No, he cannot.
He could perhaps do better than being statistically one of the laziest players in the league, however.
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He could perhaps do better than being statistically one of the laziest players in the league, however.
We, as a team, are lazy going off the stats, no? It all comes down to our setup and refusal to press until late in the game. In Martial's case, it doesn't help that he has a lackadaisical demeanor, but he does work hard with his backtracking.
There are no extraordinary players that would have done much against City today the way we'd already shot ourselves in the foot with tactics.
What do you think Messi does in any of our attackers shoes today?
And people are happy seeing Martial defensive stats such as blocks, clearances, interceptions etc take a huge bump instead of feeling annoyed because it means he spends the majority of games being a defender rather than an attacker.
Martial FC, our team lost, but our boy scored...does that mean it's time for late night 1kg snack of ice-cream supplemented with watching some romantic comedy? 
Doesn't matter the player mate. You could have Messi in this team. The style of football means that in the big games it just a matter of complete luck. You have no options to pass to, always 3,4 players to beat and no one ahead of the ball.
Cool head on the penalty and did his tracking back well enough, not much else can be said given the midfield trio we had supplying the attack.
Those six are the best forwards we've had in the premier league era. In good company indeed. Could go on to be as good as them.Tweet
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Now hunt that Vardy record.
We are, and yet Martial still manages to trump everyone.
I'm not asking for him to inexplicably manage to single handily win games when everyone else wank; I am saying that more should be expected of him at least to try and make a difference in tight matches when we're under the cosh.
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No surprise you're a mechanic, stick to it.
Keep thinking that reality is play station.
If I stopped would it make your reply make any sort of sense?
You are 100% correct. Great player in the making if he wants it. Drifts in and out games far too often in my opinion.
You're asking for too much, first of all I don't know if even Messi could make much of a difference when the entire midfield is being overrun and any runs is hardly rewarded to create some kind of danger; but Martial is not the kind of player to drag the rest of the team to a win, he may become that player someday he may not....right now he just isn't. This is a game where Pogba was sorely missed and could have helped Martial make more of a difference.
I think he's good and can become a top class player but he will need a team around him that plays well too.
If asking Martial to work harder to get in to positions to hurt the opposition is asking too much then I wonder at what level you rate him? Because my impression over recent weeks is that most of this forum rate him as currently a world class player (and, if not, then not far off). If that's the case then we have to take the children's gloves off and be candid about the still existing flaws in his game and where he can improve.
Certainly he could be helped by more dynamic passers in midfield, but conversely our midfielders could be helped by a player working harder to get himself into space. It isn't a zero sum game, and I don't mean to absolve other players of blame. I just think Martial is being a bit molly coddled at the minute and that more can still be expected from him.
No one is calling him world-class without attaching potential at the end, so I think you're misreading this thread. You're asking for too much because you basically want him to create something out of nothing consistently when he's getting nothing from the midfield, and whenever he has the ball there are 2-3 players around him with no movement from the rest of the team to give and go from. I think Martial is the most dangerous player on the team, I rate him quite highly, but he's not a video game player.
I don't think I am, but we can agree to disagree on that point.
More importantly, I think you've misunderstood. I'm not asking him to consistently create something from nothing. I'm saying that I believe he's still too static and that he can still do more to get himself into positions where he can hurt opponents when we win the ball back in games like these.
But I've watched the game, Rashford and Martial made several runs to try and create the danger you're looking for; it goes back to my point that the midfield was unable to do anything about it and simply would turn down every opportunity to create that kind of danger through Martial to simply play a safe sideway pass (and they struggled with even that).
No point in analysing either him or Rashford when the midfield we played couldn't make a forward pass to save their lives. Did well for the penalty, stepped up and scored.
He was reluctant to take on Walker because he's too fast and strong for him, he needed more support and movement around him to open Walker up. Today he had nothing, also Bernardo Silva was like a rash all over him whenever he had the ball.
Did well overall, didn't waste too many balls. Tried to start a lot of plays which never really came off. Hopefully he can continue his form, we've plenty of winnable games after International break.
Did well overall, didn't waste too many balls. Tried to start a lot of plays which never really came off. Hopefully he can continue his form, we've plenty of winnable games after International break.
Sometimes it's like people already have pre-worded posts for when martial (and some other players) have a bad or average game which they're just itching to dish out..
Very hard to blame him, Rashford, or Lingard. We were playing so deep most of the game that they had to run the length of the pitch to do anything of note.
Compare that to Sterling and Sane who receive the ball much higher up the pitch and immediately have the two Silvas and the fullbacks making runs ahead of them.
Compare that to Sterling and Sane who receive the ball much higher up the pitch and immediately have the two Silvas and the fullbacks making runs ahead of them.
Has he ever played well or come out on top against Walker? Quite a few times he's struggled when up against a fullback who matches him physically. City did their homework on him; doubled up so he couldn't cut inside, and isn't fast enough to run past Walker on the outside. Sloppy with his passing as well, but cool for the pen.
The keeper went the wrong way as Martial intended with the disguise on his approach, it was a great penalty in the circumstances.
The opposition teams are figuring out he's our only good attacking players and it's becoming normal to see 2 or 3 on him per attack the last couple of matches. Can't be helped that our other attackers are completely hopeless. You can leave Rashford without marking at all and he'll feck up every ball he gets anyway.
Whatever that means. Sometimes people want to criticize a player without any depth or analysis as to how or why said player couldn't win them the game, or even get the ball whenever they were making runs. My itch has been scratched a while ago, Martial is back to where he belongs in the starting line up and is being decisive. Only, I'm not going to expect anything more than what he did today when you look at the state of the midfield, especially against a team like City. But I guess it's easier to just blame without thinking too much into it.
As far as pre-worded posts, mine was actually a direct response to another poster. Sometimes, it's like people don't have much to contribute to the conversation so they resort to passive-aggressive posts without an ounce of analysis or intelligence behind it.
Missed having Pogba to interlink with, but still our only attacking threat.
If you can close Martial down, we literally have no attack.
If you can close Martial down, we literally have no attack.
Just to lift the mood, slightly.
Best goals per minute ratio in the league, and 100% shooting accuracy. Not one shot off target this season.
As mentioned above, teams are starting to double up or even triple up on him, while leaving our right side free.
Best goals per minute ratio in the league, and 100% shooting accuracy. Not one shot off target this season.
By that logic every Eden Hazard penalty is a poor penalty. He waited for the keeper to move and rolled it to the other side.
As mentioned above, teams are starting to double up or even triple up on him, while leaving our right side free.
Every time he had the ball there was two at least and three players on him. He had nothing to work with. Shaw was having a mare and he had to help him in defence too. He is not Messi and as someone said even Messi would have trouble playing in this United team.
This sums up the coaching of the team there right there. Even an opposition player knows our tactics and philosophy is terrible.
Are we saying that Martial should have not tracked Zabaleta?
It’s not a winger’s job to establish control of a football match. If we had control of the ball, Zabaleta would be the one defending. West Ham dominated the ball, hence Martial has to defend.
Or are we saying JM gives him instruction to not attack but defend?
Yes.
Martial did nothing... Tracking back is part of his job. Shouldn't be commended, or seen as some favour.
He needs to learn how to really play this game, because he is far too ineffective for someone of his ability, and thinks he is better than what he currently is.
Talented yes, but he has to change his attitude if he wishes to be the player he could become.
Great young players inspire teams. Anthony Martial doesn't do this. Look at Sterling. Look at Rashford (who also really doesn't benefit from the side-show called our Manager).. he is an inspirational player.
Martial has many supporters on here, but some people need to see things as they are, not what they wish.
As someone mentioned, this isn't PlayStation.
When you win you can say lots of stuff. How did Martial score 4 in 5 open play goals if he is so easy to mark and our philosophy is so obvious. I don't see opposition defenders past few matches saying such things? They must all be a level below Zabaleta. Weird timing when Martial is on hot form.
So you're telling me you find Rashford inspiring. The player who has 2 goals for us this season and has been quite frankly awful throughout. But Martial, a player who only 3 months ago was fined by the club, was almost sold, started the season near the bottom of the pecking order, yet is now our top scorer with 7 goals having fought his way into the team to essentially single handedly save the job of a manager who has never really trusted him... isn't inspiring? Our whole attack revolves around getting the ball to Martial and hoping he creates something. Furthermore, opponents double and sometimes triple mark him to try and stop him from creating for us. Utterly bizarre post.
He had a poor game. Saying anything otherwise is a straight up wrong imo. Whether that was down to tactics or simply not having the ball enough is a different issue.
I'm genuinely curious to what you think he should have done considering our 3 DMF are so limited at passing the ball forward, he needed to drop extra deep in order to receive the ball, but by then it was him vs. whole City's defense considering we weren't really all that into attacking to begin with.
No mention of his pass that put lukaku through?
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