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Anthony Martial France flag

2020-21 Performances

View full 2020-21 profile

5.1 Season Average Rating
Appearances
36
Goals
7
Assists
5
Yellow cards
1
Red cards
1
Status
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Martial is just in a bad moment. He has a problem that needs to be solved, and there's a huge benefit to be had with sticking with a struggling player and helping them solve their problem.

A good example is Pogba. This season Pogba had a problem at the start, he had COVID and played very poorly. Of course we all melted down, declared him to be average, demanded he be sold asap etc, but Ole instead smartly rested and rotated him back to full fitness. And then as a masterstroke, put him out on the left to link up with Bruno while having a solid midfield behind him. Now Pogba's consistently one of our best performers and a huge player for next season.

Another good example is Fred. Shocking in his first season, but it turns out he just needed to adjust to the pace of things, plus he performs poorly without a string of games. Now thanks to Ole he's one of the first names on the team sheet (:nervous:) and regardless of your opinion on his level, we've gotten good value from him. Other examples like Shaw and Greenwood accentuate the point.

All this to say that Martial is clearly a talented striker who can score, assist, and link up play. That said, he has a problem this season (who knows what the feck it is) which has obviously affected his performances. Instead of demanding he be sold etc, I'd rather we get to the heart of the problem and solve it. If we can get into the habit of doing that with all the players we have, it will be a huge benefit to us in so many ways.
 
Huge task awaits Tony next season. He can no longer expect his teammates to suit his style, his teammates would demand him to get in into their gameplan instead. He needs to move more, create space for his teammates more, pass more while dribble less, and stop asking his teammates to pass the ball straight into his fee. That privilege is gone. People would compare his workrate with Cavani mercilessly. The 25 year old Tony Martial basically need to REINVENT himself as a player.
 
krentz said:
Huge task awaits Tony next season. He can no longer expect his teammates to suit his style, his teammates would demand him to get in into their gameplan instead. He needs to move more, create space for his teammates more, pass more while dribble less, and stop asking his teammates to pass the ball straight into his fee. That privilege is gone. People would compare his workrate with Cavani mercilessly. The 25 year old Tony Martial basically need to REINVENT himself as a player.
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The entire forward line needs to play selflessly, like how Pep's forward lines play! It is very old school to rely on one person to create space and movement when the whole forward line including full backs can do the same. City might win the treble this year with barely a striker in their team, and with their talisman, a midfielder on about 12 goals. Liverpool were considered one of the best teams when they won it, and we all remember that it was the same season their CF had a handful goals.

Playing as a team is better than individual brilliance, we need to be able to sustain an attack with passing and moving - not just glory-balls-and-shots all the time. City do not struggle against low blocks, they do not even care to play with a striker against low blocks and they can still win by so many goals. OGS, and the staff need to fix our game plan - we need more ball playing players instead of ball winners in mid field.

Our backbone should be: Maguire (with instructions not to drag the build up), VDB, Pogba, Bruno (with instructions to keep it simple), Martial (false 9 - drop in to get on the ball), Rashford (with instructions to keep it simple and selfless), Mason (with instruction to be selfless); then fill up with: Luke, Victor & Aaron (bring back Diogo Dalot from loan to compete with Aaron).

Let the best players play as a team for each other!
 
crossy1686 said:
I don't understand the vehement defence of Martial anymore. You put him up against the great forwards we've had at the club under Fergie and he's no where near any of them, in fact, you put him up against the B side striker we've had at the club and is he better than Saha, Hernandez, Owen, or even Forlan? Is there anyone here that wouldn't swap him for a prime Diego Forlan?

There's a huge recency bias regarding Martial because we've not had a consistent world class forward since Van Persie. Hopefully Cavani has made people realise what a real CF looks like.
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IMO, Fergie's best football happened when we did not have a traditional striker, the seasons of CR7, Rooney, Tevez, Anderson, Nani, Giggs, Scholes, Carrick - matter of fact, he sold a traditional striker in RVN who demanded to play through him, later he also left the only traditional striker we had at a time in Saha, out of a Champs league final squad.

We are seeing Pep effortlessly on his way to winning a treble without having to rely on the old-school tradition of this is our big mobile guy who scores us goals.
 
Foxbatt said:
Is he still out injured?
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He was back training before the Roma second leg game and it was said he would miss Roma, Villa and Leicester. Wasn't risked against dippers so i imagine he'll be back for the last game against Wolves and possibly on the bench in the cup final
 
One of those marmite players. People either really love him or really hate him. Which leads to his fans overrating him & his detractors underrating him. You see this on twitter all the time. He’s either world class or he’s shit. The answer is always in the middle. He’s a good player, we won’t win a league with him leading the line. I have no problem with him staying & fighting for his place though. He’s arguably better than Rashford on the left.
 
amsoUG said:
IMO, Fergie's best football happened when we did not have a traditional striker, the seasons of CR7, Rooney, Tevez, Anderson, Nani, Giggs, Scholes, Carrick - matter of fact, he sold a traditional striker in RVN who demanded to play through him, later he also left the only traditional striker we had at a time in Saha, out of a Champs league final squad.

We are seeing Pep effortlessly on his way to winning a treble without having to rely on the old-school tradition of this is our big mobile guy who scores us goals.
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Played home and away Vs psg without any strikers.
 
Robertd0803 said:
The fact that we havent missed him while hes been out injured says a lot.
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Says it all really. Next season has to be his last chance. If he can't cut it, we need to get rid and sign someone else. Personally I'd want to sell him and try to use the money towards signing Grealish this summer. He had a decent season last year, looked like he'd finally clicked and this season has been back to square 1.
 
He'sRaldo said:
Martial is just in a bad moment. He has a problem that needs to be solved, and there's a huge benefit to be had with sticking with a struggling player and helping them solve their problem.

A good example is Pogba. This season Pogba had a problem at the start, he had COVID and played very poorly. Of course we all melted down, declared him to be average, demanded he be sold asap etc, but Ole instead smartly rested and rotated him back to full fitness. And then as a masterstroke, put him out on the left to link up with Bruno while having a solid midfield behind him. Now Pogba's consistently one of our best performers and a huge player for next season.

Another good example is Fred. Shocking in his first season, but it turns out he just needed to adjust to the pace of things, plus he performs poorly without a string of games. Now thanks to Ole he's one of the first names on the team sheet (:nervous:) and regardless of your opinion on his level, we've gotten good value from him. Other examples like Shaw and Greenwood accentuate the point.

All this to say that Martial is clearly a talented striker who can score, assist, and link up play. That said, he has a problem this season (who knows what the feck it is) which has obviously affected his performances. Instead of demanding he be sold etc, I'd rather we get to the heart of the problem and solve it. If we can get into the habit of doing that with all the players we have, it will be a huge benefit to us in so many ways.
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Many players especially those not naturally fit struggled this season without a preseason. Martial was always a bench striker regardless of what our fans think...
 
Looks like we'll probably see him on the bench this evening, hopefully he can give a good account of himself.
 
Has been left out of the France Euro squad it seems. With Benzema back (probably even more) understandable.
 
united_99 said:
Has been left out of the France Euro squad it seems. With Benzema back (probably even more) understandable.
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Sad for him but hopefully he comes back from the break well rested and ready to go, with the WC coming up next year.
 
He reminds me of Anthony Joshua. Surely if he picks his game, he can still shine and be a world champion.

Would love to see Martial play and watch him score against Villarreal.
 
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Do we think he's done here then? I keep randomly remembering he plays for us which is bizarre as he's been so good at times.

I find it so odd that someone who has such incredible close control can also be so bad at it at their lowest level. You'd think that would just make him average at it but he looks shocking when off form. If he had the chance Cavani had against Fulham I feel like he'd have tried to take it to a one v one but likely been caught due to getting the ball stuck under his feet or poorly dribbling it.
 
Unless we get a good offer for him (over £40 million) we keep him. He clearly had a bad season, but he is always a better option off the bench than James or Mata. However if we could sell him and Lingard for something close to what Sancho would cost...it’s a no brainer.
 
Solius said:
Do we think he's done here then? I keep randomly remembering he plays for us which is bizarre as he's been so good at times.

I find it so odd that someone who has such incredible close control can also be so bad at it at their lowest level. You'd think that would just make him average at it but he looks shocking when off form. If he had the chance Cavani had against Fulham I feel like he'd have tried to take it to a one v one but likely been caught due to getting the ball stuck under his feet or poorly dribbling it.
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To be honest, his dribbling seems to have regressed to the point where I wouldn’t even really call it a strength of his anymore. He rarely beats defenders one on one anymore, even in his best games which is a shame as he used to be a demon for it. I think he’s lost some agility, maybe due to his build, and he often looks clumsy trying to beat a man .

I think he’ll still be given opportunities next season, as I can’t see anyone paying his wages and in fairness, he seems pretty settled at the club. He can’t afford to be as poor as he’s been this season though or that’ll definitely be it for him.
 
Solius said:
Do we think he's done here then? I keep randomly remembering he plays for us which is bizarre as he's been so good at times.

I find it so odd that someone who has such incredible close control can also be so bad at it at their lowest level. You'd think that would just make him average at it but he looks shocking when off form. If he had the chance Cavani had against Fulham I feel like he'd have tried to take it to a one v one but likely been caught due to getting the ball stuck under his feet or poorly dribbling it.
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He won't be sold.

I don't think many would mind though. He doesn't seem to me to have the mentality for all this. He goes off form with extreme regularity and seemingly over things like extra competition for places which should have the opposite effect for a top level player
 
OL29 said:
To be honest, his dribbling seems to have regressed to the point where I wouldn’t even really call it a strength of his anymore. He rarely beats defenders one on one anymore, even in his best games which is a shame as he used to be a demon for it. I think he’s lost some agility, maybe due to his build, and he often looks clumsy trying to beat a man .

I think he’ll still be given opportunities next season, as I can’t see anyone paying his wages and in fairness, he seems pretty settled at the club. He can’t afford to be as poor as he’s been this season though or that’ll definitely be it for him.
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It's crazy the difference between the Martial that scored that brilliant goal against Partizan and the clumsy Welbeck clone he now turns into more often than not.
 
Seems people are gonna be shocked how much he is going to play next season. He had a bad season but his top level is still very high. We've seen evidence of that in the game against City when he bullied their defense and player of the season Ruben Dias.
 
If anyone will give 50m for him this summer (highly unlikely) move him on. He's had more than enough chances here but he's never quite fulfilled his potential. I used to love him when he first arrived. The application isn't there and he has poor mentality.
 
Solius said:
Do we think he's done here then? I keep randomly remembering he plays for us which is bizarre as he's been so good at times.

I find it so odd that someone who has such incredible close control can also be so bad at it at their lowest level. You'd think that would just make him average at it but he looks shocking when off form. If he had the chance Cavani had against Fulham I feel like he'd have tried to take it to a one v one but likely been caught due to getting the ball stuck under his feet or poorly dribbling it.
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Incredibly hard to say really. Hes on really high wages which not many clubs can match, combined with the fact that everyone is skint right now because of covid and Martial isnt exactly hot property right now at the back a terrible season i cant imagine he would have many suitors

Personally i think we should sell if someone gives us a good offer. I cant imagine who would though
 
Idxomer said:
He had a bad season but his top level is still very high. We've seen evidence of that in the game against City when he bullied their defense and player of the season Ruben Dias.
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He's been here nearly 6 years. Bar an exciting start, then one decent season he's really not taken the incredible opportunity he's had by playing for us. You talk of evidence, there is more evidence to suggest he won't be a long term success here than otherwise.
 
Solius said:
Do we think he's done here then? I keep randomly remembering he plays for us which is bizarre as he's been so good at times.

I find it so odd that someone who has such incredible close control can also be so bad at it at their lowest level. You'd think that would just make him average at it but he looks shocking when off form. If he had the chance Cavani had against Fulham I feel like he'd have tried to take it to a one v one but likely been caught due to getting the ball stuck under his feet or poorly dribbling it.
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he’s done.

Cavani has shown that Martial is not the player that we need.

he could still be a viable option from the left, but we have Rashford - and by all accounts that’s not the role he wants.

he’s gone stale.

he needs a fresh start - he’s still got half his career left. It’s best for all parties to move on.

I honestly think a swap with him going to spurs could be a win for everyone. They need a striker, and without being disparaging to spurs, with less exposure/ pressure/ analysis of everything he does - I think he would do well.
 
Volumiza said:
He's been here nearly 6 years. Bar an exciting start, then one decent season he's really not taken the incredible opportunity he's had by playing for us. You talk of evidence, there is more evidence to suggest he won't be a long term success here than otherwise.
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That might well be the case though I think he's been a good signing for United with the exception of this season.

Anyway, I don't think we could sign anyone this summer who's a clear upgrade on him, so fans will have to deal with him one more season at least.
 
DWelbz19 said:
He’s back and he’s already screwfacing
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Is Shaw wearing cutoffs?

Also Martial's stats at the top aren't pretty 7 goals in 36 appearances? He really has been awful. Had far too many chances and it's time to move him on, though if we somehow manage to get decent money for him it'll be a miracle.
 
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