One of the biggest attacking talents in the world, desperate to win silverware and already well-acclimatised to the Premier League, Alexis Sanchez had all the makings of a January signing that could hit the ground running at Old Trafford, breeding extra confidence and quality into the business end of Manchester United’s season.

Barring an assist on his debut against Yeovil and a strike past Huddersfield a week later though, Sanchez’s impact at United has been largely minimal. In fact, compared to the rest of United’s campaign thus far, there has already been a 6% drop in their win-rate when the Chile international has made Jose Mourinho’s starting XI.

And last night’s dramatic 3-2 win over Crystal Palace was another worryingly difficult outing for the former Arsenal talisman as he once again failed to have a telling influence on the game.

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Aside from completing five dribbles, Sanchez was a marginal presence for United going forward, creating one chance and managing just two shots. But more pertinently, the 29-year-old also gave the ball away – through misplaced passes, dispossessions and unsuccessful touches – an incredible 30 times. That’s once every three minutes.

In some ways, that highlights the most plausible explanation for Sanchez’s tough start with the Red Devils; he’s just not in rhythm with the rest of the team yet.

However, it feels like there are structural issues working against Sanchez too – the Sanchez and Paul Pogba should be linking regularly as United’s two most creative assets, but they just seemed to get in each other’s way at Selhurst Park, forcing the former to take up more central roles that only clogged up other areas of the pitch.

Likewise, he’s hardly developed anything resembling an attacking partnership with United’s star striker, Romelu Lukaku, who he should be supplying and feeding off for goals.

But we know Sanchez – who Transfermarkt value at £63million – is one of the Premier League’s top talents, something he consistently proved during his time at Arsenal, so it’s down to Mourinho to find a way of effectively fitting him into this United side.

Clearly not as simple as adding him to the left-hand of United’s attack though, solving the Sanchez conundrum is quickly becoming a huge problem for the Red Devils gaffer.