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2017-18 Performances


View full 2017-18 profile

6.1 Season Average Rating
Appearances
45
Goals
11
Assists
11
Yellow cards
1
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Wanna see him do that more. He cuts in to his right way too often. If he mixes it up, he will continue to be unpredictable for the defenders.
 
To be honest even if Martial plays like he did in 15/16 our attack will be much improved. It's not even potential we're talking, it's the player we know he can be...
 
Great assist today, really enjoyed it, but he got a bit lucky with the ball hitting the defender... It's a one in a hundred move - he has to become a more efficient player. A proper attacking left back would free him up massively - as it is he's forced into this kind of dead-end dribbling, which invariably fails.

Come on Jose - Blind is useless, get an actual full back for goodness sake, this is ridiculous.
 
Didn't watch the game, how was he?
Moment of magic for our goal but quiet aside from that. Didn't do anything second half and first touch was awful at times. Our whole attack was awful second half and think the early injury to Herrera was a blow in terms of creating chances as McTominay played fairly safe in his time on the pitch.

I agree with those who say Martial needs to mix it up a bit more instead of cutting in on his right. He's capable of it.
 
Said this in the other thread but probably belongs here more. I know people will say Martial did well but apart from his insane assist I don't think he was all that great. He's an unbelievable dribbler when he's on it but if he's not doing that he offers almost nothing else. He isn't a great crosser or passer, he doesn't work hard or create space for anyone else. Basically all he can do is dribble and it's worrying to have a player that 1 dimensional.

Of course if he can provide assists like todays in every game then it's not that much of an issue but if he doesn't then i'll become concerned
 
The assist was an exhibition of devastating dribbling, akin to what we saw of him in his first season with us, but after that he was just anonymous again. Especially in the second half. The penalty was awful and won't help his lack of confidence. He really does seem to be a confidence player, and he's woefully short right now.
 
The assist was an exhibition of devastating dribbling, akin to what we saw of him in his first season with us, but after that he was just anonymous again. Especially in the second half. The penalty was awful and won't help his lack of confidence. He really does seem to be a confidence player, and he's woefully short right now.

He's been short of confidence since Euro 2016 Summer, for France.
 
Most of our team had poor second halves, lukaku and Pogba didn't do anything significant. I wouldn't single out Martial. Poor penalty but then almost everyone else missed aswell.

I want to see what he does when he plays in the full first team. Martial is a player that thrives on dribbling and intricate link up play. When he's with lukaku, and a number 10 (Mkhi) then I will judge him more extensively. For now I think he can be reasonably happy despite the missed penalty as his assist was sensational.
 
Lovely for the goal. World class skill. Rest of the game was the same old issues. No movement, ball to feet so he kept getting doubled up on. First touch needs improving. Plenty of players miss pens, that's not an issue.

Until he sorts the movement and the touch he'll never be at the level he should be.
 
As I said about him, whenever he gets the ball and on his form he can do assists and dribbles like this. The problem is his movement while having no ball is non existent, hence making him look invisible at times.

He has enough talent but needs to develop natural instinct as a winger in how and where to move. His dribbles and skills are great enough. He just needs to improve his overall movement on the pitch.
 
I thought he looked quite lively the whole game and had a bit of aggression and effort about him, which was the main issue with him last year it felt like, his head not being in the game, looking slightly uninterested.

If a focused Martial turns up this year then he'll have a much better season.
 
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Absolutely incredible assist. Quite inconsistent apart from that. Some good stuff but definitely still could have offered more. Probably still one of the better Utd players in 2nd half (saying pretty much nothing, nobody was good). Still work to do for sure. Can't see him starting the season as a 1st choice option but he showed today also why selling him would be total insanity. Hope for a good performance against Barca. Oh, and let's not talk about the penalty :wenger:
 
“Obviously we want more consistency in his talent, I think today was a positive for him, that’s why I left him for 90 minutes on the pitch, he was enjoying and trying things. It’s important to try things in these friendly matches so it’s good for Anthony and his confidence.

“He is a young player, still time to learn, still time to improve, still time to develop, and it’s also his personality.

“I can say he is training better than before, he’s working harder than before, it’s a question to bring his talent more in a consistent way.”
 
That'll have the Serie A defenders crossing themselves come next season.
 
Lads give him a break, he is finally getting his game back and confidence up, he is a total contrast to the last seasons Anthony Martial.He is showing encouraging signs, he is getting his mojo back, that assist today is proof of that, let him build his form with game time and he'll deffinitely be better.His concentration is on higher level, he controls the ball like before unlike last seasons where he would lose the ball after a dribble or 3 to 4 touches with the ball.Have patience, it's only a pre-season.

While he is in form, he can do miracles, just watch highlights from his debut season, when he totally destroyed players careers with his dribbles, just enjoy he knows what he is doing.
 
for me, martial sometimes can be amazing and sometimes frustating to watch. :D
well, hopefully he can be more consistent this season. come on, Martial! you can do better!
 
“Obviously we want more consistency in his talent, I think today was a positive for him, that’s why I left him for 90 minutes on the pitch, he was enjoying and trying things. It’s important to try things in these friendly matches so it’s good for Anthony and his confidence.

“He is a young player, still time to learn, still time to improve, still time to develop, and it’s also his personality.

“I can say he is training better than before, he’s working harder than before, it’s a question to bring his talent more in a consistent way.”
Hopefully, this puts the bullshit about Mourinho not rating him bed. He's a long term project.
 
This is why I keep repeating that Martial needs to play ahead of a player like Lingard. Yes he can been very very frustrating a lot of the times. Yes he might look like he's sulking in some games. But he's also got the ability to create something magic out of nothing. Even on a bad season his stats are still decent. He can go 80 mins of doing feck all and then take 3 players out and create a goal out of nothing.

Personally I don't care if he looks bored, or doesn't chase every opponent that has the ball, or forgets to track back some times. What we lacked last year was goals to win the games. Not shape rigidity or running. I don't know if Mourinho using him sparingly and benching was part of some plan to motivate him or not, but as for last season it didn't seem to work for us or him.

If we don't end up signing Perisic or another natural left winger, then Mourinho needs to put some trust on Martial over a season. Play him when he's having good games and play him when he goes on a barren run, like he did with Rashford. Put an arm around his shoulder, because the hard approach didn't seem to work. Then make a tally at the end of the season and see if that show of trust was rewarded or not.
 
Just read Mou demanding more consistency of Martial talent. While this might be true and right to call, I'd like him to apply it across the board and everyone else as inconsistent as Martial receive the same repercussions.

I just don't feel right to see Martial suffer the full brunt of his inconsistency while players like Rashford, Lingard etc get afforded leaways. I'd also feel hard done if I were in Martial shoes.

I mean toward the end of last season Lingard put in bad performances after another but got consistently picked(it was like 8 straight starts despite awful showings) Rashford spent 3/4 of the season being quite bad yet was still regularly getting picked. Same with Miki etc. And I encourage players being given countless chances to get themselves back up. I just wish the same could be afforded to Martial.
 
The assist reminded me of his 15/16 form. He was constantly doing that type of stuff nearly every game and last season I don't remember him doing it once (though he probably did).
 
The likes of Rashford can only dream of this type of dribbling. Martial is our biggest x factor.
I don't get why everytime Martial does something awesome you use it to play down Rashford's talent.
 
The likes of Rashford can only dream of this type of dribbling. Martial is our biggest x factor.
Let's not get carried away. Martial of past two seasons pulls off a dribble like that 1 out of 10 times at most. He usually forgets to take the ball with him.
 
The dribble was a brilliant world class stuff. We shall never give up on Martial and give him more time to develop. He may not be as good as Ronaldo was for us but he can certainly be better than Nani's peak for us.

As others have pointed out, he needs to improve on other areas of play. Hopefully, Jose will guide him and have lots of patience with him.
 
That dribble was out of this world. Thought he did well overall in this pre season. Hope he kicks on from here
 
There were some interesting comments on another forum I frequent with regards to the full back and Martial's general play.

This might be a bit of a "Mandela effect", but I don't think I saw the left back ever once overlap martial and the lesser number of players in the final third, the more concentrated the field for people to play through (not only Martial)

FAO the people who know a thing or two about tactics,
  • Are our full backs told not to cross 2/3rd of the pitch (from what you observe) ?
  • Could having a better centre-back pairing make Mou more adventurous in having galloping full backs ?
  • Has Mourinho ever had a system which had 2 attacking fullbacks ? As far as I remember there's been one attack minded full back and one completely defensive one. Is this right?
  • Would we see any of our wingers provide consistent results if we have static players behind them? Being doubled teamed in addition to being crowded is a bad combination, I'd believe.
Thoughts?
 
Let's not get carried away. Martial of past two seasons pulls off a dribble like that 1 out of 10 times at most. He usually forgets to take the ball with him.
The first season he pulled it off regularly.
 
“Obviously we want more consistency in his talent, I think today was a positive for him, that’s why I left him for 90 minutes on the pitch, he was enjoying and trying things. It’s important to try things in these friendly matches so it’s good for Anthony and his confidence.

“He is a young player, still time to learn, still time to improve, still time to develop, and it’s also his personality.

“I can say he is training better than before, he’s working harder than before, it’s a question to bring his talent more in a consistent way.”
Positive comments from Jose, knows that Martial is low on confidence and he's now starting express himself more. These things might not come off and it might get people's back up on here, but atleast he's trying them and expanding his knowledge of what he can and can't do in certain situations.

I think he's going to have a very solid season.
 
There were some interesting comments on another forum I frequent with regards to the full back and Martial's general play.

This might be a bit of a "Mandela effect", but I don't think I saw the left back ever once overlap martial and the lesser number of players in the final third, the more concentrated the field for people to play through (not only Martial)

FAO the people who know a thing or two about tactics,
  • Are our full backs told not to cross 2/3rd of the pitch (from what you observe) ?
  • Could having a better centre-back pairing make Mou more adventurous in having galloping full backs ?
  • Has Mourinho ever had a system which had 2 attacking fullbacks ? As far as I remember there's been one attack minded full back and one completely defensive one. Is this right?
  • Would we see any of our wingers provide consistent results if we have static players behind them? Being doubled teamed in addition to being crowded is a bad combination, I'd believe.
Thoughts?


Think he wants both his fullbacks to attack, but if one goes forward, the other has to sit a little deep to counter potential counter-attacks etc. When he had Valencia and Young or Valencia and Shaw, both were given freedom to attack. Shaw himself also came out and publicly said he wants his fullbacks to assist in attacks iirc.
 
Just read Mou demanding more consistency of Martial talent. While this might be true and right to call, I'd like him to apply it across the board and everyone else as inconsistent as Martial receive the same repercussions.

I just don't feel right to see Martial suffer the full brunt of his inconsistency while players like Rashford, Lingard etc get afforded leaways. I'd also feel hard done if I were in Martial shoes.

I mean toward the end of last season Lingard put in bad performances after another but got consistently picked(it was like 8 straight starts despite awful showings) Rashford spent 3/4 of the season being quite bad yet was still regularly getting picked. Same with Miki etc. And I encourage players being given countless chances to get themselves back up. I just wish the same could be afforded to Martial.

He was asked about Martial.

Not like he singled him out.
 
Great assist today, really enjoyed it, but he got a bit lucky with the ball hitting the defender... It's a one in a hundred move - he has to become a more efficient player. A proper attacking left back would free him up massively - as it is he's forced into this kind of dead-end dribbling, which invariably fails.

Come on Jose - Blind is useless, get an actual full back for goodness sake, this is ridiculous.
Literally every impressive dribbling requires an element of luck - be it Maradona, Messi or Martial. It doesn't dismiss player's involvement (can you imagine, say, lucky Fellaini doing so? heck, lucky Herrera/Lingard/Rashford?)
 
Positive comments from Jose, knows that Martial is low on confidence and he's now starting express himself more. These things might not come off and it might get people's back up on here, but atleast he's trying them and expanding his knowledge of what he can and can't do in certain situations.

I think he's going to have a very solid season.
Depending on how he's managed, he could have an excellent season - Jose has this in his hands. The mercurial attacking talent, those that can turn defences and create (Tony M, Mkhi, Rashford etc) are inevitably confidence players needing trust via consecutive appearances. We know that the market isn't full of talent like this, we cannot throw a chequebook at everything, and a glimpse like Martial's assist last night just underlines what an asset he could be. He made Modric and Carvajal and Vasquez look like clowns, and then calmly slotted a ball past Nacho for Jesse to finish. Cannot remember many assists as accomplished since CR7 left for the Bernabeu.
 
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