Huh what ? No way we're starting the season with Martial as our main striker ? I'm fine with him staying but as a squad option, but this will be a suicide.
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Huh what ? No way we're starting the season with Martial as our main striker ? I'm fine with him staying but as a squad option, but this will be a suicide.
Surely he deserves a clean slate like everybody else?
Well, what else do you propose?
Ronaldo can't be arsed to turn up to training and will lack match fitness, whilst Martial, on the other hand, has worked hard and impressed during pre season.
It's a no brainer who starts the season and if Martial can continue his pre season form, then Ronaldo the majority of this season on the bench.
No. We shouldn't play the best current option.
He deserves a second chance but sure as hell not as our main starting striker on whom we'll spend the entire season depending to score goals if Ronaldo left. This is like giving up on next season before starting it.
You realize the market is still open, right ? Ronaldo's situation should have warranted signing a striker.
Pre-season means feck all when it comes to the official games.
No we should sign better options from the freaking market currently open.
He wasn't playing very well back then either. He's definitely a player who needs to feel like the main man.
There’s absolutely no chance we are signing a striker that would start ahead of Martial. It would require £80m+ to bring anyone in and that’s if they are even available.
But thats a bit dangerous when we dont know whether Ronaldo leaves or not.
I would love us to go for Patrick Schick but you dont go get that kind of player when Ronnie is still here.
Good thing to know then, so that I don't put much hopes on the upcoming this season if that's our plan.
See you in 2023 then.
I do, but there's no point dealing with hypotheticals. At this moment in time, we have Martial and Ronaldo as our only number 9's. One has done well in pre season and one has been very unprofessional. As I said, it's a no brainer who will start. I also think it'd be the same situation if we were to sign a new striker now anyway, as they'd need time to integrate themselves into the squad.
If ETH wants him as our main striker, I want him as our main striker.
Exactly. He had one leg out of the club for months, if EtH is convinced by his training and match performance then that should settle any debate for now.
JesusNot as though having any of them ahead of him should have been seen as an insurmountable obstacle. His biggest flaw is definitely between his ears. ETH needs to find a way to fix that if we’re going to rely on him. The one thing I’m clinging to is how none of the managers Martial have worked with have had the combination of man management and football management that ETH has (I hope!)
I think ETH is more likely than both Jose and Ole to nail down what sort of role actually suits Martial best. Then - of course - it's up to Martial to work his arse off to prove millions of doubters wrong.
For the naysayers at least wait till there's a drop in form before you start the criticism.
We're all aware Martial can be inconsistent, we've seen the highs and the lows but you know we've seen it in football before when the penny drops and the player puts it together and reach his full potential. Maybe that would be the case or maybe not but what is clear is that we'll need him to put in good performances across the season if we're going to make something out of this season.
Most likely Ronaldo would be gone, he probably would be replaced but there aren't many strikers available who can be as good as Martial on his day. Fans should get behind the team, the Ole and Mourinho era is gone let the toxicity of that era be gone too.
If the new manager fancy Martial as I think he does (describing him and the likes of Rashford and Sancho as weapons), we fans should show full support as well.
GGMU
We're all aware Martial can be inconsistent, we've seen the highs and the lows but you know we've seen it in football before when the penny drops and the player puts it together and reach his full potential. Maybe that would be the case or maybe not but what is clear is that we'll need him to put in good performances across the season if we're going to make something out of this season.
Most likely Ronaldo would be gone, he probably would be replaced but there aren't many strikers available who can be as good as Martial on his day. Fans should get behind the team, the Ole and Mourinho era is gone let the toxicity of that era be gone too.
If the new manager fancy Martial as I think he does (describing him and the likes of Rashford and Sancho as weapons), we fans should show full support as well.
GGMU
I know its preseason but please tell me we are getting our 2019/20 season Tony
If thats who we get we are smashing top 4.
Slight OT but it’s really a bummer Greenwood turned out to be a rapist scumbag, because that’s the ideal 4th forward we could have going into this season.
let’s not forget he was having issues with his wife too. They aren’t robots, sometimes life effects your form.
Maybe he just needed a change of scenery and to get out of the toxic united bubble. His time at Sevilla no doubt reminded him how lucky he is to be at united.
The manager has clearly shown him love and belief and he’s reaping the benefits of that so far.
A Martial that works hard and scores goals along with holding the ball up and linking play? what’s not to like?
Wait…How is having Ronaldo in front of him not an insurmountable obstacle? I can’t think of a more insurmountable obstacle for a striker in a team that plays 4-2-3-1 than having that team sign Ronaldo
Wait…How is having Ronaldo in front of him not an insurmountable obstacle? I can’t think of a more insurmountable obstacle for a striker in a team that plays 4-2-3-1 than having that team sign Ronaldo
Well obviously you’d also need a manager who picks on merit. Ronaldo put in loads if performances last season that should have seen him benched.
It’s not that simple though. Ole rested him against Everton and all fecking hell broke loose - a game martial scored and played well in. If Ronaldo isn’t going to play every game he is going to be unhappy and that’s the last thing you need behind the scenes - hence why we need shot of him ASAP.
Well, i for one will be expecting another stellar performance and a goal from our pre-season Pele against Villa.
Thought he looked good in the first half but nothing really stuck in the second.
Why is Jesus trying to trip him?
Good first half
There is a huge difference between Ole dropping him and ETH dropping him.
Yes I agree we need to sell him if he is not 100% committed to the team. It's not Ronaldo FC.
Worked really hard, did well in the first half but ball didn't fall to him for chances. I'm pretty comfortable going into the season with Rashford-Martial-Sancho the starting front 3. The biggest problem is just lack of depth. We need to be able to rotate.
The guy will perform in the short term as long as no one is breathing down on his neck. As soon as he senses a competition, he usually stops playing. This gives us issues because you can't rely on him long-term (history), and we do need (decent) depth this season and a better striker than him this season or next.
Hope he proves me wrong, at least for this season.
Hope he proves me wrong, at least for this season.
I suggested this earlier and some posters jumped on my back for it. Needless to say I agree with this perspective
EtH and his coaching staff would disagree
That's not really true.
Yes he had a poor season in 16/17 when Zlatan came in, but it's not like that's the only thing that happened that season. Martial was also moved full-time into a new position on the left (he'd played there a bit the previous season, but was still mostly a striker), he was having a messy break-up with the mother of his child (who from memory was dragging it out in public), and Mourinho came in and instantly stripped him of his shirt number. I'd say those things probably played a much bigger part than just having a bit of extra competition.
The following season he got himself together and fought and out-performed Rashford for months before Mourinho finally gave in and settled in with Martial as first choice...only to then be moved over to the right (a position he's never played well in) and then dropped when we bought Sanchez. The next time he actually got a proper chance was 18/19 when Mourinho was about to be fired and he turned to Martial in desperation, with Martial instantly stepping up to the plate and (along with Pogba) keeping Jose in a job longer than he otherwise would have.
He did obviously have a terrible 20/21 and 21/22 which some people try to put down to Cavani, but how realistic is that? It's not like there was much competition. Martial was very clearly first choice despite that signing until his terrible form saw him finally dropped.
2 weeks to go until season kicks off. What happens if Martial gets injured. We have no centre forward
The big thing IMO is that the only one who had the football management down was Van Gaal. He might not have had the man management, but just the coaching had Martial being the golden boy of Europe and a certain future star. So I'm optimistic that we finally have a proper coach again who knows how to get the best out of attackers.
Thanks for jogging my memory of him here. How many poor seasons did he have with us?
The only season he performed well consistently after his first was the one in which no other striker directly competing with him and no crowd in the stadium.
If I concluded that he generally didn't respond well in tough situations based on the way his career has gone with us, it wouldn't be far stretch. Which was why I said it.
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Two. 20-21 and 21-22.
He's had three poor seasons. If we go over his time here:
15/16 - Very good debut season
16/17 - Poor. People put it down to Zlatan, but as I noted above there were plenty of other things going on.
17/18 - Fairly good. Was easily our best performing left attacker that season, but Mourinho's dislike for him meant Rashford and then Sanchez kept getting picked ahead of him despite playing much worse. The only time Jose bit the bullet and made him first choice he was our main man in attack for a month or two.
18/19 - Started the same as the previous season, being behind Sanchez until Mourinho threw Martial into the team in desperation and Martial was quite good. Unfortunately he was injured and ill for most of the second half of the season after Ole took over.
19/20 - Excellent, our player of the season.
20/21 - Very poor.
21/22 - Arguably even worse than the previous year.
So it's been 3 poor seasons, 2 fairly good seasons that he was our best performer in his position but through no fault of his own didn't get to cement his spot, and two very good seasons.
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