I am not suggesting that Sanchez needs more game time relative to Martial to prove himself. We’ve already got enough of a sample. My point is give them both equal time from here until the end of the season and Sanchez is likely to score and assist far more than Martial. One of these players is far more involved in shooting and creating in the final third than the other. It is not even close.
Pure statistically you are probably right, but
far more is an overstatement. There's other things that needs to taken into account, where are the shots taken from, what is the expected goals.
If we look at the 17/18 season: Alexis Sanchez for both Arsenal and United: Total mins: 1507 for Arsenal, 1049 for us, combined total of 2556 mins. 7 goals and 3 assists for Arsenal, 2 goals and 3 assists for United, combined total of 9 goals and 6 assists. Average time on the pitch was 87,4 mins
Starting 11 for Arsenal: 17 matches, on as a sub in 2, subbed off 6 times
Starting 11 for United: 12, never on as a sub, subbed off 5 times
Martial had a total of 1582 mins:
Starting 11: 18 matches, on as a sub 12 matches, subbed off 13 matches. Average time on the pitch: 52,7 mins. 9 goals and 5 assists.
So the player that is supposed to
score and
assist far more (your words), with about 1000 mins more on the pitch and with a far more central role in terms of being in the starting lineup more often and taking freekicks, has
one more assist in the league. Certainly needs to be taken into consideration.
Your first para is illustrating my point entirely. Sanchez by popular opinion is absolute dross at the moment, but his underlying stats are far superior this season than Martial’s, even when normalised for minutes played. Again this thread is full of people commenting that they thought Martial did more than Sanchez when he come on, but he had zero shots, made no key passes and didn’t complete any dribbles. He drew one foul that got a free kick from a wide area, but that was the sum of his product.
What is it that is making people place stock in Martial going forward this season and not Sanchez? It can’t be the chances he is getting for himself or creating for others, because he’s miles behind a Sanchez who is apparently done at the top level.
What is it that I am missing? You can’t pick the team based on who is under-delivering on their salary the least.
What is a key pass. Well, a key pass is basically a pass that results in a shot at goal. I think it's a decent way of measuring a team performance, not so sure about individual players.
A decent example is our first goal against Derby. Martial does brilliantly to control the ball and maintain the pace to ensure pressure is still on Derby, not giving them time to get back and organize their defence, Lukaku shows great awareness when he lets it go to Lingard who then gets the easy option of either attempting a shot or rolling the ball to Mata. Mata gets the shot away and scores, lingard gets the key pass. Was it an individual accomplishment ? Nah, without Martials run and ball control there wouldn't be a chance, without Lukakus awareness Lingard wouldn't have received the ball to make the pass to Mata. Look, if you want to base everything on stats, be my guest, then we're more or less idiots for getting rid of Mkhi. Praise baby Jesus it's about looking at a bigger picture. Stats isn't everything, but it isn't nothing either. So stats will say he didn't complete any dribbles, at the same time he went past his opponent and was brought down as he was running into the box. He didn't draw a foul after weighing his options, he went past him and was brought down because of the threat it posed having him run freely into the box.It's also somewhat unfair to compare stats over the course of 76 mins with what happens in the remaining 14 + extra time, there's quite a lot that needs to be taken in account. What about the factors on the pitch. In the final period of the match we shifted Fellaini up top so we could knock it up to him, which effect will that have etc.
For me, i have plenty of hope in Sanchez turning things around, but my main concern is that the tactics we use are tactics he's not suited to. Personally, i feel that if we continue to play the way we've been playing under Mourinho, then Sanchez will continue to struggle. Why some choose to believe that Martial will go forward while Sanchez might not, i would argue it's a combination of what i've pointed out ref playing style, and the fact that Martial has shown he can function in such a setup. You also need to factor in the general impression that we tried to fix something that wasn't broken, and as a result we've gone from having a functioning left wing to having a dysfunctional one. It's not far fetched to suggest that Martial would've kept performing if he wasn't replaced, and that the same courtacy that's being offered to other players when they aren't performing up to their usual standards, should be offered to Martial as well.
Fluffing a chance isn’t the worst thing in the world. Every season stats illustrate that the top scorers are those who get the most shots away. Getting chances for yourself is by far the biggest indicator of future goalscoring.
But you didn't present it as that, you presented it as a reference to him playing well in the second half, there's a vast difference between stating that he gets into good positions and "he fluffed our best chance"
