Is Martial the best dribbler in the league?

He's a completely different player from the one that we bought. He was lithe and had a burst of speed back then. Now he looks heavier set and he's had bucket loads of injuries. His strength is better but you can't really expect the same dynamism on the ball now. He's quite lethargic all round, with his pressing, runs, dribbling.
 
He lacks any urgency to his play. I mean the contrast is more stark when you look at Bruno’s dogged work ethic and Martial’s lack of drive
 
Reading back in this thread it's crazy how much he has regressed. Was such a promising player for us.
 
He just doesn’t resemble the player we bought at all anymore. Injuries have completely done a number on him. He’ll always be one of those ‘what if’ players. He should have been a superstar. He had the talent. Just not the resilience or attitude. Such a shame really as he was electric to watch in those first few years.
 
Has never been on par with someone like Bernardo Silva. Used to have Red tinted glasses on but it's clear now.
 
DRJosh said:
He lacks any urgency to his play. I mean the contrast is more stark when you look at Bruno’s dogged work ethic and Martial’s lack of drive
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I think players who show signs of this should be shown the door sooner rather than just giving them several years of extra chances now. He should be put on a pay as you play contract on his next deal.
 
I don’t think I’ve seen someone’s dribbling regress this much over what should be the players prime. Except maybe Torres? I mean young Martial used to frighten fullbacks - he could go both ways, had the ball on a sting, great burst of acceleration, strength to hold off defenders and then impressive end product as he wasn’t wasteful.

Now he’s this slow, ponderous CF who at times links up very well and shows technical class but has none do that spark and skill we used to see.
 
Denis79 said:
Reading back in this thread it's crazy how much he has regressed. Was such a promising player for us.
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As I've got older I've realised that most footballers have very short peaks. Especially playing for such a big and competitive team like Manchester united.
Plenty of players have looked like world beaters then turn to shit in a couple of seasons.
I noticed it with Javier hernandez.
His first season with us he genuinely looked like one of the greatest Premier league finishers of all time. Januzaj looked like one of the best youth players I've seen.
A few years later he was gone and bang average
 
His dribbling has declined a lot, but he was never the best dribbler in a league with Hazard.

Edit: Just realized the thread was made in 2020. I thought it was fairly obvious his dribbling had declined a good amount even then.
 
Obviously lost a lot of his physical prowess but the playing surface yesterday probably contributed to how bad he looked. There were a lot of slipping and not just him.

Occasionally when he let himself go you can still see glimpses of that burst of speed he once had though, he’s heavier and much less agile than before but the main reason for him looking slow is imo him holding back due to fear of injuries.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
Obviously lost a lot of his physical prowess but the playing surface yesterday probably contributed to how bad he looked. There were a lot of slipping and not just him.

Occasionally when he let himself go you can still see glimpses of that burst of speed he once had though, he’s heavier and much less agile than before but the main reason for him looking slow is imo him holding back due to fear of injuries.
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And that's a giant problem to be honest.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
And that's a giant problem to be honest.
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It is, with some players it’s just a matter of overcoming that mental barrier when they’ve recovered physically, but Martial is just breaking down all the time that it goes deeper than that.

Unfortunately, don’t think there’s any recovery from here, best path forward for him is most likely to work on his heading and become more of a classical goal hanging 9, if he wants to prolong his career.
 
I think physical regression due to injuries is part of the problem but it could also be related to Martial playing within himself as he doesn't want to over exert himself for the fear of getting injured again.
 
He is not even the best dribbler in MUFC!

(That would be Anthony or maybe Garnacho)

As regards the league, it is Mitoma at Brighton - he has a PhD in it.
 
Red Rash said:
I think physical regression due to injuries is part of the problem but it could also be related to Martial playing within himself as he doesn't want to over exert himself for the fear of getting injured again.
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£250k per week
Doesn’t fancy over exerting himself.
Waste of rations
 
No.
He is quite possibly the laziest player in the league.

He and Sanco contribute the squarer root of very little.
 
Martial has collapsed as a footballer. Whether the problem is mental or physical I don’t know, but he’s done.
 
He's not even the best dribbler in his family, his kids are way ahead
 
On the weekend he had trouble staying on his feet and controlling the ball.
 
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