Leave him out of the Palace match and back in for Arsenal as we'll need his link up yet again. Hopefully now with Weghorst in they can alternate and Martial doesn't need to play more than 1 game a week.
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Excellent post that unfortunately will be drowned by lazy one sentence posts calling him lazy and shit.
ETH can only drop a player if there's a replacement.
Let's see, now there is a replacement in Wout, if ETH still backs Martial to start.
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He’s such an important part of our attack without scoring all the time it’s such a shame his fitness won’t ever be good enough. Because a fully fit Martial without injury problems is a special player but reality is he’s just never going to be that player.
I felt he played reasonably well considering that he was probably nursing an injury. His hold up play and ability to link up with the rest of the forward line was one of the reasons we posed a threat in the first half. Hopefully with Weghorst we have a more than able replacement when he's injured.
He had a poor season when we first signed Ibra. On the one hand we signed Ibra, and a lot of people blame that for it. On the other, he was moved to a new position, under a manager who blatantly didn't like him, and was having issues in his personal life with a very public break-up with the mother of his child. All at the age of 21. I tend to think maybe those might have had a bigger impact.
I'm not sure if I'd class Cavani as competition. Martial was clearly first choice with Cavani only being a back-up squad player. Martial just played like shit. Maybe you're right and it was due to Cavani being in the squad, but personally I doubt it. It was just him being in shit form, which continued the following season.
On the flip side, he had plenty of competition in 17/18 and 18/19, and yet (despite Mourinho obviously preferring other options) he ended up being our best performing in his position those seasons. He also started this season well despite Ronaldo still being in the squad.
Tbh I wrote off Rashford because I thought his body was finished due to too many injuries. Lesson learned is you'll never know.
However if he doesn't improve his fitness and availability in the next months he'll be replaced in the summer I think. Probably his last chance here. I don't think that ETH would accept his main #9 to not available the majority of time. Big shame if he has to leave because I do rate Martial. Still remember his first season here when there's so much hope for him. Golden boy of the year if my memory serves me right.
He trained once this week and aimed to be available for this match. He wasn't going to last long.
Once he came off at half, United struggled to adjust and only responded after City scored.
His fitness has gone to shit, but he has a lot of importance and influence on the team whenever he plays.
Once he came off at half, United struggled to adjust and only responded after City scored.
His fitness has gone to shit, but he has a lot of importance and influence on the team whenever he plays.
Yeah, he obviously wasn't fit.
He's quite a flawed player, but he fits the system here and is the only #9 we have. We need to upgrade, but then he's a very good option as 2nd striker, though would have to deal with Garnacho coming on instead of him and Rashford up top sometimes. If he can live with that role, he's a very good fit here.
Our composure and shape in offense went to shit after he went of. Eriksen went from one of our best in the first half to one of our worst after Martial went of.
Martial does the correct runs and is excellent in link up. You often saw him and Eriksen linking up well.
Thankfully Wout is very good at linking up as well. Should help us to not lose shape when Martial is off.
It's only a matter of this season before we get a new no. 9 who is hopefully constantly fit and that should put martial as a second choice. Don't see the need to hyperventilate over his fitness and form anymore. It's well established that he's very useful but very unreliable striker
He will be here next season maybe not as first choice but he’ll get a lot of games together with the new striker probably as a second striker/cam because thats the role he plays today while also being the striker. Watch us buying a midfielder and thats what will happen. He is a very good passer he is breaking lines with his passing.
The 45-70th minute at least showed just how big a difference hold up play made in that game. The notion that it was bringing nothing to our dynamic was disappointing to read. The obsession with running in behind, running to the far post, etc feels outdated. His eventual replacement most likely won't be a pure scorer either.
Stuff like this is basically what he provides to us that nobody else does for us, where it's worth having him in. He does it multiple times per games and it's an invaluable quality. Whoever we sign up top, needs someone else who can do things like this.
I really don't know what we're going to do with him in the summer.
We still need to replace Cristiano with a permanent striker and can't also replace him in the same summer especially when we have more priority positions.
We still need to replace Cristiano with a permanent striker and can't also replace him in the same summer especially when we have more priority positions.
agreed he’s such a great link up man and was a big part of oles success here at united.
I wish he could stay fit but he just can’t manage playing 2/3 times a week
About that exact moment i was told ‘that is his job’ by another poster as if any striker will consistently link up play like that. Martial is fairly consistent good at link up. In that situation most players would lose the ball and allow City to put a new attack in. Basically what was happening after Martial had to come off.
Ofcourse that post came from a poster who already had two negative comments about Martial his game within 5 minutes of the game starting.
Martial his problem is fitness. Not a lack of talent or some imagined lazyness. Finding a striker with a better fitness record than Martial is easy. Finding one who is fit and can also do the stuff Martial is able to do wont be easy or cheap.
Yep. I don't think Martial is ultimately good enough for us to reach the highest level even if his injury problems disappeared, but I do think we'd be able to challenge for the title if he had 0 fitness issues. As it is, far too often he has games where he is hampered by some injury and literally can't stretch into a proper sprint, can't move like he should, etc. He is getting constant knocks which is a shame.
when he went off at half time, we really lost our rhythm, City did up their game but we looked disjointed until we moved Antony out wide, when we brought Garnacho on. Martial isn't particularly playing well in that he poses a goal threat but his link up play is good.Hopefully now we have brought in a genuine striker, we have adequate cover now.
He's fundamental to our play. You could see the difference in the second half when we couldn't hold on to the ball for the first 20-25 minutes. He's great at receiving balls fired at him, is able to turn and with his first touch put the ball into space and put the defense on the back foot. It's such an underrated skill
Agree completely.
Any news on his fitness?
I probably would, but I wish he'd smile more.
You’ve been around the block already.
The Carrington Creep they call you (behind your back Heh)
The description that he doesn't do enough can be true but using this particular example is silly and makes it obvious how there are still people that don't know a central forward can do more than running to the far post or prioritizing immediate scoring positions. In that clip he's taking positions to facilitate play not score, it's not laziness. I'm certain there were actual plays in that game where he was lazy but they had to go use the one where he's trying to support by facilitating.
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I'm not saying it's lazy, I'm saying it's poor off the ball movement. He should clearly be attacking their back line in that position rather than passively standing back to "facilitate". And the failure to make that sort of aggressive off the ball movement is a consistent issue for Martial, being both one of the reasons he isn't a top class CF and one of the reasons we so regularly lack presence in the box.
Not exactly the same situation but the difference in off the ball movement is glaring.
No he shouldn't attack their back line because two of his teammates are already doing it. The better decision for him was to offer a different option to the ball carrier which is what he did.
Still very different in that Osimhen was the tip of the spear in that attack and the left forward or winger didn't run into the box to initiate. Osimhen was free to do so as the only option.
The example of Martial was poor, because Marcus squared the ball, albeit a little too late, and continued his run into the box to occupy the space and drive the backline lower. If Martial did that, then the defenders would have dropped lower and Marcus would have had to stop or go backwards.
Actually thought Martial could have taken a touch for a shot as Marcus's run causes the defenders to drop.
Martial’s inability/unwillingness to make runs in behind when we desperately need them drives me up the fecking wall but that’s an odd clip to use as evidence. Don’t think he does much wrong there.
If you don't think that a) one of of our players should be attacking that massive attackable space in front of Martial and b) Martial is the obvious one to do it, then I don't know what to tell ya.
Aside from obviously being the most threatening movement he can make, making that run and occupying those defenders would also leave a lot of space for Fred who is running in right behind him.
Did miss him big time when he went off though at the weekend which is also due to having no proper striker to bring on. The man just can’t stay fit though.
My thing with him is he just seems to have lost the one aspect of his game that he excelled at. His movements and dribbling just looks a lot more laboured than it has in the past. He was rapid quick and agile when he first got here and you could bet your house on him being able to dribble past anyone. He seems incapable of doing so, or at least at a somewhat consistent level anymore.
He offers good link-up play, but so would another proper CF, if that's the style of CF we were looking for. I just don't think he's the answer moving forward.
He offers good link-up play, but so would another proper CF, if that's the style of CF we were looking for. I just don't think he's the answer moving forward.
This thread is groundhog day and has been for years.
I actually thought he played well first half against City. We badly missed his hold up play in the second half.
If you don't think that a) one of of our players should be attacking that massive attackable space in front of Martial and b) Martial is the obvious one to do it, then I don't know what to tell ya.
Aside from obviously being the most threatening movement he can make, making that run and occupying those defenders would also leave a lot of space for Fred who is running in right behind him.
At first didn't see anything wrong in the play, but comparing it to osimhen made it quite obvious. You have a good point there.
to be fair Martial was half injured in this game, so probably why he isn’t actually running much. He usually presses a fair amount but you could see he was laboured in all his movements.
If you don't think that a) one of of our players should be attacking that massive attackable space in front of Martial and b) Martial is the obvious one to do it, then I don't know what to tell ya.
Aside from obviously being the most threatening movement he can make, making that run and occupying those defenders would also leave a lot of space for Fred who is running in right behind him.
Aye.
He's been here for what? 7 and a half years? He's had chance after chance to really establish himself here and he never steps up. His fitness record is appalling these days too and I don't think it'll get better as he gets older.
I'd be starting Weghorst on Wednesday.
There's like 3-4 different points in here that aren't even getting contested. I can assure you most people already know it's a utility player not a star. People want an avalanche of "sell. not good enough". If no one is against an upgrade what even is there to fight about? We've even replaced him like 5 times already.
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