What if Alexis Sanchez was pulling up his shorts incredibly way too high for Liverpool instead of Arsenal? Where would Liverpool be right now, and what about Arsenal?
Sanchez, or Duracell as Olivier Giroud affectionately refers to him, would definitely be banging in goals for Brendan Rodgers and probably wouldn’t be getting weird nicknames. Also, his shirt wouldn’t be so tight. Those are wins for all parties involved. A partnership of he and Daniel Sturridge with a combination of Phillippe Coutinho, Raheem Sterling and/or Adam Lallana behind them with Steven Gerrard pinging long balls would be wonderful to watch.
If there was anybody on the market that could have even came close to directly replacing Luis Suarez, it would have been him. Conveniently enough, Sanchez came from Barcelona who so highly coveted Suarez. Sanchez plus cash must have just been too easy for Liverpool to accept because as they contemplated this no brainer, the Gunners came knocking and Sanchez’s wife took notice of the cities and pushed her husband to choose London. Had Ian Ayre and company either promptly said yes, thank you very much, or refused to hand over Suarez without Sanchez coming the other way, then Sanchez would be at Anfield. Of course there’re many reasons why Ayre has the job he has and why I don’t, so, maybe he’d have been better equipped for those negotiations than I and it just might not have been that simple. Fair.
But it’s more fun to imagine if it was that simple. What would have happened to the others brought in this summer, though? If Liverpool had captured this year’s prized Chilean export via Barcelona, the summer dealings would have been different. Mario Balotelli in all likelihood wouldn’t be in Liverpool and possibly only one of Lazar Markovic or the aforementioned Lallana. The purchases of Alberto Moreno, Javi Manquillo, Dejan Lovren, Emre Can, Rickie Lambert and Divock Origi all presumably wouldn’t have been affected. Balotelli has been a bit of a train wreck regardless of how many decent cameos he’s made in February, but it still feels like Lallana has more to offer, hopefully his best it yet to come. Markovic has improved in an unfamiliar wing back role, is still just 20 years old and shows flashes of the potential that could be realised in the coming years. None of these three could hold Sanchez’s jock this season though.
So for hypothetical purposes, let’s imagine Liverpool had acquired Sanchez and hadn’t brought in Balotelli and Markovic. Rodgers probably would have persisted with the diamond as it was so successful last year and Sanchez would seamlessly slot right into that next to Sturridge until his thigh self-destructed, so the switch to 3-4-2-1 may never have happened. The Emre Can revolution may never have happened but you can only hold that beautiful Turkish-German back for so long. Who knows if Mamadou Sakho would be looking so rock solid now though? Moreno struggled a bit at the beginning of the season but I think he would have eventually settled to where he is now. Poor Manquillo would be playing more often too.
Arsenal wouldn’t have stayed quiet if they had failed in their swoop for Sanchez, so the world will never know who they might have recruited instead of Sanchez. It’s unlikely to realistically think of someone who would have been as successful as Sanchez has been for them this season, so with Liverpool having been vastly improved over the first half of the season and Arsenal pegged back a bit, it’s sensible and plausible to think Liverpool would be higher in the table than Arsenal right now. Unlikely that they’d be reaching Chelsea heights this season and probably not Manchester City, but as last year proved, anything is possible.
As far as the Champions League is concerned, would Liverpool still be in it? Honestly, probably. Sanchez would have been that different bit of quality to fend off Basel at Anfield. And with a kind draw, who knows when the run would have stopped with the way they’re playing now.
Hindsight is 20/20 but, man, wouldn’t it be fun to watch Sanchez, Sturridge, Sterling and Coutinho parade around in an attacking quartet right now? Guess scenarios such as these are why FIFA manager mode and dreaming were made.
