The narrative defines the response. Tony is our golden boy at the moment so we're sympathetic to a couple of misses. No doubt Rashford would have been roundly slated for missing the same chances. Personally, I don't think he did much wrong, good saves it happens. I think the two of them are set for a phenomenal season together next year.
9
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 48
- Goals
- 23
- Assists
- 8
- Yellow cards
- 1
- Status
Hardly call the chances he had sitters. He should probably have done better with them but by no means were they easy chances. Keeper was on him in a flash. Surprised he didn’t lift one of the chances over the keeper, it’s totally in his wheel house to do it.
That pass to set up Rashford by the way
Weight on that pass was just perfect. Deserved assist for that.
What a player he is btw, player who scores goals but also very good playmaker and dribbler
Then I would say your expectations are unrealistic and we have pretty different definitions of sitter, you seem to act as if the GK doesn't exist in 1v1; they were chances, but not sitters. One was from a tight angle with the keeper covering his position, another was a rush from GK after the first touch where there's not much space to score at that point, and then we have a shot from outside the area he tries to curl in. I can't remember three 1v1 that are sitters in any of those. They're still at least one chance out of those I feel Martial should have put away, with maybe a better first touch from Pogba's pass and quick strike when the GK rushed him in the surface. He should have done better with that one, the others I don't feel were easy chances.
Either way, this can only light an even bigger fire in his belly, I thought the Copenhagen game would have done that but he came up short in the end again. For me, it's still an anomaly more than a trend, and I'm not worried about him hitting 20 league goals next season provided he's healthy for most of the season. If Sancho comes, 25 league goals is very realistic if he plays most games.
I agree with that objectively in that particular game his finishing wasn't good enough. But these things happen, he is generally very clinical so there is no reason to judge that part of his game beyond that particular game. But that game exposes something else, Martial is by far our main goalscoring threat in open play, he is the only one that consistently finds himself at the end of chances created by others and also the only one creating consistently for himself, that part needs to change. I trust Greenwood to develop his game and be more than a genuinely great finisher but we need him to create more chances for himself and others.
Now the controversial point will be about Rashford, I rate him and believe that he is a very good young player but the way he plays would I believe see him be that player that SAF would trust and often use but not necessarily start. Your Ole, Chicharito or Nani.
GK exist, opponents exist these points can be used for every player too. For example, you said Rashford was awful, if we go by same logic we shouldn't say he was awful as we have to take opponents into consideration and they did well to restrict him.
It doesn't work that way. Player for Martial quality should be scoring them, he used to chip GK regularly but for some reason he didn't yesterday.
Anyways I don't mind him missing chances, he is usually very good finisher so Sevilla was just a off game which happens to every player. In most games he would have scored at least 2 goals, it wasn't his day.
Happy to see a little pushback on the near daily rubbish spouted on TalkSport
A lot of these pundits and radio hosts expose themselves as not actually watching matches with so many of their takes. Just endlessly regurgitating lazy and contrived narratives
What’s even worse is that some of our fans who watch us every game regurgitate the same nonsense.
Who might get their news and analysis from these "pundits"
I know for sure some get their analysis from Duncan Castles going by posts in Maguire thread.
Very true, they’re also the most vocal.
They "miss" them because they don't watch us play hence why they go for the safe method which is regurgitate lazy preconceived narratives
Yeah, it's good that at least fans gets airtime to challenge these pundits.
His link up play is great - however I wish Ole would stop playing Rashford and Greenwood so far and wide behind him because most of the time its those two trying to create chances for Martial than its Martial creating chances for Rashford and Greenwood.
Martials the most creative out of those 3. Ole's dedication to the 4231 usage over a 433 is going to hold us back.
Martials the most creative out of those 3. Ole's dedication to the 4231 usage over a 433 is going to hold us back.
And I thought bringing others into play has been one of the things he has excelled in this season. I just don't get these pundits.
I feel like you're being a bit disingenuous on this argument, or you're just an extreme nit-picker. If you can't see why Rashford's performance was much poorer than Martial, even considering the misses which are absolutely not easy goals to finish off for anybody. We've seen Lewadowski today miss a genuine sitter (not the kind of sitters some here think Martial's chances were), it happens like you said it's an off-game and the GK was solid and had a good game. Martial's best chance was the Pogba pass and he's through, but after his first touch the chip is much harder to do. Just a bad day at the office, but he's not missing empty nets dead center here like some are trying to make out.
So that can be true, and it can also be true that while there are opponents for Rashford to deal with as well, he's capable of doing more than what he did, whether it's his running, his directness, his contribution overall to the team, or his desire/care which he seemed to be in low supply of during that game. I feel it was pretty clear, even with Martial's misses, that he was the brightest of the three and didn't get much support from Rashford who, even in bad games, is usually capable of at least creating more danger that Martial or Greenwood can take advantage of.
I see he's once again nominated for POTM. Feels like he gets nominated every month now which is testament to his consistency. I'm expecting him to win Player of the season.
I didn't say Rashford was better at all, not sure where you got that from.
Regarding other points, I don't think anyone said he missed open goals. I don't know why you are being so defensive when others say he missed 3 easy chances. Maybe you don't rate them as easy chances but others do. It's not even a big deal.
I didn't think you did either, but you seem to take issue with my assessment of his performance as awful when I was trying to argue that Martial's misses weren't sitters due to the GK and that he still was the better of the forwards that day. My criticism wasn't in regards to his struggles with the opposition to call it awful, it was the attitude more so than the lack of success taking on people the few times he actually tried.
And I have an issue with it because one was maybe an easy chance despite the good goalkeeping. I'm just baffled that people think a volley from a tight angle covered by the goalkeeper, or a first time bending shot from outside the box are easy chances. I feel like I must have missed a part of the game where there was a genuine sitter, I seriously am starting to wonder. The ones I described above are the only chances I remember.
Either way, it's not a big deal; I'm just bored.
I think he had a very good game but I think you're missing the 2 one on ones. Both were great goal keeping but one on ones none the less. First time he tried putting it in the corner, second time he tried rounding the keeper.
The attack on him by British pundits embarrassing. This week it's been Jamie O'Hara and Deeney. Talk about the need for a 25 goals a season striker to win the league. When was this made fact. A lot of the times we won it with the goals being spread around. Liverpool won it with Mane 18 goals and Salah 19 goals.
Deeney said Martial is a top 3 striker in the whole league. Hardly an attack. regarding Jamie O'Hara, the less said the better.
There is already a slight shift of change in positions in 2-4 recent games. Greenwood and Rashford are now closer to Martial than before and as you've described, to fully make use of Martial's creativity.
The downside to this is our width play is affected because Williams and AWB doesn't offer enough quality of attacks. Not a problem before with Shaw and the adventurous confident Williams. Additionally, our players positioning are a lot messier than before, less organized, and less spaces to move higher and less angles to attack for Pogba. The box is also more compact than before. Our forwards are so much better with wider spaces than close spaces.
Personally I prefer the previous approach where Rashford and Greenwood stick more to the wings and cutting in when needed, which also gave more spaces for Bruno in the middle and Pogba to join in.
Did Shaw and Williams provide quality attacks? I wonder how many chances or assists they create.
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