2 – Teams Know How To Stop Alexis
It wasn’t easy to watch, and it wasn’t pretty to play against, but Alexis Sanchez struggled big time in the Midlands for one very basic reason.
Unsurprisingly a side run by Tony Pulis took it upon themselves to make Alexis’ afternoon a bit of a nightmare, by doing everything in their power to stop him.
No, I’m not talking about strategic planning to set themselves up and close gaps, instead it was a case of kicking, shoving and literally throwing the Chilean off the ball.
We all know Alexis is a fighter and no challenge would scare him from going back into the danger areas, but an injury in his ankle would and that’s exactly what happened.
He didn’t look himself after a damning foul from James McClean wrecked the end of his first half, and after that it was all downhill for his chances of scoring again.
Not only does the constant snapping away at his ankles promote an injury, it also gets him fired up in exactly the wrong way when talking to officials and fellow players.
One of Alexis’ greatest traits is his ability to keep going, but when he gets annoyed he begins to take it out on his teammates, and when you’re the leader of a team that’s never going to end well.