How Sanchez fits in at the Nou Camp

The European Champions have just completed the signing of 22 year old Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez from Udinese for £33million. The Chilean, the first from the South American nation to play for the Catalans, is on his way to the Nou Camp to complete the formalities and sign on the doted line. Barcelona had wanted to include the likes of Bojan and Jeffren in the deal to lower the price but neither player wanted to join the Italian side and so in the end they had to stump up the cash.  

The Chilean joins the most potent forward line in the World with Messi, Pedro and Villa in competing for places and providing Pep Guardiola with more options than he had at his disposal ever before. The fact that Afellay, who provided the assist for Messi's first goal in the Champions League semi-final, is still at the club's disposal really highlights how much talent the club now have.

One of the interesting questions however is how Sanchez fits into the club. At £33million, Guardiola is hardly going to leave him on the bench and use him as the 4th option when one of the other three are injured. Last season Messi played 50+, Villa 50 and Pedro 54 games each coming off the back of long campaigns during the Summer in South Africa. The likelihood is that he will use the four strikers interchangeably so as to provide each of them game time and the rest that they all need.

Sanchez would be most comfortable on either wing, ideally on the left wing as he has shown in the Copa America Championships. He is a player who runs at defenders immediately putting them on the back foot heading to goal. He can by the same token play on the right hand of the three but coming from the left, he can let fly with his favoured right foot. Playing on the left will mean that not only can Villa take games off and recover but it allows Villa to play through the middle and give Lio a much needed break during the season.

At 22 year olds Alexis Sanchez has talent which is rarely paralleled across the World. He is a hugely skillful and majestic footballer who has a strong team worth ethic, who joins one of the most feared forward lines in all of football to make it just that little bit more dangerous.