Anthony Martial image 9

Anthony Martial France flag

2017-18 Performances


View full 2017-18 profile

6.1 Season Average Rating
Appearances
45
Goals
11
Assists
11
Yellow cards
1
Status
Not open for further replies.
We need him back to his best this year. He can be such a weapon, as we saw the first season.

Hopefully he's focused and happy, and ready to fire like all the footage from pre-season seems to suggest.
 
Would love to see this as well, as I think it would get a lot out of Martial (or Rashford could play a similar role). I think this will be an option if we play with two strikers, presumably in a 3-5-2. The problem right now is that without Perisic, it's hard for me to see who will play the left wing back in this if not Martial. Perhaps Darmian, perhaps Lingard I guess. And Shaw would potentially be perfect, but feels like a stretch to rely on him for that. I think of him as being too slow for it, but didn't Blind play some wingback for LVG's Holland team?

Agree, Awpupd be good to see Rashford and Martial rotated in that position. I think Shaw, if he can prove his fitness and form, could excel in that position and become a real asset for us there. Yes Blind played there for LvG's Holland side so he could play that role too. I'm a big fan of Blind, not the quickest but a really clever player and an excellent passer and distributor. If needed Darmian could do a job there too. Moving forward I think 3-5-2 could really suit us.
 
If he can notch up 15+ goals and 10+ assists in the league this season, I will consider it a good return. What expectations do you think we can have from him this season?

That would be a great return given his last season. I'd say he'll get around 12 goals and maybe 8 assists, I hope he surpasses both our expectations.
 
Watching him after seeing the energy, movement and directness Rashford provides is so underwhelming.
 
Officially losing patience with him. Actually annoys me that he has one of our premier shirts '11'.
 
Was more aggressive than this the previous games. I didn't notice him today.
 
Thought he's been good on the tour so far.

Not much impact tonight. Just went through the paces(tbf, so did the team the last 20 or so minutes).
 
You count 20 minutes against a team in a friendly where our foot was firmly off the gas and where he didn't actually do anything bad as a shit performance? Yikes.

Along with the other year and a bit of shit form, sure do.
 
What exactly is his problem? Is it a technical or mental barrier?

It's tactical I think. It's like he doesn't have the intelligence to get himself into a game when it's passing him by. He just stands out wide and waits for someone to pass to him. I often wonder if our offensive coaches ever seat him down and show him videos of himself standing outwide doing absolutely nothing
 
It's tactical I think. It's like he doesn't have the intelligence to get himself into a game when it's passing him by. He just stands out wide and waits for someone to pass to him. I often wonder if our offensive coaches ever seat him down and show him videos of himself standing outwide doing absolutely nothing

It was an issue of his at Monaco too and it was being worked on, so he knows it's a weakness in his game. I'm certain Jose also knows, as it seems to be a big reason as to why he prefers Lingard etc.

He's just far too static.
 
Martial does look sharper & give more effort closing down player in our pressing phase than before. It's a positive thing/ improvement. I don't expect him to become a winger. It's not his natural game. So in game he is supposed to play winger, he disappears, it can't be helped. I think he's just given gametime now in this failed position so he can build fitness. That winger position is to be filled, while Martial in long term would be tried again as forward like the first game which he was much better.
 
As bad a substitute player as rooney
Agree with post above cannot play himself into a game to save his life. Will need to figure it out because they will be his only chances to impress IMO
 
Didn't get a touch really. Said it in the match thread too - Darmian really doesn't do him any favours.

Oh come on Martial is just too static. Even when a cross comes into the box he stands out wide he doesn't try to make a run into the box . When all the other offensive players are in and around the box he is standing still outside
 
Martial does look sharper & give more effort closing down player in our pressing phase than before. It's a positive thing/ improvement. I don't expect him to become a winger. It's not his natural game. So in game he is supposed to play winger, he disappears, it can't be helped

Positional or not, it's his overall game that worries me, he doesn't move. He's always standing still, waiting for the others to move around him, constantly waiting for the ball into his feet. He then cuts in from the left and either crosses to the far post or runs into 3 defenders and passes backwards, rinse and repeat all game.
 
Would not be upset if he went out on loan and probably wouldn't be devastated if he was sold as part of a transfer package.
You're nuts! No way.

Mourinho will get him sorted, he just won't be first choice til he sorts it out.

But I'm convinced he will become world class
 
Martial does look sharper & give more effort closing down player in our pressing phase than before. It's a positive thing/ improvement. I don't expect him to become a winger. It's not his natural game. So in game he is supposed to play winger, he disappears, it can't be helped. I think he's just given gametime now in this failed position so he can build fitness. That winger position is to be filled, while Martial in long term would be tried again as forward like the first game which he was much better.

The second game too he looked great after he was moved forward
 
Positional or not, it's his overall game that worries me, he doesn't move. He's always standing still, waiting for the others to move around him, constantly waiting for the ball into his feet. He then cuts in from the left and either crosses to the far post or runs into 3 defenders and passes backwards, rinse and repeat all game.
Maybe he is abit thick?
 
Positional or not, it's his overall game that worries me, he doesn't move. He's always standing still, waiting for the others to move around him, constantly waiting for the ball into his feet.
As I said, his style is more suited to be a forward. I don't expect him to suddenly become a proper winger. He is given time to build fitness & sharpness for the incoming season while I believe Mourinho & many of us can see how Martial comes into life better in forward role.
 
:lol: Some of the analysis, It's a friendly game and game was already won. When he dribbled past fullback, cut inside and tried to play Lukaku in, Lukaku was already exhausted and asked him to pass the ball backwards. He can't influence the game alone when whole left side was flat as it was friendly and tempo completely dropped.
 
It's tactical I think. It's like he doesn't have the intelligence to get himself into a game when it's passing him by. He just stands out wide and waits for someone to pass to him. I often wonder if our offensive coaches ever seat him down and show him videos of himself standing outwide doing absolutely nothing

Well, I'm starting to get confident he's not a typical Jose winger at all and won't make it here as a winger with Jose managing us. He's very lethargic on the flank and not causing chaos for the defenders as what Jose wants from his wingers. Rashford did that perfectly so he's a more preferred option.

It seems he'll only make it with Jose as second or third choice striker, as Lukaku and Rashford are more favored than him but he can get good game time considering Rashford will be deployed a lot on the left flank if we didn't get a LW this summer. We appeared more aggressive in the striker position in the first game than what he was on the wing.

He still can succeed on the wing but with a manager who can bypass his lethargy on the flank, something hard for Jose tbh. LVG was building the whole team around him and no other manager is going to do that.

I'm against his loan because we need options on the bench but at this point, he's clearly not Jose's type of wingers and no it has nothing with tracking back.
 
:lol: Some of the analysis, It's a friendly game and game was already won. When he dribbled past fullback, cut inside and tried to play Lukaku in, Lukaku was already exhausted and asked him to pass the ball backwards. He can't influence the game alone when whole left side was flat as it was friendly and tempo completely dropped.
Problem was there last season
 
As I said, his style is more suited to be a forward. I don't expect him to suddenly become a proper winger. He is given time to build fitness & sharpness for the incoming season while I believe Mourinho & many of us can see how Martial comes into life better in forward role.

Which is a problem in of itself. Last season when Ibra was injured Rashford was our main striker. It's obvious Jose doesn't see him as a striker, the same way LVG preferred Rashford too. Now that Lukaku's here, he's our main striker, with Rashford seemingly the second choice (he's played up top this pre-season too). So where does that leave Martial?
 
Problem was there last season

This isn't last season. There was lot of problems last season. He is young player and still plenty to improve, so why not wait till the season starts to see how he is playing? These friendly games are nothing but fitness building exercises.
 
He didn't do much today, but he came into the game with a ton of other subs and didn't have the benefit of support around him. How much of that is personnel or his lack of positional play, I cannot say.
 
Which is a problem in of itself. Last season when Ibra was injured Rashford was our main striker. It's obvious Jose doesn't see him as a striker, the same way LVG preferred Rashford too. Now that Lukaku's here, he's our main striker, with Rashford seemingly the second choice (he's played up top this pre-season too). So where does that leave Martial?
This is my opinion only, but Rashford & Martial can't play centrally together. Both lack the presence & hold up play. Martial prefers a more patient link up while Rashford prefers a hyper approach with linking up. Martial was used as wide forward in that case under LVG so they don't mess up each other in case both playing centrally.

Rashford was preferred toward the end of last season was obvious. He was positive & his workrate both offensively & defensively was to offset the lack of hold up play. We couldn't afford tomake wholesale change to patient build in middle of season for Martial who was in worse form than Rashford.

Martial did play well with Zlatan at few occasion. Lukaku while I don't rate his overall game that high, still is a forward type that can make room for Martial. It's just a small example, but IMO (again), Martial can work with Lukaku centrally, while Rashford will the pne who be shunt onto wide area if he is to play with Lukaku. Why? Because playing centrally, Rashford relies on his run in behind the defense, which Lukaku can do that himself. Overrelying on Lukaku, hold up play (IMO is not that great), which means he's further away from goal just to allow Rashford to play his preferred way is counter productive as we see that Lukaku should be the one to make those run, and should be the one closer to goal.

As per Martial, while he is clueless in his positional, movement play as winger, I maintain I see him sharper than season, & it's just pre season. There is more intensity when he's chasing, closing down, start running with the ball (despite no end product)
 
Along with the other year and a bit of shit form, sure do.

Andreas Pereira was dreadful as well, barely did anything of note, just tossed it off on the pitch and so lazy, overrated, sell Pereira and sack Martial.

Martial + shit form + last year = one of our most productive players.
 
The overreactions in this thread are pretty funny. It's as if people are just waiting for it. :lol:
 
martial is the new rooney for redcafe it seems. some people on here are so fecking annyoing. they just want to see certain players fail. bunch of twats
 
Status
Not open for further replies.