Scholes on why he has sympathy for Man Utd’s Sanchez

Joe Williams

Paul Scholes hopes Alexis Sanchez “gets a chance to show his qualities” at Manchester United following his poor start to the season.

The Chilean has one assist and no goals in all competitions so far this season for the Red Devils with the United fans yet to see any of the form he produced during his spell at Arsenal.

However, Scholes knows what it is like to be low on confidence and he is still backing Sanchez to have an impact at Old Trafford.

“It’s really tough,” Scholes told BBC Radio 5 live. “We all know the qualities he’s got, he’s shown them at Arsenal, he’s shown them at Barcelona. It just hasn’t happened for him for one reason or another – why?

“I don’t know. I don’t know what he’s doing in training or behind the scenes. We just don’t know. I never though we really needed him at the time; I thought the position was covered in Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.

“Obviously, I thought he would bring quality to the squad. He hasn’t performed yet. Whether he’s fallen out with the manager – I don’t know. He looks like he’s trying.

“When you’re on a bad run of form, your confidence just goes. There are times when you just don’t want to play and you feel like you can’t kick a ball 10 yards to another player.

“I just hope he gets a chance to show his qualities because we know he has them.”

On going through his own confidence issues, Scholes added: “I’ve been there and it’s horrible. These players look like they’re really struggling for confidence. You can go five, six, seven months without scoring a goal like I did at times and it’s horrible.

“You just don’t know what you’re doing right, you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, but all of a sudden, before you know it, you’re back, you get a goal and you’re off and running again.

“I think every player has a spell when they’re low on confidence. I had a good run where I didn’t score. You’re driving home, you’re going to training you’re trying your best, you can’t wait to train, but you can’t do anything right. It’s difficult to explain. You start questioning ‘Am I fit enough?’ ‘Am I tired?’, ‘Am I doing too much?’

“You’re in that much of a mess but before you know it, you’ve scored a goal from two yards and you’re back and running again.”