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2016-17 Performances

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5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
42
Goals
8
Assists
8
Yellow cards
3
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Martial warming up during the Holland - France game, might come on in the following minutes.

EDIT: He's coming on for Payet

Haven't really seen him during the game. Of course also has to do with France taking their foot of the gas since they were already 0-1 ahead
 
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Apparently Deschamps wasn't really happy with him yesterday and decided to talk to him face to face for about 20mins. He made a silly back pass to Kurzawa who was already closed down, it almost led to a Depay equalizer late in the match. He had an interesting break at some point but completely messed it up, I don't know what has happened to him but he looks to have zero confidence these days.
 
kouroux said:
Apparently Deschamps wasn't really happy with him yesterday and decided to talk to him face to face for about 20mins. He made a silly back pass to Kurzawa who was already closed down, it almost led to a Depay equalizer late in the match. He had an interesting break at some point but completely messed it up, I don't know what has happened to him but he looks to have zero confidence these days.
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He made one shitty pass and looked like his old self by making himself a counter and his link up play with Pogba nearly created a goal. He's getting sharper ffs.

I guess Griezmann is shit aswell since he kept fecking up the whole game.

Seriously everyone looks too much into this it's annoying. Let the boy play.
 
Jacky Quacky said:
He made one shitty pass and looked like his old self by making himself a counter and his link up play with Pogba nearly created a goal. He's getting sharper ffs.

I guess Griezmann is shit aswell since he kept fecking up the whole game.

Seriously everyone looks too much into this it's annoying. Let the boy play.
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Spot on. I thought he looked really sharp when he came on.....
 
kouroux said:
He is still so far from his best level is all I'm saying. Not starting for France nor Man Utd is proof of that.
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He looked like his best level against Stoke and he will start soon for United. I think it's clear that Payet is the better player at the moment so he should start ahead.
 
kouroux said:
Apparently Deschamps wasn't really happy with him yesterday and decided to talk to him face to face for about 20mins. He made a silly back pass to Kurzawa who was already closed down, it almost led to a Depay equalizer late in the match. He had an interesting break at some point but completely messed it up, I don't know what has happened to him but he looks to have zero confidence these days.
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I defended Deschamps' tactic during the EURO and agreed on his Martial treatment. However, Deschamps' tactic now should be viewed in different light and I am defending Martial now saying Deschamps' tactic would make it hard for wing forward, and continue with Pogba as sole #6 (with full back as the sole width attacker) would long term backfire. Portugal figured it out. Netherland couldn't capitalize on it due to their personnel problem (Memphis not consistent enough), but the sign is there as good wing forwards would be the Kryptonite for this tactic of France.

Theere is no pocket of space for wing forward to get in. The full backs become wing back just draw too many body to the wing and ended up isolate wing forward altogether. No support in counter attack...
 
Talk about nitpicking.:lol:

He was alright tonight in the short cameo, not much to talk about. The main reason he is not starting for United is fitness/injury concerns.
 
He looked good vs Zorya and Stoke. Two solid sub appearances and bagged a goal from 50 odd minutes.

I'm not worried.
 
He is starting to find his feet, but I still think his confidence is quite low.
This was apparent by the number of times France were on the counter and he just kind of jogged forward almost hiding on the wing despite being in a great position to use his speed and ask for the ball.

But I am less worried about him than I were before the season started.
 
NYAS said:
Martial was brilliant last season with 17 goals and 11 assists mostly from the left.

He hasn't done well since the end of last season, and it looks like it's simply form rather than position on the pitch. The things he was struggling with this season are things he could do last season with his eyes closed so we know he's capable of it over a sustained period (i.e. a whole
season).

I don't know, it just seems very convenient to come out with the "he's a striker, not a wide player" opinion given his form at the moment. Why wasn't that an issue when he was having the season of his life last year out wide?

It's just been a combination of form, fatigue and probably personal problems. It's been like this for only about two months, it's not like he's been terrible for even half a season let alone a full one.

People are just understandably judging him by higher expectations given what we saw last season but that doesn't mean it's correct to come out with hysterical long-term statements such as "he's not a wide player" or "he was never that talented anyway".

Let's slow down with the pointless revisionism, he's very clearly one of the elite young French talents and probably alongside Dembele has shown the most potential. Him going through a bad patch doesn't change that.
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It's also convenient to just decide that he couldn't possibly be anything other than a left winger. Personally I'm not saying he's a centre forward or a left forward, just that I'm open minded with regards to martials position given he's impressed in both positions. Yes he excelled on the the left last season but he also started brilliantly as a 9, and a lot of the times played on the left because we had such little quality he needed to see more of the ball. And that Rooney guy who simply had to start in the middle.

Martial is a worldie of a talent. He's a left sided forward right now, but given some of the qualities we've seen from him in terms of hold up play, I'm open minded about his position.

kouroux said:
Apparently Deschamps wasn't really happy with him yesterday and decided to talk to him face to face for about 20mins. He made a silly back pass to Kurzawa who was already closed down, it almost led to a Depay equalizer late in the match. He had an interesting break at some point but completely messed it up, I don't know what has happened to him but he looks to have zero confidence these days.
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We need to not go over the top though. He looked excellent vs stoke. Even Griezmann had some shocking moments last night. There was a moment where it was two on one and an easy goal for France where he just handed the ball back to Holland. So, in a short cameo you can have a bad moment or two.
 
France plays a 442. It's not a pure winger position in terms of how it's played in a 4231. It's more of a wide B2B like Sissoko plays on the other side. Martial and anyone else playing there needs to defend, help the fullback and help with the buildup.

Deschamps has done a fantastic job with the NT. He's Serie A trained and sets up the game like the managers in that league... namely, you get a lead and then you sit back play the counter the rest of the way. Sacchi, Trapatonni, Capello, Ancelotti, Conte, Ranieri, etc. all play like this.

It's fine. Gets the job done and the results are there. For Martial, he can't just do anything he wants. It's very tactical and you always need to be aware of your responsibilities and which spaces you're running into. Martial is horrible at that right now. But he's not a winger so he wouldn't know.

Again, he looked at his best yesterday when he moved centrally. That's where he linked up with Pogba and that's where he looked the part. Being played on the wing by Man Utd is an absolute disservice to him. With France, he will only play there as well because they won't put him in a role that he never practices at club.

With Deschamps, it's simple. He will give you a harsh warning and then play you for the next 2-3 games to see how you react. If you don't react well, you get dropped. That happened to Nasri with his attitude and then Payet. Martial needs to be very very very careful. He is getting close to a breaking point. If he gets dropped, like Payet, he'll need to be outstanding at club and force his way back because Deschamps would have lost confidence in him. There are other great players just waiting to get Martial's spot like Ousmane Dembele.
 
Love him and the idea that we finally have some genuine world class players playing in a top international team is great for the club. I really enjoyed watching the Utd lads yesterday. Will feel the same with Rashford and Lingard later.
 
Adisa said:
The way he rolls that defender :drool:
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He is really good in those scenarios, I wish we could play him a bit closer to Ibra TBH. He's got great link up play and would play 1-2's with him really well, wouldn't mind letting him and Rashford interchange, those 3 could cause real problems together.

Add in Mata and Pogba and we've got potential for some great footy.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
It's also convenient to just decide that he couldn't possibly be anything other than a left winger. Personally I'm not saying he's a centre forward or a left forward, just that I'm open minded with regards to martials position given he's impressed in both positions. Yes he excelled on the the left last season but he also started brilliantly as a 9, and a lot of the times played on the left because we had such little quality he needed to see more of the ball. And that Rooney guy who simply had to start in the middle.

Martial is a worldie of a talent. He's a left sided forward right now, but given some of the qualities we've seen from him in terms of hold up play, I'm open minded about his position.


We need to not go over the top though. He looked excellent vs stoke. Even Griezmann had some shocking moments last night. There was a moment where it was two on one and an easy goal for France where he just handed the ball back to Holland. So, in a short cameo you can have a bad moment or two.
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He scored a great goal vs Stoke but I wouldn't say he was excellent. He'll get back to his best no doubt. It just sucks we need him so much right now.
 
People are probably overestimating how bad his form is but also at the same time underestimating the kind of mental turmoil he'll be in because of his private life.

To go through a messy divorce at any age for anyone is a tough thing but when you're a footballer and your every move is scrutinised and your ex-wife is very publically attacking you it's going to take your eye off the ball (pun intended) a little bit isn't it?

Add in the fact that he didn't really have much of a break during last season, nor the summer due to the Euros (granted he didn't play but he wasn't exactly on holiday) and I don't blame him for being out of sorts.

His goal against Stoke and the celebration proved that he does care a fair bit and that was clearly a good release of all the shit that's been building up in his head over the past few months. Give him a run of games and hopefully encourage him to link up with Ibra more and learn from him and he'll be doing fine.
 
Wilson Litchmore said:
Love him and the idea that we finally have some genuine world class players playing in a top international team is great for the club. I really enjoyed watching the Utd lads yesterday. Will feel the same with Rashford and Lingard later.
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Is he world class though? Our only genuine world class players are DDG, Pogba, and arguably Zlatan, the others have a lot to prove yet. Shaw, Bailly, Herrera,Martial, Rashford, Mkhitaryan do have some amazing potential though.
 
Sammyjunn said:
Is he world class though? Our only genuine world class players are DDG, Pogba, and arguably Zlatan, the others have a lot to prove yet. Shaw, Bailly, Herrera,Martial, Rashford, Mkhitaryan do have some amazing potential though.
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De gea is the only player on that list to have been at a world class standard in a united top.
 
I'd like to see him back upfront to be honest.

Would love to see us play 442.
 
Had a very difficult summer in the Euros where he barely played plus a couple of really bad cameos. I think he was mismanaged by Deschamps, I mean not playing at all in the knockout stages then throwing him in the deep end for 15 minutes in a EURO Final was wrong. Plus he has some personal life issues with his wife etc. All this makes it very easy to understand why he's been so poor.

He had a normal cameo, a slight encouraging one nothing more. He's very far from his level last year.
 
Might be the infamous second season syndrome. If so he will bounce back from it.
 
Chicharito_ said:
The number 10 for Holland in that video, such lazy defending - even when the ball falls for him he just walks too it and hoofs it up the pitch :lol:
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Watched the whole game. That no 10 is also lacking in attacking, linking up... for an attacker. IMO he's even a lazy man Berbatov, that's quite some accomplishment. Netherland talent has to be dried up badly for someone like this to play for them the whole games and don't bother show up.
 
ti vu said:
Watched the whole game. That no 10 is also lacking in attacking, linking up... for an attacker. IMO he's even a lazy man Berbatov, that's quite some accomplishment. Netherland talent has to be dried up badly for someone like this to play for them the whole games and don't bother show up.
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He isnt an attacker, he's a midfielder from PSV. He had a bad match but is a very good player which he showed vs us and Atletico last season.
 
There's too much scrutiny on him IMO. People forget that he's 20.
 
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/Anthony-martial-n-a-plus-de-marge/735948

L'Equipe saying that, with the emergence of Ousmane Dembele and the return of Fekir, Martial is now likely to lose his France NT spot. It is very likely that the 2 outside forward spots will go to Griezmann, Payet, Coman and Fekir. Dembele may get in as the 5th if it is deemed necessary cover. Martial has fallen to 6th on the depth chart.

Benzema is likely going to be called again too and Lacazette is healthy. The likely CF trio will be Benzema, Gameiro and Giroud with Lacazette as the alternate. Not room for him there either.

Martial really needs to turn it on if he wants to go to the world cup. Competition is fierce and he's falling behind.
 
sportsczy said:
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/Anthony-martial-n-a-plus-de-marge/735948

L'Equipe saying that, with the emergence of Ousmane Dembele and the return of Fekir, Martial is now likely to lose his France NT spot. It is very likely that the 2 outside forward spots will go to Griezmann, Payet, Coman and Fekir. Dembele may get in as the 5th if it is deemed necessary cover. Martial has fallen to 6th on the depth chart.

Benzema is likely going to be called again too and Lacazette is healthy. The likely CF trio will be Benzema, Gameiro and Giroud with Lacazette as the alternate. Not room for him there either.

Martial really needs to turn it on if he wants to go to the world cup. Competition is fierce and he's falling behind.
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All over for him and his career I fear. I am scared for him.
 
Meh, 20 years old and less international duty. From a club perspective I don't mind.

He'll pick up his form this year, you can see it happening slowly already. We forget he's now playing alongside a different style attacking quartet (Zlatan, Mata in the 10, Rashford/Mkhiaryan now the wing), with different instructions from Mourinho than under LVG. He also has had to operate with Shaw, Rojo and Blind as rotating fullbacks which probably hasn't helped.
 
Doesn't matter anyway, by the time the WC starts he will be better than all those players mentioned (bar Benzema).
 
Am sure Deschamps will find a way to squeeze the great Gignac in.
 
sportsczy said:
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/Anthony-martial-n-a-plus-de-marge/735948

L'Equipe saying that, with the emergence of Ousmane Dembele and the return of Fekir, Martial is now likely to lose his France NT spot. It is very likely that the 2 outside forward spots will go to Griezmann, Payet, Coman and Fekir. Dembele may get in as the 5th if it is deemed necessary cover. Martial has fallen to 6th on the depth chart.

Benzema is likely going to be called again too and Lacazette is healthy. The likely CF trio will be Benzema, Gameiro and Giroud with Lacazette as the alternate. Not room for him there either.

Martial really needs to turn it on if he wants to go to the world cup. Competition is fierce and he's falling behind.
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Couldn't care less, to be quite honest. As long as he finds his form again for us then I'm happy.
 
really? WC quarters loss to Germany (barely) and going to the Euro final is a joke?

I hope we keep laughing then. Top 5 NT in the world and our core players are either kids or just entering their prime years.

Deschamps has been doing fantastic.

He chose a style for the Euro and needed depth so he wouldn't need to change that style in the middle of the Euro if someone got injured. If Giroud was going to be the regular, then he needed someone with a similar profile to be his backup = Gignac. Made absolute sense. Now he's switched it up to Gameiro. Benzema and Gameiro are clearly the top 2 center forwards. Lacazette and Giroud are going to have to fight it out for the 3rd spot with Giroud having an edge right now. Martial isn't even the picture for that position.

As far as Martial... he was the regular going into the prep games for the Euro. He got injured. Payet took his spot (likely would have anyhow) and that's that. It's up to Martial to win his job back. Not only has he been awful for France since the start of the Euro... he's not even putting in the effort in training.

So yeah... he deserves to get thrown out until he brings it. I love Martial. But he doesn't have the status where he can just demand to make the team without showing results. Far from it.

He's in the same position at Man Utd... he's earned literally nothing yet. One good year doesn't make you undisputed. If he doesn't show his quality on the pitch, then Rashford and even Depay will pass him. That's how the world of football works.
 
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Only things that will stop Martial are off the pitch issues and a sense of entitlement. If his lifestyle is ok and he remains hungry, the sky is the limit. Right now, both are under question unfortunately.

But he is very young and he can turn this thing around on a dime. Needs to show some mental toughness. Crisis happen for every person and it's about how you handle them.
 
sportsczy said:
really? WC quarters loss to Germany (barely) and going to the Euro final is a joke?

I hope we keep laughing then. Top 5 NT in the world and our core players are either kids or just entering their prime years.

Deschamps has been doing fantastic.

He chose a style for the Euro and needed depth so he wouldn't need to change that style in the middle of the Euro if someone got injured. If Giroud was going to be the regular, then he needed someone with a similar profile to be his backup = Gignac. Made absolute sense. Now he's switched it up to Gameiro. Benzema and Gameiro are clearly the top 2 center forwards. Lacazette and Giroud are going to have to fight it out for the 3rd spot with Giroud having an edge right now. Martial isn't even the picture for that position.

As far as Martial... he was the regular going into the prep games for the Euro. He got injured. Payet took his spot (likely would have anyhow) and that's that. It's up to Martial to win his job back. Not only has he been awful for France since the start of the Euro... he's not even putting in the effort in training.

So yeah... he deserves to get thrown out until he brings it. I love Martial. But he doesn't have the status where he can just demand to make the team without showing results. Far from it.

He's in the same position at Man Utd... he's earned literally nothing yet. One good year doesn't make you undisputed. If he doesn't show his quality on the pitch, then Rashford and even Depay will pass him. That's how the world of football works.
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Yeah, really. The signs are there that they may just get their act in order, but France have underachieved for a long time and there is constant controversy around them. Take the Benzema case, for instance. He gets dropped and calls out his manager for listening to racists who don't want him in the team. Now he's back in the team. That's only just scraping the absolute surface of the issues they've had.

To be honest you seem to be trying to make a mountain out of a molehill with Martial and his issues. I've seen people do this in the past where they start of with 'I really rate [Martial], but...' and go on to argue till they're blue in the face why they shouldn't be in the team or why they will never make it. In the end it just makes me think that they actually don't rate the player and are just trying to not piss people of whilst they constantly criticise a player.
 
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