Has Martial done enough to be backed as our long-term #9?

Is the quiestion to the op still being debated?

We've known he isn't good enough for years. It's almost getting like the Jesse 'he's only young , he's still got time to develop'!

Martial is a bang avarage player regardless of what position he plays in. Avarage players occasionally have golden spells and manage to fool the world into thinking they are better than they are.

Move him on and play Rashford from the left. Grealish from the left would be a good move too. Grealish manages to run past people without the need for great pace, just pure skill.

Martial is a deadweight, needs to go!
 
Harry Harries said:
What the feck is wrong with our fecking board. They must be the thickest most useless bunch of tossers in football. How many times do they want to dish out these mega fat contracts before they finally get it.
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When they gave him the contract, he was about to go on a free when in good form. Was easily 50m in that market, so it made sense to extend. He'll be in his prime by the end of that contract.

I'm sure Inter would love him for 40m.

Widow said:
Is the quiestion to the op still being debated?

We've known he isn't good enough for years. It's almost getting like the Jesse 'he's only young , he's still got time to develop'!

Martial is a bang avarage player regardless of what position he plays in. Avarage players occasionally have golden spells and manage to fool the world into thinking they are better than they are.

Move him on and play Rashford from the left. Grealish from the left would be a good move too. Grealish manages to run past people without the need for great pace, just pure skill.

Martial is a deadweight, needs to go!
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Absolute nonsense of a post. He's not been average for years, he was improving and definitely on an upward trend by getting used to playing No.9 full-time until the start of this season. His interaction with Rashford was also great last summer, so we were looking at another York and Cole, potentially, with both of these young players entering their prime.

Some people just love to rant and rage and claim they've called it for years. Put a sock in it, I say.
 
Schmeichel's Cartwheel said:
He’s the opposite of most, when there’s competition he shrinks. When he had the position completely to himself last season he was one of our best players. I think he lacks fight.
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I agree about the competition part. I mean I'm still really astonished people kept on blaming Zlatan for his drop on form and placing the blame on the shirt number debacle. If you decide to lose fight and sulk on the pitch because you lost a fecking shirt number you decided to make as a brand or stuff, it really speaks pretty bad about you as a player. Who cares about such shit like shirt number ? What's the difference between #9 or #11 ? But people kept on labelling this as a "disgrace" from the club and stuff. Was really pretty weird.
 
Harry Harries said:
What the feck is wrong with our fecking board. They must be the thickest most useless bunch of tossers in football. How many times do they want to dish out these mega fat contracts before they finally get it.
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Incredible really. There are probably only a handful of players in the prem who earn more than Martial.
 
He’s summed up in the first minute of the game imo.

Falls over seeming to hurt his shoulder, takes a feckin age getting up (why I don’t know becuase you don’t need your arm to stand) and sucks the life out of the first five minutes adding somewhat to our shite lack of urgency.

You expect to see a player bouncing ready to take on the bottom of the league side and hungry to regain top of the league. Instead he’s rolling around and then jogs back on absolutely fine.

I’ve said it for years, absolutely no desire in him. I have no respect for players like that.
 
DickDastardly said:
Turns out, no.9 is our biggest Squad issue after all.

We would be sitting 10 points clear at the top if we had 15+ goals from our no. 9

No question about that. Forget wingers and centerbacks, we spunk out the triple figure on Haaland and we win it all.
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If we had a proper number 9 we would win the league this season no doubt about it. However we have Martial so wd have no chance and that is the problem.
 
He's been poor for a long time and I've seen nothing in years to suggest he'll get any better.
He's what, 25 now?

Cut our losses and move on.
 
The epitome of a nothing player. Very weak mentality and a beacon of cluelessness off the ball. His slightly above average level of skill on the ball does not make up for this. He cannot be trusted.
 
You can’t be a starting striker for Manchester United and get dominated by fecking Chris Basham and 38 year old Jagielka. Not good enough and I actually like him.
 
Rightnr said:
When they gave him the contract, he was about to go on a free when in good form. Was easily 50m in that market, so it made sense to extend. He'll be in his prime by the end of that contract.

I'm sure Inter would love him for 40m.



Absolute nonsense of a post. He's not been average for years, he was improving and definitely on an upward trend by getting used to playing No.9 full-time until the start of this season. His interaction with Rashford was also great last summer, so we were looking at another York and Cole, potentially, with both of these young players entering their prime.

Some people just love to rant and rage and claim they've called it for years. Put a sock in it, I say.
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Absolute bollox!

As stated, avarage players can have golden moments tricking those stary eyed fools.

Some people just bum off a certain player though, weired
 
el3mel said:
I agree about the competition part. I mean I'm still really astonished people kept on blaming Zlatan for his drop on form and placing the blame on the shirt number debacle. If you decide to lose fight and sulk on the pitch because you lost a fecking shirt number you decided to make as a brand or stuff, it really speaks pretty bad about you as a player. Who cares about such shit like shirt number ? What's the difference between #9 or #11 ? But people kept on labelling this as a "disgrace" from the club and stuff. Was really pretty weird.
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Why do so many people think that his loss of form in 16/17 was just signing Zlatan and losing the #9 though? We know he was also having personal issues and broke up with his wife (girlfriend?) and mother of his child at the beginning of that season and that she made the breakup quite public, plus it was his first full season being played on the left wing. I'd expect those two things to have had a bigger impact, although being stripped of the #9 on top of that probably wasn't great for his confidence.

In both 17/18 and 18/19 he started behind Rashford then Sanchez for that left forward position and both times he ended up fighting past them and being first choice once he got a chance. So it's not like he's incapable of fighting for a spot when he's got competition.
 
RUCK4444 said:
He’s summed up in the first minute of the game imo.

Falls over seeming to hurt his shoulder, takes a feckin age getting up (why I don’t know becuase you don’t need your arm to stand) and sucks the life out of the first five minutes adding somewhat to our shite lack of urgency.

You expect to see a player bouncing ready to take on the bottom of the league side and hungry to regain top of the league. Instead he’s rolling around and then jogs back on absolutely fine.

I’ve said it for years, absolutely no desire in him. I have no respect for players like that.
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Well said, and best summed up my thoughts 1000%.
 
RUCK4444 said:
He’s summed up in the first minute of the game imo.

Falls over seeming to hurt his shoulder, takes a feckin age getting up (why I don’t know becuase you don’t need your arm to stand) and sucks the life out of the first five minutes adding somewhat to our shite lack of urgency.

You expect to see a player bouncing ready to take on the bottom of the league side and hungry to regain top of the league. Instead he’s rolling around and then jogs back on absolutely fine.

I’ve said it for years, absolutely no desire in him. I have no respect for players like that.
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Never have I wished we could buy a proper striker in literally a matter of days but no one decent out there
 
RUCK4444 said:
He’s summed up in the first minute of the game imo.

Falls over seeming to hurt his shoulder, takes a feckin age getting up (why I don’t know becuase you don’t need your arm to stand) and sucks the life out of the first five minutes adding somewhat to our shite lack of urgency.

You expect to see a player bouncing ready to take on the bottom of the league side and hungry to regain top of the league. Instead he’s rolling around and then jogs back on absolutely fine.

I’ve said it for years, absolutely no desire in him. I have no respect for players like that.
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This was exactly my thought. I genuinely thought he had dislocated his shoulder the way he reacted. When you see the replay he was barely touched. It showed us the mentality he had going into the game that he simply wasn’t up for it.
 
MadDogg said:
Why do so many people think that his loss of form in 16/17 was just signing Zlatan and losing the #9 though? We know he was also having personal issues and broke up with his wife (girlfriend?) and mother of his child at the beginning of that season and that she made the breakup quite public, plus it was his first full season being played on the left wing. I'd expect those two things to have had a bigger impact, although being stripped of the #9 on top of that probably wasn't great for his confidence.

In both 17/18 and 18/19 he started behind Rashford then Sanchez for that left forward position and both times he ended up fighting past them and being first choice once he got a chance. So it's not like he's incapable of fighting for a spot when he's got competition.
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Isn’t that the point though? He has no competition. That’s why we are seeing these lacklustre performances. Cavani is of an age where he’s not going to start every week. Martial has had it easy this season, knowing he will start most games.
 
Josep Dowling said:
Isn’t that the point though? He has no competition. That’s why we are seeing these lacklustre performances. Cavani is of an age where he’s not going to start every week. Martial has had it easy this season, knowing he will start most games.
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Very good point that
 
Josep Dowling said:
Isn’t that the point though? He has no competition. That’s why we are seeing these lacklustre performances. Cavani is of an age where he’s not going to start every week. Martial has had it easy this season, knowing he will start most games.
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Yes, but quite a few people are saying the opposite. That the reason he's poor is because he can't handle the competition from Cavani, just like he couldn't handle the competition from Zlatan (which I've addressed in that last post). I've also seen a few mention competition from Lukaku and Sanchez, despite the fact he was generally quite good whenever Mourinho actually gave him a run in the two seasons he played with them.

I'd love to see Martial have competition and I think Cavani is now ready to provide that. Unfortunately our two other main attackers are also quite poor and lazy at the moment (although Greenwood is starting to show some good signs again) so there's not much competition. It's basically a fight over which can be most bad, and there's no clear-cut winner there.
 
What's his best position?. He's forever bench fodder now. At his age he should be good enough to start wiwo but hasn't shown the merit to do so yet.
 
Rightnr said:
Absolute nonsense of a post. He's not been average for years, he was improving and definitely on an upward trend by getting used to playing No.9 full-time until the start of this season. His interaction with Rashford was also great last summer, so we were looking at another York and Cole, potentially, with both of these young players entering their prime.

Some people just love to rant and rage and claim they've called it for years. Put a sock in it, I say.
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MadDogg said:
Yes, but quite a few people are saying the opposite. That the reason he's poor is because he can't handle the competition from Cavani, just like he couldn't handle the competition from Zlatan (which I've addressed in that last post). I've also seen a few mention competition from Lukaku and Sanchez, despite the fact he was generally quite good whenever Mourinho actually gave him a run in the two seasons he played with them.

I'd love to see Martial have competition and I think Cavani is now ready to provide that. Unfortunately our two other main attackers are also quite poor and lazy at the moment (although Greenwood is starting to show some good signs again) so there's not much competition. It's basically a fight over which can be most bad, and there's no clear-cut winner there.
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This is because the majority of people are morons who remember nothing beyond the last couple of months (and that's being generous).

Martial has been diabolical this season, obviously. No one's going to argue otherwise. But for some reason, it's not enough to stop there, so they need to make out like he's been shite all along.
 
No, I've stated time and time again that he is not a natural number 9, I've heard people compare him to Firmino, but look back into the rich history of Manchester United's number 9's and ask yourself...

does he really cut the cloth? (Wayne Rooney, Van Persie, Zlatan, Cantona, Cole, Sheringham, Hughes, Solskajaer, Van Nistleroy)

The answer is no, time to sell.
 
You think Inter would be interested in him as part of a deal for Martinez? That lad shows far far more desire to win and is equally as talented.
 
Red_toad said:
You think Inter would be interested in him as part of a deal for Martinez? That lad shows far far more desire to win and is equally as talented.
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Not sure, I don't have time to follow leagues outside the Premier League anymore...but your right, Martial's lack of hustle today was pretty apparent. (Shoulder Injury?)

I guess the question is, if were going to sell Martial without a replacement like Martinez, is Greenwood ready to fill the role if Cavani goes down with an extended injury.
 
DickDastardly said:
Turns out, no.9 is our biggest Squad issue after all.

We would be sitting 10 points clear at the top if we had 15+ goals from our no. 9

No question about that. Forget wingers and centerbacks, we spunk out the triple figure on Haaland and we win it all.
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We created 0.99 xG against Sheffield United at home.

The problem is and remains our chance creation, which is well below elite teams.

City constantly creates 3+ xG against these kind of teams.

Our fans have a strange estimation of our finishing vs chance creation.
 
DickDastardly said:
Turns out, no.9 is our biggest Squad issue after all.

We would be sitting 10 points clear at the top if we had 15+ goals from our no. 9

No question about that. Forget wingers and centerbacks, we spunk out the triple figure on Haaland and we win it all.
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Only in some parallel United fans universe.
 
On current form he shouldn't be starting ahead of Cavani that's for sure. Looks like he is going to sulk about that rather than roll his sleeves up and try and perform better.

Can you imagine the difference the energy and desire Haaland would bring to the front line in comparison.
 
SinNombre said:
We created 0.99 xG against Sheffield United at home.

The problem is and remains our chance creation, which is well below elite teams.

City constantly creates 3+ xG against these kind of teams.

Our fans have a strange estimation of our finishing vs chance creation.
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Movement and positioning of strikers is an important factor in chance creation.
 
Agree with others on this subject, time to cut our losses, far too many poor weak displays where he doesn't look interested.

I don't believe he has the winning mentality needed to be in a title winning team.
 
Martial is a technically very good player who is more or less ineffective in goals / chances output. He’s good at holding the ball and wriggling out of tight corners and winning free kicks. But so little of this stuff happens in the right parts of the pitch and the end product is pretty much zero at present.

Last season he was good and scored a lot but I think he is a notch or two below what we need if we’re going to start winning things again.

Cavani is much more what we need at 9 but he’s old so we need to buy someone ASAP. Which I doubt will happen.
 
We are terribly coached and have been for a long time - but players like Greenwood and Rashford can sometimes transcend that purely due to their movement and runs in behind etc. Martial doesn't offer that threat nearly as often/reliably. He needs to be in a very specific set up to succeed, which is why we've seen very little (at least consistently) from him since LVG has left. Incredible potential, average player.

Cut our losses, buy Haaland
 
Martial is a massive problem for us. We may as well be down to 10 men when he is on the pitch, he has potential but after five years I think it's fair to say he has more than enough chances to prove himself time and again, which he has continued to fail to do.
 
I have no fecking idea why Ole selects him and why, having done so, keeps him on the park despite it being quite clear he's as much use as a pregnant elephant
 
Never mind decent, he hasn’t done alright at all. Struggling to score, not clinical when had chances, no longer able to hold the ball as good as like last season and lazy. At least you see work ethic in Bruno & Cavani when they are poor, he give feck all even though Ole keep putting his faith in him. I think he is getting the Lingard’s treatment and heading in the same direction, get lot of chances and soon will be dropped without even getting a single game time.

I have defended him in previous seasons but he’s a big big problem this season because he’s the one who is holding us back in attack. If we have prime age Cavani, this guy would have been dropped already. He’s our third highest paid in the club as well which sickening me more.
 
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