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Anthony Martial France flag

2017-18 Performances


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6.1 Season Average Rating
Appearances
45
Goals
11
Assists
11
Yellow cards
1
Status
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After watching the full highlights on his performance, its surprising he only scored 1 goal. Could have easily had a hattrick.
 
And only 1 of the others. Martial has started 1 PL game but played in all the others.

To be fair, fringe players usually play early Cup games. That means nothing. The likes of Carrick, Romero, Pereira and McTominay all featured yesterday. CL is more serious business, but the league is the real testimony. Romero played most Cup games last season.
 
Pretty sure evil Jose will be getting rid of
Martial (because Rashford is like his son),
Lingard (because we don't like him)
Herrera (because he brought a Celta player to OT)
Carrick (because he is old)
Lindelof (Because he is not Utd quality)

Hopefully all in January.
 
Ok lets make an assumption for the whole year on 5 games then.

It's more or less an assumption based on last season, and the start of this one. Martial has 121 mins of premiership football over the course of 5 matches this season, Rashford has 311mins over the same period. I'm not entirely sure why it's considered shocking to claim that Rashford is well ahead of Martial in the pecking order in the league. In terms of minutes in the league, Martial is closer to Lingard than Rashford. Unless there's a huge change, probably due to injuries, i'm not entirely sure why this is suddenly going to change. Martial will get his starts, but they will be longer inbetween, and his minutes in the league will mainly the maximum 30mins here and there after coming off the bench.

If he's lucky enough to be given a start this weekend, it's because of an injury to Rashford.

I don't see why my claim is so much more far fetched than the theories of Mourinho expecting miles more from Martial.
 
Unless there's a huge change, probably due to injuries, i'm not entirely sure why this is suddenly going to change
Errrr... Martial does better than Rashford in training and impresses Jose...

Or is that a scenario you wouldn't want to consider because it doesn't fit the "Jose hates Martial" theory.
 
It's more or less an assumption based on last season, and the start of this one. Martial has 121 mins of premiership football over the course of 5 matches this season, Rashford has 311mins over the same period. I'm not entirely sure why it's considered shocking to claim that Rashford is well ahead of Martial in the pecking order in the league. In terms of minutes in the league, Martial is closer to Lingard than Rashford. Unless there's a huge change, probably due to injuries, i'm not entirely sure why this is suddenly going to change. Martial will get his starts, but they will be longer inbetween, and his minutes in the league will mainly the maximum 30mins here and there after coming off the bench.

If he's lucky enough to be given a start this weekend, it's because of an injury to Rashford.

I don't see why my claim is so much more far fetched than the theories of Mourinho expecting miles more from Martial.
That doesn't mean automatically that he'll be sold, right?
Maybe Martial will want to leave but he hasn't shown that till now.
Also it's a long season and things can change. It's strange you're so sure that all will happen, you don't about that like it's a theory you talk you're dead certain Mou want to get rid of him and Martial wants to leave..
 
After watching the full highlights on his performance, its surprising he only scored 1 goal. Could have easily had a hattrick.
Yep, he got into dangerous positions quite a few times. Maybe their keeper had prepared specifically for his favoured far corner shot. My favourite skill was actually the assist for Lingard though, where he controls and moves the ball with his right before hitting the pass with his left in the same motion. The overhead attempt was great to see as well.
 
That doesn't mean automatically that he'll be sold, right?
Maybe Martial will want to leave but he hasn't shown that till now.
Also it's a long season and things can change. It's strange you're so sure that all will happen, you don't about that like it's a theory you talk you're dead certain Mou want to get rid of him and Martial wants to leave..

It doesn't automatically mean it, no. However, if Mourinho doesn't fancy him as a player after two season, and if it's two seasons outside the French National team, it's somewhat unlikely that it's a relationship that both the player and manager will want to continue.

i'm happy to wager a bet on , if i'm incorrect i'll be happy to have my account deleted.
 
It doesn't automatically mean it, no. However, if Mourinho doesn't fancy him as a player after two season, and if it's two seasons outside the French National team, it's somewhat unlikely that it's a relationship that both the player and manager will want to continue.

i'm happy to wager a bet on , if i'm incorrect i'll be happy to have my account deleted.
Maybe it's not that he doesn't fancy him but he just fancies Rashford a bit more.
 
The biggest issue for me with Martial at the moment is that once he's in the box, he nearly always looks to shoot or to at least try and work space for a shot. Often it leads to him taking too much out of the ball and being dispossessed.

He seems able to make the initial break into the box almost at will and if he added disguised passing to his arsenal, not only would he create bucket loads of chances for others but I reckon he'd score more himself.

At the moment, defenders know he's odds on to go himself and they still struggle to manage him. If they had to gamble on whether he was going to slip someone else through as well he'd be unplayable.

Giggs was a genius at it so there should be plenty of footage available for him to study.
 
The biggest issue for me with Martial at the moment is that once he's in the box, he nearly always looks to shoot or to at least try and work space for a shot. Often it leads to him taking too much out of the ball and being dispossessed.

He seems able to make the initial break into the box almost at will and if he added disguised passing to his arsenal, not only would he create bucket loads of chances for others but I reckon he'd score more himself.

At the moment, defenders know he's odds on to go himself and they still struggle to manage him. If they had to gamble on whether he was going to slip someone else through as well he'd be unplayable.

Giggs was a genius at it so there should be plenty of footage available for him to study.
Did you not see his assist just last game?
 
For me the best moment that showed him being more thoughtful on when to shoot vs pass was the first half ball he squared to Mata in the box. That I thought was a good sign, as he could have taken a tough shot from an angle but instead quickly made his mind up to wait for a spot to pass and picked out Mata (who should have scored or at least tested the keeper more than he did).
 
Did you not see his assist just last game?

I did indeed and that exactly what I'd like to see more of from him.

I also saw him go it alone several times before that assist with no end result. I normally try to make observations based on a range of matches and incidents rather than basing opinions on just one or two.
 
For me the best moment that showed him being more thoughtful on when to shoot vs pass was the first half ball he squared to Mata in the box. That I thought was a good sign, as he could have taken a tough shot from an angle but instead quickly made his mind up to wait for a spot to pass and picked out Mata (who should have scored or at least tested the keeper more than he did).
I agree he's improved this aspect. Hopefully it continues.
 
For me the best moment that showed him being more thoughtful on when to shoot vs pass was the first half ball he squared to Mata in the box. That I thought was a good sign, as he could have taken a tough shot from an angle but instead quickly made his mind up to wait for a spot to pass and picked out Mata (who should have scored or at least tested the keeper more than he did).

I wasn't aware that he apparently had to learn to pass. This wasn't a weakness before.
 
And the CL, and the game against Madrid.

You're counting a pre-season friendly against Real Madrid ?

It wasn't much of a surprise that he was an unused sub in the supercup match against Real Madrid.

It's clear as daylight that Rashford is the preferred option for Mourinho, he's got 4/5 starts in the Premier League, while Martial is limited to 1/5 starts and a total of 45min as a substitute spread over 4 games:

10 mins against West Ham coming on as the second sub
15 mins against Swansea alongside Fellaini
18 mins against Stoke coming on as the first sub
2 mins against Everton coming on as the last sub

Combined, with his start against Leicester, it's 121 mins of PL football compared to Rashfords 311..

A start against Basel in the CL group stage and a start against Burton 2 weeks later doesn't really change much.

If Rashford is injured, Martial might start unless Mourinho wants to give Lingard a chance. If Rashford is fit, he plays.
 
To be fair as pessimistic and blunt @MThomas might seems to come off, he does make fair points. I think there is case of burying heads in the sand in this thread regarding Martial in relation to Mourinho and how his role is perceived in the squad.

@MThomas might or might not be extreme with his assertion that Martial is gone end of season but the arguments he brought fourth are actually solid and make much more sense than most far fetched theories and guesses as to why he(Martial) hasn't been afforded the same treatment and leeway as his other teammates.

And it's also true that Rashford is first choice under Mourinho, no need to deny this and dress it as Mou swapping the 2. The important stuff is the PL and Rashford has started 4/5 to Martial one start. Starting in cup games and group stages of CL doesn't counter the obvious fact that Rashford is Mourinho preferred choice.
 
Couldn't be more obvious the off the pitch issues got to him last season.
 
Great to read that. Jose seems like he's warming to Martial, and that can only be a good thing for us.
 
Mou has been saying positive things about Martial since the season started, though what most would like to see is proof through action rather than words. Hopefully things work out for the best.
 
Mou has been saying positive things about Martial since the season started, though what most would like to see is proof through action rather than words. Hopefully things work out for the best.

Tbf if Martial buys it then that's all matters. If Martial think he is key player as he started CL game then it's all good.

Like I said many times, season has just started and people are making too many judgements too soon.

I know the answer would be even last season he did or didn't play but this season is fresh start for almost every player. Last season Mkhitaryan didn't play much and now he is key player, same with Herrera in other way.
 
Let's keep it simple folks. The facts are what they are: Martial has been getting more game time; Jose's comments about him have been positive; Martial's stats have been improving; Martial looks a lot happier.

Playing Rashford ahead of Martial so far, must simply mean that regardless of who we think is the better player, Jose seems to see certain things (I suspect these 'things' are mostly off pitch attitude related things) in Rashford that makes him give him more starts. The good news is that so far this season, Jose's decision has paid off immensely. We can start getting very worried if the results change for the worse, Rashford starts under performing, yet Jose keeps starting him ahead of Martial.
 
We'll certainly find out, it's only been 5 league matches so plenty of things can happen. However, unless there's long term injuries to key players, i'd be very surprised if Martial gets more than a substitutes role this season, most likely in combination with Lingard.

I don't think this will be bad considering Martial's healthy competition with Rashford which, to a large extent, has been one of the key reasons behind our good performances this season. If they both share a positive attitude and Jose keeps managing them well, it may well turn out to be a competition that will improve them individually and push United to the title this season.
 
Couldn't be more obvious the off the pitch issues got to him last season.

Yeah definately seems that way, looks like the player we bought 2 years ago again, and from Jose's comments today, I think he'll start tomorrow
 
I don't think this will be bad considering Martial's healthy competition with Rashford which, to a large extent, has been one of the key reasons behind our good performances this season. If they both share a positive attitude and Jose keeps managing them well, it may well turn out to be a competition that will improve them individually and push United to the title this season.

Which is pure guesswork.
 
Mourinho's comments on Andreas Pereira fighting for a first team place instead of going to Valencia do shed some light in terms of Martial situation. Mourinho wants to challenge players and have them develop the right mentality, where they don't take the easy road, instead let's see some fight in you. It's not just about developing the skills, but also the mentality. To me, it looks like Mourinho is doing just this with Martial, giving him minutes here and there to challenge him. And so far, Martial seems to be responding well.
 
Which is pure guesswork.


Could be but the reality is that their substitutions have led to changes in the way we were approaching games, assists and goals. For me, this including the Matic, Lukaku and general form improvement factors among others, have been key for us this season.
 
Could be but the reality is that their substitutions have led to changes in the way we were approaching games, assists and goals. For me, this including the Matic, Lukaku and general form improvement factors among others, have been key for us this season.

How has it led to changes in how we approach the matches ? How is it a reality. It's just making things up.
 
I'm sure most will disagree but I get the feeling Mou senses that Martial isn't as committed to the club as Rashford is and is engineering an environment for Rashford to flourish over Martial. Classic Mourinho and SAF team management.
 
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