[Adisa]

It's because he scuffs so many clear cut chances I think and when through on goal often doesn't have the pace to get anywhere. In terms of getting on to the end of a cross or linking up the play he is a very very good striker.

Imo, he's easily top 5 striker in the league. Constantly gets 20+ goals a season. Never understood Arsenal fans hate for he guy.

I know, I just tried to not offend some posters.

I always see people having digs at LVG for playing Martial on the left even though he's played there 90% of his career.
At the moment he's nowhere near good enough as a striker. His current skill-set is best utilised on the left. He's the kind of player that will struggle if he doesn't see the ball regularly.

 

[JPRouve]

I always see people having digs at LVG for playing Martial on the left even though he's played there 90% of his career.
At the moment he's nowhere near good enough as a striker. His current skill-set is best utilised on the left. He's the kind of player that will struggle if he doesn't see the ball regularly.

To be fair, Monaco planned to play him upfront last season and he was good. But if people are shocked that Giroud played instead of Martial, what can we say about Lacazette? He is far better than both of them.

 

[ADJUDICATOR]

Imo, he's easily top 5 striker in the league. Constantly gets 20+ goals a season. Never understood Arsenal fans hate for he guy.

Arsenal create around highest amount of chances, especially in and about the box. Giroud (Ramsey and Walcott aside) fluffs his lines and lacks for pace far too often because otherwise they'd probably be hitting around the same number of goals as City.

 

[Yagami]

Imo, he's easily top 5 striker in the league. Constantly gets 20+ goals a season. Never understood Arsenal fans hate for he guy.

Really? I'm sure it's because Arsenal fans want to win the league and having Giroud as their starting striker diminishes all hope of that happening. He'd be a fine squaddie for a title winning side but not a starter.

I always see people having digs at LVG for playing Martial on the left even though he's played there 90% of his career.
At the moment he's nowhere near good enough as a striker. His current skill-set is best utilised on the left. He's the kind of player that will struggle if he doesn't see the ball regularly.

Yes, he's mainly played on the left but the calls to start him up front were pretty valid. He outperformed Rooney with ease and was looking great there with Lingard also looking good on the left. When we found a proper gem in Rashford and had a striker who was actually a threat the calls for Martial to play up front stopped because we actually had a good player there. Until we played Rashford, Martial was easily our best option there.

I prefer him on the left, too, but I understood completely the calls to play him up front. I mean, did he have one bad game as a striker? I don't remember him having so.

 

[Adisa]

Arsenal create around highest amount of chances, especially in and about the box. Giroud (Ramsey and Walcott aside) fluffs his lines and lacks for pace far too often because otherwise they'd probably be hitting around the same number of goals as City.

Arsenal creating tons of chances is a myth. They had lots of LVG style games last season.
Giroud misses a number of chances, not denying that. But in terms of what he brings to the team, there aren't many batter than him.

 

[the unknown one.]

Arsenal creating tons of chances is a myth. They had lots of LVG style games last season.
Giroud misses a number of chances, not denying that. But in terms of what he brings to the team, there aren't many batter than him.

A battered cod perhaps?

 

[ADJUDICATOR]

Arsenal creating tons of chances is a myth. They had lots of LVG style games last season.
Giroud misses a number of chances, not denying that. But in terms of what he brings to the team, there aren't many batter than him.

http://indy100.independent.co.uk/ar...-league-at-converting-big-chances--bJHOD1nkRx

• 4th highest shot per game ratio in the league last season.
• 2nd highest shots on target per game
• 18th highest shots per game from outside the box

Arsenal had almost double the amount of shots we did in the box and averaged 13 dribbles/game to our 10 (whoscored) last season even with Ramsey largely off form, Sanchez suffering a bit of a burnout, Coquelin dropping out of form and a big injuries to Cazorla/Welbeck so they aren't really comparable to us under van Gaal.

They had games where they lacked penetration, no doubt, but imo Giroud is part of the cause. This Sky piece even highlights my point about Walcott, Ramsey and Giroud in particular being the chief culprits of Arsenal's poor conversion rate. I don't feel strongly either way about Giroud being underrated or fairly rated but it's clear they need better than him if they want more than top 4.

 

[Rado_N]

He just doesn't look right at the moment.

Hopefully just a confidence dip and will be worked with a goal, but he's flat currently.

 

[Amar__]

Yep, very quiet game from him.

 

[Adisa]

Finished the season brilliantly. Getting chopped by Deschamps at HT must have knocked him. Needs to keep playing.

 

[dileno]

He just doesn't look right at the moment.

Hopefully just a confidence dip and will be worked with a goal, but he's flat currently.

Feeling the same. Really hope he can come into some good form once the season starts!

Really hope he's not mad with the number 9 jersey debacle..

 

[Minimalist]

Front four are ineffectual at present, or at least that's what my overriding feeling is. So I'll give Martial a pass for now.

 

[Bojan11]

He started to look better when Leicester took off Simpson.

 

[Sammyjunn]

Was average.

 

[Wade3]

F*** you Deschamps.

 

[Amadaeus]

Disappointing and he has not looked like himself for awhile.

 

[Terminator]

He looks way off pace. Hopefully because he lacks match fitness and not because of the no.9/Benched for the euros shit.

 

[ash_86]

He needs to find his form back else risk getting replaced by Rash , who looked better than him.

 

[Shark]

He looks a bit sluggish, his last few outings have been as bad as I've ever seen him.

 

[ManRant]

Need his confidence back badly, trying too hard but before his subsitution he did make two good runs. His 1st half performance made him the worse performer today.

 

[the unknown one.]

Does not look ready to start next week.

Hopefully this is not down to his personal life .

 

[Escobar]

I repeat what I said weeks ago, I believe he will have a tough season

 

[Offside]

Looked sharper today, but will take time.

 

[ReDDHDevilS]

All Martial needs is some game time.

People are trying to read too much into these early/pre-season games. It's not like we're talking about his performances after 10 competitive games. Another couple of 70 minutes and I believe Martial will be back to his best.

 

[Striker10]

We were decent at times - though scrappy and Martial really is a bit off key. So that is a good sign because we were over reliant on him last season. He just needs to keep working hard and it will happen for him soon enough.

 

[Maradona10]

Like mou said, he has one week of training in his legs and we have had a no work week in china. It was a bad pre- season. So i think it is expected that he plays a level below his capability. He will improve no doubt once he gets some minutes in those legs. I think we will start to see him play well and upto his level by the third-fourth game.

 

[Ish]

There could be a number of reasons why he's not anywhere near his best. Not fit, potentially some personal life issues, confidence issues from the euros & there was that shirt number change at United.

Or it could well be none of the above and us keyboard warriors are just over analyzing. Some fitness issues perhaps as he's hardly had a preseason & he didn't see a lot of game time at the euros. As vangle would say...."no match rhythm"

So yeah, I'll give him a few more games and hopefully others will keep stepping up, which is good to see.

 

[fallengt]

Very bad lately.
Just bad form? lack of football during summer or his wife ?

 

[Escobar]

It must be the new shirt number!

 

[Scorpy]

Man, people are so fecking impatient nowadays. It's still pre-season, ffs. Give the lad some time to get his form back. He hasn't even played 2 full games yet.

 

[Stormsurfer21]

There could be a number of reasons why he's not anywhere near his best. Not fit, potentially some personal life issues, confidence issues from the euros & there was that shirt number change at United.

Or it could well be none of the above and us keyboard warriors are just over analyzing. Some fitness issues perhaps as he's hardly had a preseason & he didn't see a lot of game time at the euros. As vangle would say...."no match rhythm"

So yeah, I'll give him a few more games and hopefully others will keep stepping up, which is good to see.

Exactly this. Well said!

 

[Santoryo]

Mourinho has said it well, Martial just started training a week ago or so and needs more time, same for players like Zlatan and co. They all haven't hit the ground running yet.

People just ought to be patient, nothing to see here.

 

[Santoryo]

Man, people are so fecking impatient nowadays. It's still pre-season, ffs. Give the lad some time to get his form back. He hasn't even played 2 full games yet.

People are EXTREMELY annoying. And this just goes to show how many people are just used to watching football on their sofa and actually never been in any competitive sport as professional or something(well to be fair it applies to the majority on these boards and it's not like it's a bad thing).

The guy is still regaining fitness and it comes with time and more game. Mourinho has made a point to keep mentioning this about all his late arrival in the squad. They AREN'T as fit as they should because they've joined not too long ago. The hysteria from some people is RIDICULOUSLY annoying.

 

[Scorpy]

People are EXTREMELY annoying. And this just goes to show how many people are just used to watching football on their sofa and actually never been in any competitive sport as professional or something(well to be fair it applies to the majority on these boards and it's not like it's a bad thing).

The guy is still regaining fitness and it comes with time and more game. Mourinho has made a point to keep mentioning this about all his late arrival in the squad. They AREN'T as fit as they should because they've joined not too long ago. The hysteria from some people is RIDICULOUSLY annoying.

Someone even suggested playing Rashford over Martial on the left ffs

I know the smartasses like to say "you're only as good as your last game", but this is taking the piss.

 

[Santoryo]

Someone even suggested playing Rashford over Martial on the left ffs

I know the smartasses like to say "you're only as good as your last game", but this is taking the piss.

Some people deserve a slap.

 

[tob]

Mourinho has said it well, Martial just started training a week ago or so and needs more time, same for players like Zlatan and co. They all haven't hit the ground running yet.

People just ought to be patient, nothing to see here.

Exactly.
However, I do think there is a possibility of him being dropped from the starting eleven against Bournemouth.

 

[Devil may care]

Not up to match fitness yet, he's class and will be fine.

 

[ReDDHDevilS]

People are EXTREMELY annoying. And this just goes to show how many people are just used to watching football on their sofa and actually never been in any competitive sport as professional or something(well to be fair it applies to the majority on these boards and it's not like it's a bad thing).

The guy is still regaining fitness and it comes with time and more game. Mourinho has made a point to keep mentioning this about all his late arrival in the squad. They AREN'T as fit as they should because they've joined not too long ago. The hysteria from some people is RIDICULOUSLY annoying.

Spot on.

If they're to go to OT back in Ronlado's early days, he wouldn't have lasted here more than 2 months! Martial is only 20 for god's sake and have only had 2 weeks of preparation and some are already questioning his ability, his first touch, his mentality etc.! It's mental.

 

[Santoryo]

Exactly.
However, I do think there is a possibility of him being dropped from the starting eleven against Bournemouth.

I doubt it. I'm sure he'll play given Mou himself knows that he's only lacking match fitness which he can get some in a week before the game.

 

[Santoryo]

Spot on.

If they're to go OT back in Ronlado's early days, he wouldn't have lasted here more than 2 months! Martial is only 20 for god's sake and have only had 2 weeks of preparation and some are already questioning his ability, his first touch, his mentality etc.! It's mental.

Plenty of obnoxious folks around these boards.