Following his January move from Arsenal, fitting Alexis Sanchez into this Manchester United team has proved a surprisingly frustrating headache for Jose Mourinho. Concerns of him playing in the same space as Paul Pogba while only increasing the depth on an already highly competitive left wing have even lead some to speculate that the Red Devils boss only signed the Chilean international to get one over his other mid-season suitors, Manchester City.

Now twelve games into his United career, it still isn't wholly clear how Sanchez can be best utilised at Old Trafford - he's already started games on both flanks and even as a No.10 in close support to Romelu Lukaku. But one aspect of that conundrum is becoming more obvious; for this United team, Sanchez is a creator first and goalscorer second.

That's a marked change from his final few seasons at Arsenal. Yes, Sanchez has always been a creative player capable of providing the killer pass. But for the Gunners his netting prowess became so devastating and so important to results, bagging 30 goals during his last full campaign in north London, that he was moved from out wide to centre-forward, often keeping Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck and Alexandre Lacazette out of the starting XI.

So far, however, Sanchez has claimed more than double the assists, five, as he has goals for United, two, and his performance against Manchester City on Saturday therefore felt incredibly telling. This was only the fourth time this season the South American failed to take any efforts at goal, yet he still played a direct hand in all three of the Red Devils' strikes as they staged a stunning comeback in the first half.

Sanchez's perfect ball into the box allowed Ander Herrera to chest into the path of Paul Pogba for United's first goal. The 119-cap attacker then directly assisted the second, another cross into the box this time finding the Frenchman to head home.

And finally, it was Sanchez who whipped in a dipping free kick for Chris Smalling to volley the winner after losing his marker, Nicolas Otamendi. In fact, he created the most chances and attempted in the most crosses of any United player on Saturday during a performance in which he was by no means the superstar, but a key support act nonetheless.

And at this stage in his career, such a shift does make sense. Not only has Sanchez joined a team with completely different dynamics to Arsenal, far more focused on efficiency than eye-catching play, but he's now 29 and losing some of the explositivity that has made him one of the Premier League's flagship entities since arriving from Barcelona.

That's not to say Sanchez can't still beat a man and rifle an effort at goal, but that he's perhaps not the rip-roaring menace who once regularly ripped apart defences on the counter-attack.

Although it was largely put down to his contract situation, Sanchez was actually on course to endure his worst ever season with Arsenal in goalscoring terms - another sign of him slowing down somewhat ahead of his 30th birthday.

With a top-class striker just in front of him in Lukaku, becoming more of a creator and less of a goalscorer certainly isn't a bad thing for Sanchez or for that matter Manchester United. In fact, it might just be what sees Sanchez, who Transfermarkt value at £63million, finally gel into this tough-to-piece-together United side.

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