[Womp]

I'm not sure how you manage to interpret my post as if 2 games was the sample post. I can repeat myself if it was unclear:

- Rashford has started 5 out of the 6 Premier League matches. In terms of minutes, he has played 75% of our total minutes played.

- Martial has started 1/6 games. In terms of minutes, he has played 22% of our total minutes played

In terms of when he was subbed on. He got 10 mins against West Ham, 15 against Swansea, 76 against Leicester, 18 against stoke, 2 against Everton, 0 against Southampton

Both have started a cup match against a second string championship side.

Martial starting an early group stage match against Basel doesn't make this into a rotation.

Rashford isn't being rotated, he's first choice, it's blindingly obvious.

Which once again completely misses my point. Where did I speak about the Premier League specifically? Once again, rotation isn't just for the premier league. We've had one CL game, with another coming up. Martial could be preferred in the CL for now, especially as he'd have much more space on the pitch to make an impact. Whilst Rashford is preferred in the PL. By default, considering there's been more PL games - Rashford is involved in a larger sum of our minutes.

That being said, there's no guarantee Rashford will stay first choice in the prem, nor will Martial in the CL. It will swap and change. Not to add there's still the FA cup to come, both will play.

If Martial was to start against CSKA - would you consider they're both being rotated to compete in all competitions? You probably wouldn't tbh, I wouldn't be surprised.

We've still got (hopefully) like 80% of the season left to play, come the latter stages of the season, if this trajectory continues, despite the accumulation of games, then you can begin making these justifications. Until then, reading the same shite every day is really getting tedious.

 

[Womp]

People have some bizarre love for Jose. Genuinely can't explain Jose getting any sort of praise for his "management" of Mkhi and Martial considering the seasons both of them had before Jose came here and ruined both their last seasons.

Although I don't agree with giving Jose all the praise for Mkhi, I don't agree with this either. Martial's form turned to shit that season long before Jose came in. He was woeful at the Euros, for example.

Also Mkhi has always been known as a player who's very fragile mentally, his form at Dortmund was reminiscent of that too. Moving to a much tougher league with much more pressure wouldn't have come easy to him.

So whilst I wouldn't give him credit for it, I wouldn't use their dips in form as a a stick to beat him with either.

 

[RedStarUnited]

cant believe people are arguing about Rashford being the starter and Martial the bench player.

Rotation? Lol the only one rotating is Martial. Has Martial started two games in a row yet this season?

 

[RedStarUnited]

Which once again completely misses my point. Where did I speak about the Premier League specifically? Once again, rotation isn't just for the premier league. We've had one CL game, with another coming up. Martial could be preferred in the CL for now, especially as he'd have much more space on the pitch to make an impact. Whilst Rashford is preferred in the PL. By default, considering there's been more PL games - Rashford is involved in a larger sum of our minutes.

That being said, there's no guarantee Rashford will stay first choice in the prem, nor will Martial in the CL. It will swap and change. Not to add there's still the FA cup to come, both will play.

If Martial was to start against CSKA - would you consider they're both being rotated to compete in all competitions? You probably wouldn't tbh, I wouldn't be surprised.

Quick question, in this situation would you rather be Martial or Rashford?

 

[RedStarUnited]

Although I don't agree with giving Jose all the praise for Mkhi, I don't agree with this either. Martial's form turned to shit that season long before Jose came in. He was woeful at the Euros, for example.

Also Mkhi has always been known as a player who's very fragile mentally, his form at Dortmund was reminiscent of that too. Moving to a much tougher league with much more pressure wouldn't have come easy to him.

So whilst I wouldn't give him credit for it, I wouldn't use their dips in form as a a stick to beat him with either.

Martial played one half and 10 minutes I think in the euros. Is that really enough time to call someone woeful?

 

[wr8_utd]

Although I don't agree with giving Jose all the praise for Mkhi, I don't agree with this either. Martial's form turned to shit that season long before Jose came in. He was woeful at the Euros, for example.

Also Mkhi has always been known as a player who's very fragile mentally, his form at Dortmund was reminiscent of that too. Moving to a much tougher league with much more pressure wouldn't have come easy to him.

So whilst I wouldn't give him credit for it, I wouldn't use their dips in form as a a stick to beat him with either.

I'm not bothered with how Martial was for France. International and club forms are very often a major contrast for most players but he was our best player under LvG and was producing in April at Wembley and vs West Ham. Jose comes in and Martials confidence, form and chances in the team all go to hell. Mkhitaryan had a great season at BVB before moving here and he had an awful season as well. To somehow then give Jose credit for "turning their form around" is just mental on all levels. Their form and confidence and momentum all dipped under and probably because of Jose. He didn't fix shit really but there are people who believe he's some of God.

 

[Womp]

Quick question, in this situation would you rather be Martial or Rashford?

Well considering it's only the beginning of the season, the manager has spoken with me personally about my role this season which I was happy with and I'm playing football. I wouldn't mind being Martial.

It's true Rashford has played more, but he's been taken off for Martial in games, Martial has been preferred in the cups and the FA cup hasn't even begun yet. This won't last anyway, Martial will begin being first choice in the prem, with Rashford being preferred in cups and it'll switch again.

Martial played one half and 10 minutes I think in the euros. Is that really enough time to call someone woeful?

Given how good of a season he had - why do you think he only played that long at the Euros? There's a simple reason for it. He stunk up the place and wasn't chosen again.

 

[MThomas]

Which once again completely misses my point. Where did I speak about the Premier League specifically? Once again, rotation isn't just for the premier league. We've had one CL game, with another coming up. Martial could be preferred in the CL for now, especially as he'd have much more space on the pitch to make an impact. Whilst Rashford is preferred in the PL. By default, considering there's been more PL games - Rashford is involved in a larger sum of our minutes.

That being said, there's no guarantee Rashford will stay first choice in the prem, nor will Martial in the CL. It will swap and change.

If Martial was to start against CSKA - would you consider they're both being rotated to compete in all competitions? You probably wouldn't tbh, I wouldn't be surprised.

Even if you factor in the minutes Martial got vs Basel, Rashford still has roughly 300mins more of football so far this season, which is a lot in such a short space of time for someone that's supposedly rotating.

It's simply no rotation, there's the case of Rashford being a clear first choice and the case of Martial being second / third depending on options.

And as i've said from the beginning of this debate, Martial will 99% start against CSKA, it just doesn't change much in terms of my argument ref Rashford being the first choice player and that Martial isn't being given a chance over time to stake a place. Rashford playing 75% of the Premier League matches just indicates that as soon as the important matches in the Champions League starts coming up, he's more likely to be involved, and that no matter how Martial perform vs CSKA, he's more likely to be on the bench for the Crystal Palace match than he is likely to start it. Martials performances have easily warranted consecutive starts, but it's not happening. Rashford performance against Everton was dire, same was his performance against Southampton today.

I've also taken up a bet which will result in a threadban if he gets consecutive starts...I'm not all that worried

 

[el3mel]

I'm inventing nothing, I'm basing my perception of the manager's value on his selections. Basically, simply due to tactics, he felt he 'didn't need Martial's qualities' from the start in 5 of 6 games this season then? Why would it be wrong to call him a squad player then? Rashford starts as many games as the likes of Pogba and De Gea. This is why I'm not calling him a squad player. A player who starts 1 league game in 6 while being fit is a squad player. Even if one game comes along one day and the boss thinks Martial is more suited and plays him, will that mean he isn't a squad player?

We bought De Gea to replace VDS, but he struggled, and he wasn't our only keeper. He was the most talented though, so it always stood that if he was on form, he would play.

Martial was bought for £60m after being labelled the best in the world of his age. I'm guessing the idea wasn't for him to play in the games 'where his attributes are needed' any more than it wouldn't be the idea if we bought Mbappé this summer. He was the most expensive teenager in world football. I put his profile similar to De Gea, Rooney and Ronaldo. Again, those players can't demand to play every game, but they can expect to if they are playing to the best of their abilities. Just like I can't see us dropping Pogba for 'tactical reasons'. Or a better example, Lukaku - even though our other strikers have 'different attributes'.

Anyway, I don't even want to be dragged into your 'conspiracy theorist' claims - my views are not as extreme as some others. My sole point, simply put, is that Martial is obviously not the least talented, nor in the worst form of all those selected ahead of him. For Jose to still ignore the form he is showing and not start him in the league tells me that he can't simply just 'play well enough to start'. If that were the case, he'd be in the team already, as he's playing well enough. It is more likely that the manager doesn't fancy him as much.

And I can understand why he wasn't brought on today a lot more why I can understand why he wasn't worthy of a start.

You're basing your point of the theory on the league only and neglecting the other competitions ? If Martial started against Cska, Rashford wouldn't have started a single match in CL so far so does that means Mourinho prefers Martial to Rashford against European teams ? Definitely not. You said it before it's a squad game and both him and Rashford accepted that. If the kid knew that and started to stay and fight for his place, we're in no point to complain about what's best for him. We won't know his future better than him.

De Gea had no good replacements for him to make any competition, but Martial does, and Rashford has been very good in most of the games he started bar the Everton game.

I don't understand the point of bringing Martial's price to this discussion. Mourinho wasn't the one who bought him. For him Martial is just like the other players he have in the attacking positions : another choice to choose from. I don't know when Mourinho neglect his good form, too, strange claim. When Martial did very well in the first 2 games he was given a starting position against Leicester as a reward from him, and since Sep we have been alternating between them in games, Rashford starting against Stoke, Martial against Basel, Rashford against Everton, Martial as LW against Burton then Rashford today and pretty sure Martial will start against Cska before Rashford starts against Palace. Calculating the league games doesn't make your point of discussion any favor tbh. Both have been rotating each match this season and no one of them started 2 successive games as a LW since the first 2 matches in the league. That reminds me of the myth of last season when people said he was benched after every good match he did even though putting these good forms awarded him with 6 successive starts in the team during Feb, including the League Cup final in which Rashford was benched.

Definitely Martial isn't less talented than any other player in his position, no one's saying that, but Mourinho isn't also neglecting his form as you're claiming, unless you're only calculating the league games and ignoring all other competitions, then it can't be helped tbh.

Martial not starting today was of obvious and predicted reason. He played the whole 90 minutes just 2 days ago in the League Cup game, while Rashford was subbed earlier. If Martial starts against Cska, we'll have only 2 days to rest before Palace, so the fresher Rashford will start against Palace. I thought people were screaming for Mourinho to rotate his side to avoid getting the players tired last season ?

 

[Janson]

I don't understand what the problem is with having Martial starting mostly in cup games, assuming he gets a lot of minutes, regardless of the competetion. On top of that, he will be getting the chance of having a great impact, even deciding games in the PL, coming of the bench. He could also potentially be instrumental in our CL campaign, in the group stage. Later he could get a similar role as in the PL, coming of the bench in important matches.

A benefit for him in the smaller cups, playing with partly a "b team", it would allow him to take charge more and have a lot of responsiblity. Which he doesn't get to do as much in the PL with more experienced players around him.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Well considering it's only the beginning of the season, the manager has spoken with me personally about my role this season which I was happy with and I'm playing football. I wouldn't mind being Martial.

It's true Rashford has played more, but he's been taken off for Martial in games, Martial has been preferred in the cups and the FA cup hasn't even begun yet. This won't last anyway, Martial will begin being first choice in the prem, with Rashford being preferred in cups and it'll switch again.



Given how good of a season he had - why do you think he only played that long at the Euros? There's a simple reason for it. He stunk up the place and wasn't chosen again.

So you would want to be Martial right now and not Rashford? Just to be clear.

On his euros, the manager had other plans. A player doesnt have to be shit for the manager not to pick him.

 

[dichinero]

Martial not starting today was of obvious and predicted reason. He played the whole 90 minutes just 2 days ago in the League Cup game, while Rashford was subbed earlier. If Martial starts against Cska, we'll have only 2 days to rest before Palace, so the fresher Rashford will start against Palace. I thought people were screaming for Mourinho to rotate his side to avoid getting the players tired last season ?

And what happened after the internationals? Rashford had played a game and a half while Martial didn't play for France, yet Rashford started ahead of the rested Martial. Rashford has looked more jaded ever since, yet gets the nod over Martial.

 

[el3mel]

And what happened after the internationals? Rashford had played a game and a half while Martial didn't play for France, yet Rashford started ahead of the rested Martial. Rashford has looked more jaded ever since, yet gets the nod over Martial.

Yes that was a mistake from Jose and I pointed to it at this time.

 

[Womp]

I'm not bothered with how Martial was for France. International and club forms are very often a major contrast for most players but he was our best player under LvG and was producing in April at Wembley and vs West Ham. Jose comes in and Martials confidence, form and chances in the team all go to hell. Mkhitaryan had a great season at BVB before moving here and he had an awful season as well. To somehow then give Jose credit for "turning their form around" is just mental on all levels. Their form and confidence and momentum all dipped under and probably because of Jose. He didn't fix shit really but there are people who believe he's some of God.

He was our best player under LVG because we played completely to his strengths and everything we did went through him. Jose Mourinho isn't going to play posession, not every manager in Martial's career is going to build a team around him and play posession football. He had a rough season as he was having to adapt to that. Not to add all his off-field issues. Apart from that, Martial was given the platform to perform last season, he was constantly picked at the start of the season despite being underwhelming.

On your point about Mkhi - he came into the side and was doing okay and then the City game happened. It was a woeful performance and he was rightly taken out of the squad for a while, both for his sake (given the English media etc.) and the sake of the team. You claim you're not bothered how player's perform with their NT, given there can be major differences, which is correct. What I don't understand is how you then expect a notoriously fragile player, moving to another country, to a team who play a completely different brand of football with much more pressure and expectation and expecting them to hit the ground running, isn't similar circumstances, if not worse to that of a NT setting.

Like I said - I wouldn't give him solely credit for improving them, although I believe him taking Mkhi out of the spotlight after the City game was the right thing to do, I wouldn't suggest it's why his form has improved. I'd put that down to both Martial and Mkhi beginning to adapt to the team, the manager and their new expectations.

 

[Womp]

So you would want to be Martial right now and not Rashford? Just to be clear.

On his euros, the manager had other plans. A player doesnt have to be shit for the manager not to pick him.

I would happily be either and I'm sure both are happy in their current predicaments, that's what I'm saying. Going off what they both said, Jose made Martial's role this season extremely clear to him and he was more than happy with that role. In fact the way Martial is smiling and laughing, he looks happier than he's ever been here.

The only people who are seemingly upset are people who have no association to either Martial or Jose, the fans.

The manager's other plans were not to select Martial as he had his chance and blew it. France have far too much quality for Martial to play as poorly as he did and get another chance. He was coming off the back of his best ever season.

 

[RedStarUnited]

I don't understand what the problem is with having Martial starting mostly in cup games, assuming he gets a lot of minutes, regardless of the competetion. On top of that, he will be getting the chance of having a great impact, even deciding games in the PL, coming of the bench. He could also potentially be instrumental in our CL campaign, in the group stage. Later he could get a similar role as in the PL, coming of the bench in important matches.

A benefit for him in the smaller cups, playing with partly a "b team", it would allow him to take charge more and have a lot of responsiblity. Which he doesn't get to do as much in the PL with more experienced players around him.

He turns 22 this December and he came here to play in the premier league not just the cups. Have you guys seen the intense competition for the french national team in attacking areas? If he wants to be at the world cup, he wont go as a swuad player for us.

Jose tried to do this with KDB and it certainly didnt work long term.

 

[Womp]

Even if you factor in the minutes Martial got vs Basel, Rashford still has roughly 300mins more of football so far this season, which is a lot in such a short space of time for someone that's supposedly rotating.

It's simply no rotation, there's the case of Rashford being a clear first choice and the case of Martial being second / third depending on options.

And as i've said from the beginning of this debate, Martial will 99% start against CSKA, it just doesn't change much in terms of my argument ref Rashford being the first choice player and that Martial isn't being given a chance over time to stake a place. Rashford playing 75% of the Premier League matches just indicates that as soon as the important matches in the Champions League starts coming up, he's more likely to be involved, and that no matter how Martial perform vs CSKA, he's more likely to be on the bench for the Crystal Palace match than he is likely to start it. Martials performances have easily warranted consecutive starts, but it's not happening. Rashford performance against Everton was dire, same was his performance against Southampton today.

I've also taken up a bet which will result in a threadban if he gets consecutive starts...I'm not all that worried

As I've said - in the PL atm, that's obviously true, Martial is second choice. In Cups, Martial is first choice. Also that will change throughout the season, Rashford will go to cups, with Martial going to the PL. Like I said, I'm not worried yet, it's only early days in the season, changing a winning formula so early isn't wise. When games begin accumulating if Rashford is still playing such a large number more minutes than Martial, i'll begin to worry. Until then, using skewed statistics to prove a point further reminds me why any talk with Martial is so tedious. Rashford has played a greater majority of our minutes - true, but we've barely played any games. Martial didn't play today due to the terrible defensive tactics (which I didn't agree with btw). Martial would have looked poor in that role.

It's still very early days in the season, things will change. If they don't, I'd agree with your sentiment.

 

[MThomas]

As I've said - in the PL atm, that's obviously true, Martial is second choice. In Cups, Martial is first choice. Also that will change throughout the season, Rashford will go to cups, with Martial going to the PL. Like I said, I'm not worried yet, it's only early days in the season, changing a winning formula so early isn't wise. When games begin accumulating if Rashford is still playing such a large number more minutes than Martial, i'll begin to worry. Until then, using skewed statistics to prove a point further reminds me why any talk with Martial is so tedious. Rashford has played a greater majority of our minutes - true, but we've barely played any games. Martial didn't play today due to the terrible defensive tactics (which I didn't agree with btw). Martial would have looked poor in that role.

It's still very early days in the season, things will change. If they don't, I'd agree with your sentiment.

He's been first choice in one cup match so far, they both played against Burton. Cup matches are far between. Players need momentum when they are playing well. Mourinho isn't stupid, he knows the priority is the league and that we have a slim to none chance of winning the CL. We're in an easy CL group, but if he senses there's a risk of not winning the group he'll swap things around.

In terms of the tactics today, they weren't the initial tactics, and Rashford hardly played well before half time..I don't think Rashfords performance against Everton warranted a starting place today, playing well against a second string championship side where pretty much all our players looked great isn't all that much to write home about. Yet he was back in the starting lineup.

You might well be right, maybe it will change, maybe Rashford will suddenly be playing the meaningless cup matches while Martial is getting consecutive matches in the league and is first choice there. I just don't find it very likely. Mourinho has found a player he likes in Rashford and he'll stick by him, a bit like certain players at Chelsea, i find it difficult to believe that there's much Martial can do to change that. For me, the most likely outcome here is that Martial will stop performing as well as he has as a substitute (anything else would be a big surprise given the stats he's produced so far), and that'll just result in even less minutes and he'll be off before the start of the 18/19 season

I just don't think Mourinho sees a long term future for Martial, if Mourinho was around when we initially signed Martial i reckon he would've turned it down in order to go for someone else.

 

[Catt]

About 10 pages in nine hours. Did we not have a game today?

 

[Dobbs]

He was our best player under LVG because we played completely to his strengths and everything we did went through him. Jose Mourinho isn't going to play posession, not every manager in Martial's career is going to build a team around him and play posession football. He had a rough season as he was having to adapt to that. Not to add all his off-field issues. Apart from that, Martial was given the platform to perform last season, he was constantly picked at the start of the season despite being underwhelming.

On your point about Mkhi - he came into the side and was doing okay and then the City game happened. It was a woeful performance and he was rightly taken out of the squad for a while, both for his sake (given the English media etc.) and the sake of the team. You claim you're not bothered how player's perform with their NT, given there can be major differences, which is correct. What I don't understand is how you then expect a notoriously fragile player, moving to another country, to a team who play a completely different brand of football with much more pressure and expectation and expecting them to hit the ground running, isn't similar circumstances, if not worse to that of a NT setting.

Like I said - I wouldn't give him solely credit for improving them, although I believe him taking Mkhi out of the spotlight after the City game was the right thing to do, I wouldn't suggest it's why his form has improved. I'd put that down to both Martial and Mkhi beginning to adapt to the team, the manager and their new expectations.

Just not true. Said this to another poster who argued the same. Martial was our best player right from his first kick.

 

[Janson]

He turns 22 this December and he came here to play in the premier league not just the cups. Have you guys seen the intense competition for the french national team in attacking areas? If he wants to be at the world cup, he wont go as a swuad player for us.

Jose tried to do this with KDB and it certainly didnt work long term.

The main concern for us should be how to make our team as effective as possible, not to make sure Martial gets to play in the WC. If that means he gets the majority of his minutes in cups, then that's fine. I don't see what's wrong with that. It looks like he will be starting CL games for now and it's up to him to make enough of an impact in order to get a more significant role.

 

[Womp]

Just not true. Said this to another poster who argued the same. Martial was our best player right from his first kick.

He was phenomenal in the Liverpool game and it was an incredible goal, but to maintain that over a whole season is a completely different ask. Not to add, the posession football we were playing since LVG came in - long before Martial. That patient build-up, constant balls into his feet etc. is what he thrives at.

 

[Devil may care]

About 10 pages in nine hours. Did we not have a game today?

We did and it was pretty awful, we escaped with 3 points and move onto the next, not really a lot to say about it for most I guess.

 

[sunama]

Some real fanboy-ism in this thread. Reading some comments, a neutral would think Martial is the reigning Ballon Dor.

Yes, he is good (in the right set-up). Definitely exciting. And for a team like Arsenal, he'd be phenomenal.
But in a Jose team, going for the title, at this stage of the campaign, Martial is an impact sub, which he is very good at. And one thing I remind all fanboys about - MUFC is bigger than any player. So if we can get the most out of a player with him in the bench, then so be it.

Today, I did want to see him subbed on at around 75 minutes, as I truly believe he'd have scored, given 2 chances and we definitely could've hit Southampton on the break. But Jose wanted to see us grind out a results with our back against the wall, so that's what we got.

 

[Catt]

We did and it was pretty awful, we escaped with 3 points and move onto the next, not really a lot to say about it for most I guess.

My bad. I assumed people were watching the game.

 

[Catt]

Martial's following is making the Kagawa fanboys look like juniors.

 

[Devil may care]

My bad. I assumed people were watching the game.

I think a lot of these posts came afterwards because Martial didn't get on, coupled with the fact there's not a level playing field for him is stirring up annoyance.

 

[Santoryo]

People have some bizarre love for Jose. Genuinely can't explain Jose getting any sort of praise for his "management" of Mkhi and Martial considering the seasons both of them had before Jose came here and ruined both their last seasons.

The funny thing is that most of these people knew about Mourinho mismanagement of certain ilk of players before coming here. They along with most on here made fun of Chelsea and Mou for these very same problems and rightly lay the blame on Mourinho.

But as soon as he becomes our manager, some are rewriting history or simply pretending the stuff about Mou aren't true.

 

[haram]

If Pogba has a bad game, do we bench him for Fellaini the following game? No. Your best players start. Mourinho ranks Rashford as one of his best players and first choice for the LW/LF position. Stop crying about Martial. We are top of the table and Rashford is integral to that. Both are talented. Rashford is just better in that position.

 

[Scorpy]

Some real fanboy-ism in this thread. Reading some comments, a neutral would think Martial is the reigning Ballon Dor.

Yes, he is good (in the right set-up). Definitely exciting. And for a team like Arsenal, he'd be phenomenal.
But in a Jose team, going for the title, at this stage of the campaign, Martial is an impact sub, which he is very good at. And one thing I remind all fanboys about - MUFC is bigger than any player. So if we can get the most out of a player with him in the bench, then so be it.

Today, I did want to see him subbed on at around 75 minutes, as I truly believe he'd have scored, given 2 chances and we definitely could've hit Southampton on the break. But Jose wanted to see us grind out a results with our back against the wall, so that's what we got.

Stopped reading at "fanboys".

 

[Janson]

He was phenomenal in the Liverpool game and it was an incredible goal, but to maintain that over a whole season is a completely different ask. Not to add, the posession football we were playing since LVG came in - long before Martial. That patient build-up, constant balls into his feet etc. is what he thrives at.

With a dominant player like Zlatan coming in, Martial was never gonna enjoy the same freedom and responsibility as before. On top of that, they never clicked. Martials lack of movement and his style was a part of the problem. He wants the ball to his feet, while Zlatan was used to having runners to supply around him. So Martial pretty much crumbled when he was expected to make intelligent runs to compliment Ibra and Pogba instead of being the main guy.

Then Mourinho lost patience with him and he's been out of favor ever since. Although he has started this season well, I still think there are many aspects of his game that need improving.

 

[Adisa]

Thread has been ruined.

 

[Sayros]

As talented as he is, there is no way he should have 300m less than Rashford (according to some posters here, I didn't verify that) or barely play for France at all, if there wasn't something else behind the scene that we don't know. I don't think Martial could have realistically started the season much better with the time he has been given, and yet he is playing far less, minutes-wise, to other players who's form are irrelevant to their starting status.

It's still early in the season, and I think some are over-reacting here but if the trend continues with Martial performing and yet playing significantly less minutes than the other options on the team, then he will leave without a doubt. As others mentioned, no player or manager is above the club however if Mourinho finds success within his method (which I'm not a fan of, but I prefer results over style), and it comes at the sacrifice of Martial's tenure within the club, then so be it.

I'm a fan of Martial, and I want him to succeed here preferably, but sometimes a style and a player don't fit well and I'll be excited to see him play elsewhere that will cater more to his strength.

 

[Damien]

Thread has been ruined.

It had been a long time ago to be fair. For this season, this thread has got double the number of posts of the next highest thread (Lukaku) when there's not exactly much to talk about performance wise as he's not played much.

If you look at last season's Martial thread, it took until the end of January to get to the number of pages this thread has already.

 

[Sayros]

It had been a long time ago to be fair. For this season, this thread has got double the number of posts of the next highest thread (Lukaku) when there's not exactly much to talk about performance wise as he's not played much.

If you look at last season's Martial thread, it took until the end of January to get to the number of pages this thread has already.

Well Martial is by far the most polarizing player on the team, so he'll get a lot more comments than a guy like Lukaku who is easy to agree on with his performances so far.

 

[Adisa]

Many people forget Mourinho said he had discussions with Martial about his role in the team. If Martial wasn't satisfied, he's be gone by now.
At least wait for some time before jumping into conclusions. Rashford finished last season well, so it's natural he is ahead of Martial at this point. I am sure there will be points in the season where Martial is given a run in the side.

 

[Damien]

Well Martial is by far the most polarizing player on the team, so he'll get a lot more comments than a guy like Lukaku who is easy to agree on with his performances so far.

Fellaini?

 

[Devil may care]

It had been a long time ago to be fair. For this season, this thread has got double the number of posts of the next highest thread (Lukaku) when there's not exactly much to talk about performance wise as he's not played much.

If you look at last season's Martial thread, it took until the end of January to get to the number of pages this thread has already.

I think that's because for most of us who aren't fanboys of either player it was clear Martial wasn't doing enough to warrant starting games, he looked out of sorts for much of the season, but he has started this season very well and looks fired up, I think most are just worried that if he realizes there is no way into the side no matter what he does, we'll end up losing him in order to play a player who is not as good as him in attack as a LWF.

 

[Jaybomb]

If Pogba has a bad game, do we bench him for Fellaini the following game? No. Your best players start. Mourinho ranks Rashford as one of his best players and first choice for the LW/LF position. Stop crying about Martial. We are top of the table and Rashford is integral to that. Both are talented. Rashford is just better in that position.

Exactly. Who cares who starts once we win? Some fans on here prefer the name on the back over the badge on the front. It's infuriating.

 

[Sayros]

Exactly. Who cares who starts once we win? Some fans on here prefer the name on the back over the badge on the front. It's infuriating.

I love it when people say that, as if the names on the back didn't directly affect the perception of the badge on the front. Wanting Martial to get more opportunities and wanting the club to win don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Fellaini?

Good shout, another polarizing figure though I don't think quite to the level of this Martial thread (although more topics have been made about him, so you may have a point).