Na he was like that last season. It's the different shirts I think. The home shit makes everyone look a bit less muscular but the blue shirts makes them looks bigger than the red. Perhaps different materials?
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 42
- Goals
- 8
- Assists
- 8
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Status
I agree he needs minutes. However, for some reason Jose selects certain players irrespective of their performances. I'm therefore left to conclude that if he keeps working hard and has the attitude that Jose wants (whatever that is), then he'll get his chance. I don't know what else to suggest.
He should not give up though, irrespective of the obstacles he has to face.
I don't think any of our attackers have been particularly good this season. There was talk about us bringing in Karanka but think we'd benefit a lot more from bringing in an offensive coach to the backroom staff.
If it was just Martial not playing well, I'd say it is down to him only but with so many not playing well, I think there's an element of coaching in play too.
If it was just Martial not playing well, I'd say it is down to him only but with so many not playing well, I think there's an element of coaching in play too.
Think it's down to a number of things, limited positions and training. Jose has regularly spoken about how good of a professional Rashford is and how hard he works. Also, given the fact that without Zlatan we'd be fecked, it only really leaves 2 positions for the 6-7 players we have capable of playing in those positions. Thus given how hard Rashford works, it's been him getting most of the game time out left, it seems.
A few of us have mentioned that Jose should try bringing in an offensive coach. Imo that is a great idea, but alas, we can't do anything about that.
Wish they'd let SAF make some kind of suggestion like that....
You can't say we would be fecked without Zlatan.
If he wasn't here we would have probably have bought someone else past summer and some other player would be the focal point.
Who knows, maybe our youth would have performed better and stepped up if that was the case.
I think that's just his normal facial expression and demeanour. Girls call it resting bitch face i believe.
I think he looked sharp enough when he came on. He looked like he wanted to get involved in the attacking and get on the end of things. Which is a nice change from a lot of this season.
To be fair, Martial and Rash stepped up last season, and LVG's coaching didn't seem to hinder them. Therefore, perhaps with a different kind of coaching, who's to say they wouldn't have been able to push on this season.
It was the same last season when Martial was our top goalscorer. "Where would we be if we didn't buy Martial on deadline day" was frequently said but someone always steps up.
That's exactly what we call it and yes Martial has one
True.
To an extent, I think so too. Martial and Rashford looked good last season but have been very underwhelming in this one. Mkhi was one of the best forwards in Germany last year and it's been the same for him. That's 3/5 forwards being poor, that's too much coincidence for it to not be related with coaching or tactics.
Without his goals this season we'd be fighting relegation. I'm not talking about scenarios of whether he wasn't bought, I'm talking about this season, considering he was brought in. Also, given their performances their season, putting our faith in the "youth" to step up would have been suicide. It's evident they're struggling this season. You just have to go back a few games to see their indecisiveness, inexperience and lack of cutting edge in those few games they played together.
Should have had a goal and an assist in his 10 minute cameo. Good run for his chance. Needs more of that. There's absolutely no chance he'll get sold...Zero.
Yeah that's why I don't get "we'd be ruined without Zlatan".
If he wasn't here, space and place would be open for someone else to shine.
Simple as that.
What if he really wants to leave? Looked pretty miserable today (more than normal) after he came on..
I'm expecting him to back to the fore next season.
Nah, he didn't look as miserable as I've seen him before. Looked well up for it.
As we've said up thread, it's just his facial expression.
But that is what you don't understand. As it stands our entire gameplan revolves around accommodating Zlatan and set things up for him.
If he wasn't in UTD that would have opened the space for some other striker (already in club or bought) to perform and shine.
Regarding those last few games that Rashford played upfront. You can't really expect Rashford just to slide in and dominate CF position in a gameplan that's constructed for Zlatan. Especially after he played on the wings for the entirety of this season.
It's not the LEGO blocks.
That'd be strange cause he has said before that he loves the team and wants to succeed here. If he wanted to leave and said such a thing to Jose, Jose would have outcast him like he did with Schneiderlin or Depay. No chance would he be giving minutes to a player who's not committed here long term. Especially when he's not playing that well to begin with.
You're basing your whole argument off assumptions and predictions, whereas I'm presenting you with actual facts of how our season has panned out. I can just as easily say, if Zlatan wasn't here, no-one would step up and we'd get relegated. Both that statement, along with yours, have no validity as they're purely assumptions.
What we do know is Zlatan is our top scorer with no-one coming even close to him in the squad in terms of output.
You're assuming that if Zlatan wasn't here, there would have been just empty space in his stead.
Last season we thought we're screwed with only having Rooney and some anonymous kid from France we paid 35 million for, as our strikers.
Look how that turned out.
Let's just agree to disagree.
Doubt he would tell it to Jose in this moment, he would wait till the end of the season.
He might not have played that many minutes but he had chances to impress again and failed to. I want him to be here next season but I also want a lethal left side so would be happy if we bought someone. I don't see Martial having the stones to deal with that if we did though.
That's a bit harsh, he only had the ball like twice and by the time he came on we were pretty much content to see the game out
Probably is harsh yeah. I do think he needs to capitalise on the opportunities he gets though.
Martial aside, not taking spur of the moment opportunity is a major reason we're so lacking, and it's too often put down to being unlucky on here I think.
Much like Blind he came on with plenty of gusto and made some good runs in behind, something he needs to do more of.
Yeah if he starts on Thursday he really needs to capitalise on his opportunity as patience is obviously wearing thin.
But why though? Rashford has not done well this season really (many easy missed chances and quite a few bad performances) yet Mourinho perseveres with him and rightly so. Martial has even less minutes than Rashford, despite having marginally better output, so why should the patience be wearing thin with him in particular?
I actually meant that patience seems to be wearing thin with the coaching staff. I agree that he's held to a different standard than others in our team, I just hope he makes himself undroppable as for me, we look a lot more threatening with him on our left than any other option.
Mourinho made a comment after the West Brom match that some players disappear when you need them the most. I initially thought he was referring to Mkhitaryan but now that Martial has not started 2 matches after that, it is clear that Martial disappointed him the most that day.
I was of the opinion that Jose was being harsh to him earlier in the season but he holds him to higher standards than Lingard and Rashford and it is fair to expect more from him than simply playing well in few spells of a match.
I was of the opinion that Jose was being harsh to him earlier in the season but he holds him to higher standards than Lingard and Rashford and it is fair to expect more from him than simply playing well in few spells of a match.
I´m not entirely sure what was supposed to be wrong/negative with his 12 min appearance. Makes runs, wants the ball, great pass to Zlatan who should´ve scored.
Bullshit from Mourinho's part if you ask me. Our entire front 4 were lost and that "keep hoofing the ball upfront" tactics didn't help either.
Something is definitely off in their relationship and he gets treated differently than the other players.
This.
Anyway can't see him starting against Anderlecht on Thursday. Mikhi was great today and he scored, Rashford made the best use of his minutes as well and he scored. All that on top of Mourinho not being his biggest fan.
Martial has started almost all the big matches this season. If Mourinho didn't rate him, he would have preferred Lingard/Rashford ahead of him in those matches. I don't think there is any sinister reason in him being left out. When he is out of form, he prefers other options to keep Martial hungry. If I remember correctly, when he had a MOTM performance against Watford, he started consecutive matches after that.
This is very true.
For all the accolades and applauds Mou gets, offensive plays have always been his weakest area in his coaching it seems.
He can set up teams well defensively, well organised and balanced but most of his offensive acumen have come from counter attacking football but when it comes to breaking teams down he seems to struggle.
This season we've mostly resorted to hopeless crosses into the box when teams are sitting deep and soaking up the pressure. We've failed to break them down and we somehow lack composure in front of goal which should be addressed.
Bringing in an attacking coach seems like a good idea if just to bring in something fresh to the fold.
And of course this season even counter attacking football seems to have failed with Mourinho which further asks for a coach specifically for attacking plays and patterns.
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I believe both Real and Chelsea set goal scoring records during his tenure with them. But yeah he struggles to get teams to score goals! Unless he sets records then just for that season he doesn't, then he reverts back to type, or maybe once he gets a team playing to his system it all clicks, then win a lot and score a lot of goals.
Love the confidence to try a half volley lob with his wrong foot with his first touch of the game.
Couple of decent flashes.
I'm looking forward to a summer off and a solid ore-season for Martial and next season him solving a chunk of our goalscoring issues.
Couple of decent flashes.
I'm looking forward to a summer off and a solid ore-season for Martial and next season him solving a chunk of our goalscoring issues.
- Status