Neymar vs Sanchez
Two players who have been growing in their roles at their respective clubs, Alexis Sanchez has been magnificent in his first season for Arsenal. Playing in a different league, a different culture has not fazed the Chilean who keeps on going from strength to strength for the Gunners; it seems that Sanchez was a veteran Premier League player from the first game of the season.
On the other hand we have the poster boy of Brazilian football, Neymar might have endured a difficult first season at Barcelona but he has been exceptional this season and looks set to push his side, along with Messi and Suarez to another La Liga title. It was almost like Neymar had taken Sanchez’s place last season and this season he is just showing what he is capable off, the same can be said about Sanchez who saw his game time curtailed with Neymar last season.
Comparing two players from different leagues is not easy but we will try to find out just who is better amongst the two thanks to stats from Squawka.com. To ensure that the stats are fair, we will only look at numbers which are averages per game for every heading.
Brazil or Chile?
Both the players are deployed in an attacking role and more often than not they cut in from the wing and assist in the goal scoring. The number of passes Sanchez makes is greater than Neymar as the Chilean averages 23.5 forward passes per game compared to Neymar’s 19.5 forward passes per game, however when it comes to successful passing it is the Brazilian who surges ahead thanks to his 33.7 successful passes per game compared to Sanchez’s 30.2 successful passes per game.
Sanchez is more of a creative player compared to Neymar as he provides 2.11 key passes per game while Neymar only provides 1.16 key passes per game. The greater contribution from the Chilean continues as he averages 2.39 chances created per game compared to only 1.32 chances created per game from Neymar. Shot accuracy also is a stat that Sanchez wins as he averages 64% shot accuracy per game compared to 58% shot accuracy per game for Neymar.
Sanchez also provides nearly twice the number of assists per game than Neymar but the Brazilian has a better goal ratio as he averages 0.7 goals per game compared to 0.5 per game from Sanchez, which still is a great stat for a winger.
Looking at the stats provided, Sanchez seems to beat Neymar in almost all the stats except the goals scored per game but he is not expected to score as many goals but creating goals is more of his job and he does that with aplomb as well. Sanchez might be playing in a new country but he seems to be the better player based on this season.