That's really hurtful :-(You've got to be one of the worst posters on here, I genuinely get a kick out of your nonsense.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 45
- Goals
- 11
- Assists
- 11
- Yellow cards
- 1
- Status
Keep trying though, you might get me one day cutie. xo
Martial can only get better this season in my view. If he can improve his finishing I could see him being our Henry, but it's entirely possible he may never improve his finishing and be anything more than a 10 (league) goal a season player. Even still, with Lukaku now in there he has someone who can reach his through balls, finish his cutbacks and take advantage of his dribbles.
At a minimum he has to be expected to get back to 15/16 level form, when he showed composure, class and creativity to score 17 goals. That doesn't sound like a lot when Messi and Ronaldo are scoring 4 times that amount, but it's what you'd expect for our 2nd top goalscorer. Since our first league title under Sir Alex, our 2nd top goalscorer has scored more than 17 goals in 12/25 seasons, and in 9 of those 12 seasons we won the league (vs. 4 league wins in the 13 seasons when we didn't have a 17+ goal 2nd striker).
If Martial can give us that along with a significant improvement in his passing and taking more responsibility to create, and he's well on his way back to being one of our most important players.
At a minimum he has to be expected to get back to 15/16 level form, when he showed composure, class and creativity to score 17 goals. That doesn't sound like a lot when Messi and Ronaldo are scoring 4 times that amount, but it's what you'd expect for our 2nd top goalscorer. Since our first league title under Sir Alex, our 2nd top goalscorer has scored more than 17 goals in 12/25 seasons, and in 9 of those 12 seasons we won the league (vs. 4 league wins in the 13 seasons when we didn't have a 17+ goal 2nd striker).
If Martial can give us that along with a significant improvement in his passing and taking more responsibility to create, and he's well on his way back to being one of our most important players.
Martial looks hungry and more relaxed to me, he is even willing to showcase his English on camera. Also him and Joel Pereira have a good bromance going on.
What concerns me a little about Martial is that although he is great at dribbling and his close control is phenomenal, he looks to be very dependent on his speed to get past defenders, especially when he does try to go on the outside. When he faces fast defenders, he seems to lose his edge and struggles; at least that happened last season. Against Kyle Walker, he's not going to run past him, and last season he struggled to run past Coleman, which was weird seeing as he toyed with him the season before both in terms of dribbling and for speed. I think he is at his very best when he runs through the middle. We have a few of those...
There's your problem.
There was a time when a 20 min sub appearance in a pre season friendly warranted no discussion at all. It was borderline meaningless.
Now we have hyper analysis and as you've shown here a finger is permanently on the conclusion trigger. There's really nothing to take from that performance, good or bad.
I wouldn't call it an agenda(I share your dislike of the term) but you are using an irrelevance to back up an opinion you already hold.
As I said - this wasn't because of a 20 minute cameo. It's an accumulation of his game before he even joined us. It wasn't put into the spotlight prior as he was playing so well, now that he's not, it's become blindingly obvious. Pre-season is when players do the most work on their game, it's where they get in extra training sessions etc. so it's also when you'd expect to see some proper improvement in a player's game, especially in Martial's case when he's clearly fallen out of favour, he should be hungry to prove the manager etc. wrong. I have so far seen nothing that has improved Martial's game.
He could still yet improve and I said as much, I'd be happy for him to improve, it'd save us having to invest even more money in yet another attacker, it'd also mean we'd have a very good player for the long run, but so far I don't see it.
Although you're right that it's still early in the pre-season, so we'll have to wait and see how he performs once the season gets underway, hopefully he proves me wrong.
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He's talented, but sometimes he just doesn't looked bothered when he's playing. I can see why Mourinho would be looking at a player like Perisic who may not be as talented but always works hard.
I won't say not bothered.
The problem with Martial as a winger in general is he has no off ball movement. He only moves when he has the ball in his leg, but when losing it or when the ball is away from him he doesn't bother to move or make himself available for a pass. He keeps standing at where he was waiting for the ball to arrive to him to activate the engine and starts moving.
When on his day and beating his man continuously, he looks great and this problem is hardly noticed. The main problem is when he's not on form or the back is too much for him. It becomes somewhat frustrating to see him getting the ball, goes one on one, loses the ball, keeps standing where he's till he gets the ball, rinse and repeat. Hence he appears not bothered or sleeping. The problem his off ball movement is terrible and he's not doing runs or making himself available on the wing for the viewers to see if he's bothered or not. It's a problem in his style of play as a winger, something that I thing will never make him succeed as a Mourinho winger. You can easily see how Rashford keeps running back and forth on the flank even when he's mediocre in form during the match it's hard to not notice him playing due to his continuous movement, but Martial doesn't move a lot. Lingard is the opposite to Martial. His off ball movement is great but while having the ball itself he doesn't know what to do with it so his production overall is crap.
With this rate, the only way Martial will succeed on the wing is with a manager who's willing to build the whole team's play on him just like what LVG was doing. LVG's plan was to always supply Martial with the ball and let him go one on one with the back, thus he always has the ball and always challenging the back all the match so it's hard to notice his movement in the match overall when the ball isn't with him. He always has the balls in his leg to play. Mourinho is not building the team to be centered on Martial only and thus his absence of any movement without the ball or his non ability to make himself available for the pass is more noticeable now.
I believe the solution for this Martial dilemma is to return him as a second or third choice striker. I think that's the only position he may succeed here under Jose, because he's clearly not offering what Jose wants from his winger.
As a big fan of martial, I fear for him. I don't see jose rate martial that much. It's sad he has put lingard over him and that is not a good sign. Although I don't think jose will sell him (atleast this summer) but martial needs to start performing incredibly well for jose to give him more opportunities. As of now I see martial being the super sub and starting odd cup games.
If that's the case, whether Jose wants to or not, he'll probably be gone by next summer. This is a crucial season for him to put his career back on the upward swing, that spot on the NT for the WC is not going to be easy to win and I think it'd be a huge blow to his ego that he wouldn't be selected. Hopefully he gets the wake-up call, but there's a small chance he's a Ben Arfa-type; loads of talent but not driven to improve and be the best, they're happy with what they're capable of, and it's hard to change them. I'm not Mou's biggest fan, but he's no idiot, he wants Martial to be the best player he can be and improve, but if he's treating him poorly in some's eyes, there has to be a reason beyond simply not liking him.
Martial might have pure talent but there's an element of selflessness to Lingard's game which will always get him the nod over Martial.I actually don't have a problem with this. I think there's enough talent in an attacking lineup of Pogba, Lukkaku, Mkhitaryan, and Rashford and what Lingard adds to that lineup is just the willingness to play that free role and find those pockets of spaces to make himself useful and somehoe complete our attack with his workrate.
Having said that I do wish him the best and want him to make it here but I also hope he understands there's a lot left to be desired from his game and that he makes a conscious effort to improve upon them which just isn't limited to protecting his left back. With his physical and technical ability, what he has been doing on the pitch thus far in terms of attacking has been pretty one dimensional which is something Jose seems to want to improve.
In most cases... when talent doesn't work hard, hardwork beats talent.
Having said that I do wish him the best and want him to make it here but I also hope he understands there's a lot left to be desired from his game and that he makes a conscious effort to improve upon them which just isn't limited to protecting his left back. With his physical and technical ability, what he has been doing on the pitch thus far in terms of attacking has been pretty one dimensional which is something Jose seems to want to improve.
In most cases... when talent doesn't work hard, hardwork beats talent.
Yep, let's at least allow him to kick the ball in a competitive game before we decide he hasn't improved at all.
A club with serious ambitions won't pick Lingard over Martial, it's that simple. The bad attitude excuse also doesn't fly as there isn't a single shred of evidence to back up this claim. Everything Martial did last season, including not smiling, is how he has always been. It's just people's opinion of him that changed, he had a dip in form last season, but let's not pretend as if his counterparts were excellent, Rashford was poor until around March, Lingard returned 1 league goal, Mhkitaryan was poor in the PL. So, why the focus on Martial? Simple, for some reasons, people have concluded that he has a bad attitude and doesn't work hard, even though Mourinho has never said this at any point.
Ultimately, if Mourinho trusts him, he'll persist with him as he did with Rashford despite Rashford going over 25 games without scoring a goal, Fellaini also cost us a win at Everton and quite a few other games, Jose publicly backed him, gave him the nod in the next games, guys, that is what it comes down to, trust. If a manager trusts you, he'll persist. For some reasons, Mourinho doesn't trust him. The same way he didn't trust Mata at Chelsea & LVG didn't trust Herrera. Managers have their preferences, for their own reasons, and that is fine. This constant slandering of Martial (or any player) is totally uncalled for, especially when there's zero evidence of what you're accusing him of, you don't have to slander him to make yourself feel better for Mourinho's decision guys.
Ultimately, if Mourinho trusts him, he'll persist with him as he did with Rashford despite Rashford going over 25 games without scoring a goal, Fellaini also cost us a win at Everton and quite a few other games, Jose publicly backed him, gave him the nod in the next games, guys, that is what it comes down to, trust. If a manager trusts you, he'll persist. For some reasons, Mourinho doesn't trust him. The same way he didn't trust Mata at Chelsea & LVG didn't trust Herrera. Managers have their preferences, for their own reasons, and that is fine. This constant slandering of Martial (or any player) is totally uncalled for, especially when there's zero evidence of what you're accusing him of, you don't have to slander him to make yourself feel better for Mourinho's decision guys.
No other big club in Europe wastes a spot in there attack with a player whose only function is to work hard. They all have to back it up with actual talent. It's one of the reasons we score so few goals. So your justification for having Lingard in the team doesn't work, unless you're happy for us to remain a second tier team.
Amen to this. Tired of people justifying playing dross consistently because "they work hard".
I think martial works equally hard as Rashford tracks back, helps our defenders on whichever flank he is playing on. His major issue for me is his movement off the ball if u combine martials ability with lingard's movement we will see immense player.
Martial's issue is with attacking workrate rather than a defensive one. When things don't go his way, instead of working harder sometimes he just stops making runs a player like Rashford is willing to do for 90 minutes.
Excellent post. Reality is LVG bought Martial as a striker to work with Rooney, it was only after emergence of Rashford ( he was a last minute change before the game, in place of Martial who was supposed to start that game as a CF but got injuried during the warmup) that Martial was moved to LW so that LVG could play them both.
I really don't get it. There are fans talking about him being a poor professional because of his family issues & also saying he doesn't try hard.
Hardly anyone seems to realise that the guy is being played in the wrong position & in my opinion looks frustrated on the pitch rather than not trying.
Martial playing on the left is like asking Lukaku to play on the right - simply because he is pacy and left footed and cut inside with his stronger foot.
Maybe people attribute the number 11 to the LW position & forgotten that he was our number 9?
That assist was disrespectful
The likes of Rashford can only dream of this type of dribbling. Martial is our biggest x factor.That assist was disrespectful
Brilliant assist.
He's the only player in the team who can do that. So much talent.
More of that please lad 
Build the team around him
That assist kind of annoys me, cause what an amazing dribbling run from Martial. That close control af the composure to just slide to Jesse. And to think he is coming on a previous season, in which he to step back from his first season. Hope he lifts him self up again. Because when he is on form and confident he is a joy to watch!
His dribbling technique at pace is scarily good. Hopefully we see more of 2015/16 Martial than 2016/17 Martial this coming season.
needs to do that more often. That was beautiful foot work. Carvajal still in a daze.
He's getting no favours from Mourinho whatsoever with Darmian on LB and Fellaini / Carrick MF duo.
shame that we don't see that more often. Kids clearly got talent, but he needs consistent application of it and to keep being unpredictable when taking on defenders.. the easy way out is to just keep cutting inside, but he needs to put in that effort to really twist defenders this way and that all game. Having an attacking full back would help him too.
He broke so many ankles.
Best dribbler in the team by far. He should start on that left wing every game.
Only Martial could have done that. I think it's mental issues with him, he seems like he has the mind of a tortured artist. Who is he close to in the squad? He needs to become part of Pogba, Lukaka, Lingard crew.
Fellaini winning most of his battles against Modric
Fantastic from Martial, the way he beat so many players was just amazing.
That's not true, Martial moving to LW was more about the failure of Depay, which let LVG off with his cowardice towards Rooney. If Memphis played well, Martial would have had to fight with Rooney up too, which he would have won easily.
Silky smooth.
More please.
More please.
That was a little bit special
- Status