Except it's not being unnecessarily defensive. It's calling out bullshit which clearly is bullshit.
It's not entirely bullshit, because Martial has had patchy form where he's either very good or pretty anonymous and mediocre. His natural talent is one thing, but the consistency on the pitch is another.
You may be tired and worn out of expecting a 24 year old to be top class who isn't yet. But he's undeniably a very good footballer.
No one is expecting him to be world class. He's just in a position for a giant club where inconsistency is rarely forgiven. He's a very good talent but that doesn't mean he hasn't had patches of poor displays that we just ignore.
How is stating Martial to be a "bang average" or "mediocre" footballer a valid opinion? There was no legitimate reasoning.
The reasoning is that he has had mediocre performances that compliment the very good ones. His inconsistency is still a big downfall of his game, and he's running out of excuses at 24. Clearly, not according to
@Yagami below who thinks its down to lack of service (guess we have to add that to "he's on the LW it's not his position", "Jose played him wrong", "He was injured" and "he needs Rashford" to the ever growing list of excuses when he's playing poorly.
Because you're still banging on about him not being Sergio Aguero. Yes he's not an elite CF. We get it. But he is a very good footballer. Hopefully he takes another step up becuase, you know, 24 year olds can do that. But if he doesn't, it doesn't mean he's average or shit or some other standard we can just make up because as children we didn't get the candy we wanted.
I named 5-6 strikers in my post, 2-3 from teams below us, 1 fighting relegation as strikers capable of more consistent displays than him this season. And you chose to isolate Augero? Also no one said Martial is shite. For what it's worth
I don't think he's .just mediocre either but I'm not going to say an opinion is incorrect about him being mediocre for us, when he has actually had quite a few mediocre displays. Talent is one thing, what you do week on week on the pitch is another.
The only times he hasn't performed this season is when we've had no Rashford, and vice versa. When they've both had each other - as well as Fernandes in Martial's case - they've both been consistently good.
I disagree - He has had some matches in individual displays where he's anonymous when we've had a full team before too.
As for your age comment, I COMPLETELY disagree. When Tevez joined he was around the 23-25 age range, and whilst I was always a fan, he wasn't half the player he was at 26 and over for City and Juventus. So much so that some United fans weren't bothered about City signing him. Players develop at different rates, and this is Martial's FIRST season consistently playing as a CF. After 2 and a half years of being misused by a toxic manager, too.
Lets not get into this. Tevez for us far better than Martial in almost every aspect. Hunger, workrate, shooting, physicality, movement, consistency in performance form match-to-match, you name it.
Your excuse here: first full season as CF.
Unlike all of them, this is not only his first full season at CF, he's had next to zero service for a lot of his games yet has still managed to score out of nothing in a lot of them. The games where he's played with players with actual quality, which hasn't been that often this season, he's delivered more often than not.
Your excuse here: no service.
You say that his general play, movement and instinct all go off for long patches in games, but you fail to mention that, again, that coincides with him getting no service, no support up front, and, like all players, yes, inconsistency on his behalf, which all the other forwards you mention suffer from as well.. Anyone of those other strikers, bar probably Aguero, would struggle here under the circumstances, too. It's why Ole was desperate to get some attacking support in January.
Your excuse again - zero service. This is just getting tiresome. I like you, I and many others have seen every match of ours this season. I'm referring to games where Martial is often flat footed, failing to make runs, failing to get near post, dropping deep far too often, etc. This is feck all to do with service and everything to do with stamping authority on to the game.
Whilst making all of these statements I want to make it crystal clear that Martial 1) is an extremely talented player, 2) on his day can be unplayable, but 3) his average performances are still too frequent for my liking, and that's why I can understand posters saying he's not a top player.