Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, feels Alexis Sanchez does not want to leave the club in January.
Sanchez has struggled to find his best form since joining United from Arsenal last January.
The Chileans has started just five of United’s 12 Premier League matches this season, scoring once and was dropped for the Manchester Derby.
Mourinho admits Sanchez is underperforming, but feels he still has the desire to turn his United career around.
When asked if he expected Sanchez to leave, Mourinho replied: “I don’t think so because he has never told me that he wants to leave. He never told me that he’s not happy to stay.
“He is playing like the team. He is improving, like the team is improving, when he plays he is giving us his personality.
“His desire is to play and to produce for the team and [he is] trying to adapt to the way we play and vice versa.
“Can he do better? We all can do better. I can do better, he can do better, all the players can do better.”
Another United player who can “do better” in Mourinho’s mind, appears to be out-of-favour centre-back Eric Bailly.
Bailly started United’s first two Premier League games of the season, against Leicester and Brighton, but he gave away a penalty in the 3-2 defeat to the Seagulls and was subsequently dropped.
His only league start since came against Newcastle on October 6, when he was hauled after just 19 minutes with United already 2-0 down.
Mourinho has since settled on Victor Lindelof and Chris Smalling as his preferred partnership in central defence.
“I think Smalling and Lindelof are playing much better than the beginning of the season.
“I decided to give Victor the opportunity of his evolution, evolution with some mistakes yes because he is young, especially young in the Premier League. We decided to give him this continuity which I think it is clear it has improved him.
“Bailly has physical qualities, he is very fast [but] he is not very tall. We thought that Chris Smalling would give some balance in relation to the qualities. Chris is very good in the air. He is tall and dominant in the air.
“Victor, in the building up, is better than Chris. We have found the balance. I repeat, they are not perfect but nobody is perfect. That couple is performing quite well,” Mourinho added.
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