Thought he held up the ball well yesterday, carried out Jose's instructions perfectly. Mature cameo from Tony.
9
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Bristol 2:1 Man Utd
Wish he would just stop passing the ball to Zlatan. 3 occasions he’d have been better just to take his man on and take the shot or just shift it and do it. He’s passed it to Zlatan a few times when he’s not in a particularly great position and play just breaks down at the big man. (who looks like he’s trying to be the worst player on the pitch currently) no doubt he’ll bag a brace tho.
Ridiculously Lazy.
Him and Rashford our 2 best attackers as usual
Thought he was one of the only players out there that were decent in the first half
Get him the ball, he can get us a goal or two tonight.
He always seems to shrink when playing with Zlatan, he should just do his thing.
He always seems to shrink when playing with Zlatan, he should just do his thing.
Are people intentionally ignoring how bad Martial was today.
He was our worst performer after Darmian today. That second half performance was pathetic.
He was our worst performer after Darmian today. That second half performance was pathetic.
Started well I thought but pretty forgettable second half.
Too many on here have delluded themselves into thinking he is a ‘future Ballon D’Or’. He is a protected species now.
He was bullied today, and offered no protection from Dean. He was hacked into submission.
Rashford had an equally poor game.
Rashford had an equally poor game.
Even worse than Rashford today, who was pretty poor.
Poor game along with almost everybody else... Very frustrating to see Martial and Rashford both poop as they supposed to be our main men. Well, football is collective game and team mates make you better and worse. Onward we go!
Beat their fullback with ease twice in the early stages and then decided to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the game.
Absolute shit performance.
Absolute shit performance.
He was nowhere near as bad as the usual posters are making out. The amount of times he was ignored when in a great position is laughable really.
Hardly lad. First half he looked like the only one capable of doing anything and was linking up play and creating issues for them. 2nd half not so great but to say he was the 2nd worst with performances as bad as Zlatan,Rashford,Blind,McTominay,Romero and Rojo is a bit weird.
To borrow a phrase from Jose. He started playing PlayStation football in the 2nd half.
Bad second half, one of our most dangerous in the first. Some players there isn't much doubt about looking to the future, like Martial. He's got everything it takes to become a world class player, and has shown that talent plenty of times. There will be times where he's inconsistent so when he has a bad game, there's not much to say other then "bad game, move on to the next". He was in great form earlier in the season, the last 2-3 games he's lost a bit of form. It happens.
In the spirit of the redcafe Martial vs Rashford debate. He was marginally less bad.
Not a good night for the front players. Some great footwork at times, nice interchanges with Pogba but then meh.
Not a good night for the front players. Some great footwork at times, nice interchanges with Pogba but then meh.
Martial was absolutely awful. But I don't rate him as highly as others on here, so I am not surprised.
Felt for him today. I honestly feel he's quality but our fullbacks don't go forward so the only option is always to beat the man.
Not even close. He definitely needs to improve his off-the-ball movement so he can get more involved at the right times, but when he did get the ball he looked the only one likely to create something until Lukaku and Mkhitaryan came on. Also doesn't help that at least twice when he actually did make the right run and got himself into great position the ball never went to him.
I always believed this view that Martial is protected by many on here was bollocks seeing as I class myself as a Martial fan but his last three games have been awful and all you get are excuses blaming Mourinho, the fullback, Rashford etc. It's becoming pretty weird, I really couldn't believe his performance thread wasn't on the main page.
I believe he was fecking shocking. In the 2nd half I think he only did one thing right which was a lay off for the Pogba chance. Other than that, it was a lazy performance. Dispossessed time after time, terrible movement and he somehow managed not to get a shot off when Lukaku set him up with an easy chance.
Started off so well and I was thinking hes gonna run riot.
Then he got lazy and lax cos of the opposition. Then every time he was tackled he just sat there waiting for a free kick instead of getting up and getting the ball back. So frustrating.
Then he got lazy and lax cos of the opposition. Then every time he was tackled he just sat there waiting for a free kick instead of getting up and getting the ball back. So frustrating.
If Mourinho treated the players like this we will never win a trophy again. He has things to improve on. It's not just "he will be world class, who cares".
This is his what 4th season now in professional football? He's worse now than when United first signed him and his 'half-arsed' body lanaguage when playing football depresses me and sums our whole play up at times, i don't know why he has this loyal fan club.
United would do well to rid itself of this guy and bring in a geniune world class player or potenital in his place.
United would do well to rid itself of this guy and bring in a geniune world class player or potenital in his place.
One or two good moments but delayed on the ball too often.
Thought he was awful. His off the ball movement is still atrocious. There's plenty of instances where if he makes a run forward, he opens up space for the team to operate. He always wants the ball played to his feet.
People don’t understand tactics - that’s why Martial is looking so bad. I am not trying to be a know-it-all, but playing winger/forward like this is incredibly hard when the team is set up like this. He would thrive at other clubs with different setups, but this Mourinho-team does not attack the way it should be doing.
We should be conquering a weak team like Bristol in midfield, playing around them and dragging their players out of position - which leads to room for Martial and Rashford. But no, we play from the back to our wingers (whom are blocked out every time) - and our midfielders are left begging.
Incredibly frustrating, once again our players forget how to attack after periods of playing defensively against Premier League-teams
We should be conquering a weak team like Bristol in midfield, playing around them and dragging their players out of position - which leads to room for Martial and Rashford. But no, we play from the back to our wingers (whom are blocked out every time) - and our midfielders are left begging.
Incredibly frustrating, once again our players forget how to attack after periods of playing defensively against Premier League-teams
Agreed James. Excellent post.
Also good thing Martial/Rashford have a world class experienced winger to help mentor them after games. Oh wait... Reading through SAF's Cristiano article reminds me how similar they are at this age. Except SAF was much better at developing players and a had a squad with leadership attributes to help young players. Instead Martial and Rashford both know they are going to play and aren't driven to compete against a higher standard.
First bit of business should be to buy 2 great established wingers/forwards.
Also good thing Martial/Rashford have a world class experienced winger to help mentor them after games. Oh wait... Reading through SAF's Cristiano article reminds me how similar they are at this age. Except SAF was much better at developing players and a had a squad with leadership attributes to help young players. Instead Martial and Rashford both know they are going to play and aren't driven to compete against a higher standard.
First bit of business should be to buy 2 great established wingers/forwards.
I'm going to be honest, I hope I'm proven wrong but I just can't see Martial ever getting a regular level of consistency in his performances. He looks destined to be one of those frustrating players who can have a great game here and there, but not build it up with 3-4 good performances in a row. Nothing he has shown to me has proven otherwise.
I dont know if it was the flick at the end Rashford did which worked everyone up or not but Martial was not any better today at all. That thread exploded though.
Obviously he has things to improve on and obviously the manager shouldn't treat them like play them endlessly and coddle them no matter what, where did I even hint at saying that? What I mean is that posts like that is like he half expects everyone to tear into him and criticize him for a bad second half like people do for some other players. People do it for some players because they have doubts about them as it is. Mkhitaryan, plenty on here don't like and he's been inconsistent as feck so people criticize and say he should be sold. So many had reservations about Lukaku before we signed him because of his lack of on the ball ability, so when he has a bad performance, it comes out. Lingard people have always doubted if he was quite good enough, fair enough. Same with Herrera. Rashford and Martial? I'd say the vast majority of United fans have full faith that both of them will develop into top players and realize that both are young so will have bad games. Nobody is going to call for them to be sold or shit like that. Or nobody in their right mind at least (just saw @Number1 's post so I guess there are some
). Both are very young players, have shown loads of talent in their young careers, and this season both have been really productive. So there's not much to complain about other then expected spells of inconsistency.A few flashes of looking like a top player per game isn't enough, just doesn't seem to have the mentality to make the best of his talent.
This is true.
I eluded to this point a while back. Both Martial and Rashford don't receive the ball enough in advanced positions and are forced to dribble past 2-3 players to arrive there. It's not easy to do. This is why I wish we had Pep personally. He would have both Martial and Rashford playing in more advantageous positions, because of how his teams operate.
Obviously he has things to improve on and obviously the manager shouldn't treat them like play them endlessly and coddle them no matter what, where did I even hint at saying that? What I mean is that posts like that is like he half expects everyone to tear into him and criticize him for a bad second half like people do for some other players. People do it for some players because they have doubts about them as it is. Mkhitaryan, plenty on here don't like and he's been inconsistent as feck so people criticize and say he should be sold. So many had reservations about Lukaku before we signed him because of his lack of on the ball ability, so when he has a bad performance, it comes out. Lingard people have always doubted if he was quite good enough, fair enough. Same with Herrera. Rashford and Martial? I'd say the vast majority of United fans have full faith that both of them will develop into top players and realize that both are young so will have bad games. Nobody is going to call for them to be sold or shit like that. Or nobody in their right mind at least (just saw @Number1 's post so I guess there are some
We can talk about their flaws. They both have them. It's a cop out to say "one day they will be great". If we are going to criticise the rest of the players and manager, we can do it for Martial and Rashford as well. Let's not sweep it under the rug just so we can post how great they are when they score a goal.
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Of course we can! What I mean is that people shouldn't be shocked or whatever when one player like Mkhitaryan gets more criticism then Rashford or Martial get in a similar performance.
Mkhi has been far worse than Rashford or Martial. When I was bringing up issues in Martial's game people said I had an agenda. It seems like people don't want to bring it up, and that we should just continue playing him, praise him when he does well, and say "better luck next time" when he is poor.
When he is poor, apparently it's just an 'off day'. That's wrong. He is not Messi.
To be fair to the issue with the whole agenda thing before - Martial was constantly just being a sub at that point and would constantly change the game and was performing great in most sub appearances while our starters weren't being much of a threat with Pogba out, so people wanted Martial to start. Nobody was saying he was perfect, just that he deserved to be starting and should've been starting as he was as talented as any attacking player we have, so if we can get the best out of him consistently, then it'd be best for us. I'd say he's done well overall since he's been starting, though the past 3 games everyone's dropped quite a bit in terms of their form.
And obviously he has poor days because he has things to improve on. He's 22, there's loads of things to grow on. I do think that Mourinho's attacking set up doesn't get the best out of that type of player ever (see Hazard who is one of the best wingers in the world struggling), and that it takes a really special player to play consistently brilliantly when on the wing in Mourinho's system these days. Sterling has been scoring like every game for Man City, but put him at United and I feel like Mourinho would be using him as a sub or just not trusting him that much. Just that type of player.
The point I'm trying to get at is that while of course there are plenty of reasons to criticize and say they should improve, I think plenty of supporters also realize they are young and that both Martial and Rashford are hardly playing in ideal conditions for them, whether it's tactics, not being played in their best position, other creative players being unavailable, or a general issue like two young players being looked upon as the main attacking threats in our team. Ronaldo and Rooney weren't our main threats until they developed into brilliant players. While they were growing and inconsistent as feck, we had Giggs, Scholes, Van Nistelrooy along with the rest being a very well balanced squad, and then those 2 with clearly defined roles in their best positions. The way our squads been fecked about since Fergie retired though leaves them as the main threats and pretty much the main attacking players. Pogba is the one world class outfield player we have, and then after him there's a bunch on around the same level, some world class talents like Rashford and Martial who have loads of potential but inconsistencies and their own issues to sort out in their game, or others just not quite good enough.
Thought him and Rashford were both good tbh. It was Zlatan who was useless and spoiling everything.
I dont think they were good. Zlatan was woeful though.
It's not just "inconsistency" though. They have real flaws to their game. That's the point. We can blame the system and blame Mourinho or whatever. Fact is their flaws are REAL. It's not just going to go away the next game.
Not a good game from him today. Sometimes it's ok to take players on and sometimes it's better to give and go. Today it felt like he took option 1 too often, when it wasn't happening for him.
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