this whole saga was really worth it.
Martial and Rashford have been popular figures among Red Devils supporters and look like having the potential to be among the finest in Europe in their position, though it will now be harder for them to get the regular playing time needed to develop.
