9
A lot of those times Martial will come deep and release James. Is he supposed to then teleport to the 18 yard area. Also why is James blindly crossing, shouldn't he look up and then cut it back to the edge of the box?
I mean, if you're trying to argue that we have a consistent way of creating chances then I just have to fundamentally disagree.
The best strikers in world football know when to come deep and when to smell the goals. Dan James is creating a simple tap in, I'm sure players like Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie, Andy Cole and so on would love to run on to the end of a Dan James cross. Even Lukaku would get there.
We literally have a counter attacking style. It's well documented and discussed. I don't really understand why you're ignoring this and claiming we don't have a style of attacking.
We sit back and wait for counterattacks, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we have a consistent way of creating chances while doing so. In fact, the chaotic nature of counters lends to that point, as there's no one way we generally counter, and the final ball is different in every case.
Christ, do you want Martial to be handed goals on a platter?
Yes, I would love it if we created chances that consistently handed our strikers goals on a platter. Currently we don't. No need to get too worked up, if you disagree it's fair enough. I personally think creating around 2 chances per game isn't enough for us, and that goes for whichever striker we play.
At the exception of the very best, basically Messi, Lewandowski, Ronaldo and Suarez no one has been expected to score every weeks. A very good return is a goal every other game and there isn't a lot of players doing that either.
Not sure what you've been watching at all mate. Daniel James has been poor for close to 3 months now, and if anything, a reliance on a player who looks unprepared technically having just made the jump up from the Championship, and an 18 year old in Greenwood to support Martial in the attacking third now that Rashford is out highlights how difficult a job Martial has.
Rashford played 7 games in Martial's absence from August to October, scoring 1 goal in that time which was a penalty vs Leicester. He looked awful for that period, not because he's a bad player but because he was surrounded by dross. Martial's return sparked Rashfords run of form and now that Rashford is out you're expecting Martial to do 'score every week', something Rashford failed to do for 6 weeks running. This isn't a post slandering Rashford, but instead im using him as a reference as to how difficult a situation the both of them are in when the other doesn't play.
But don't you see the top strikers in world football making something from nothing?
Dan James has been awful for large periods. But he's still put the ball across the 6 yard box 8-10 times this season, requiring a poacher to tap it in.
So on that basis, you don't expect Martial to score against Watford?
It's quite funny you're criticising this current style of play. So why is it, Martial has not done it consistently for Ole, Jose, Van Gaal, Dechamps, Jardim? Why has his goals per game ratio always been roughly 1 in ever 4, throughout his career, with no drastic improvement?
I don't really see how you fail to undertand, it's a matter frequency, rare are the players that score on 1:1 basis and no one really expect that from anyone not named Messi or Ronaldo in their prime. What I expect from Martial is a higher frequency than most players and realistically it would be around 1 goal every 2 games over the length of a season. So no I don't expect him to score every weeks and I don't expect him to score during specific games.
Firstly, the notion that the counter attacking that's 'built for Martial' seems to be an argument you just 'built' from thin air, considering it doesn't seem to stem from anything we've actually seen and hence, known. Martial was excellent under LVG in a counter attacking system as well. Technically gifted players like him can clearly work in either. We aren't talking about somebody like Peter Crouch who can't work in some systems (possesion football).
15/16 (LVG) 18G + 11A in 4,663 mins = contribution every 160 mins / 1.8 games. [Only Goals = per 259 mins / 2.9 games]
This post is a mess.
Yes, I said a "Rashford like tear" when he went on an 11 in 12 run. If Martial goes on some kind of Rashford-like tear his numbers go into an acceptable zone and it becomes a much more stable season or him to build on next year. As it stands now, without sycophantically trying in desperation to make his numbers look better by combining them with assists, restricting it to starts. I don't need to delude myself on the issue, 14 in 30 is unacceptable and he needs to be better next season. Incremental growth is fine if he is a fringe player or a squad guy but he's the main man on huge money. The excuses don't wash anymore.
It's pretty much fact that our forwards - whether they are up front, on the left, or the right - have been feeding off scraps since 12/13 when Carrick was providing tasty ball after tasty ball."Not enough service" funny how there was also not enough service when he was playing out wide as well. It's as if the 5 years of low-effort and missing sitters left and right just never happened. Now he's our star striker and criminally underrated, or something
You say that but how good of a goalscorer were they both prior to being in one of the best functioning teams in the world? You underestimate how important that is as, again, you're too busy spinning things into a negative, which is a shame.
Acceptable? If he goes on such a tear, he‘d be amongst the league‘s topscorers and that is in a team with rather poor offensive service. Expectations should be realistic.
We're talking about across all competitions. 9 in 20 in the league is probably closer to an average output for a main striker but probably unacceptable in terms of an output for a team who should be challenging for a title (even without the abnormal mutant season Liverpool has had.. and I don't care about comparing to Firminho.) Talking about expectations if you're a player who is collection 200+ biks a week the expectation should be judged on a much stricter scale than the level that he probably currently is. It is more worrying that excuses are being made and ramping up when we're watching a player who is a full senior and critical player making small incremental fundamental increases in his all-round game. Food for thought on that one.
Weren’t half the goals in Rashford’s “tear” penos? It Martial had taken those and had 3-4 more league goals from penos would that suddenly make his tally great and him the second coming of Jesus? There’s nothing wrong with looking over the body of work of either and not really finding significant differences like you suggest. On the contrary.
He has 14 goals + 5 assists in 2,262' so far. Thats an under 1 in 2 goals record (1.8 games) & ga ~ 119 mins (1.3 games).
I’m chill, but his return should improve.
