[Adisa]

Like always, there's an over analysis of his performances. He was below par, happens with all players.
There's nothing wrong with his dynamism or anything. Will be one of the players we look to against Spurs.

 

[Frankstaple!]

Easily marked out of the game today by a hard working team. Right decision to hoof him off as he made himself too easy to mark by not moving from the left touchline.

 

[Adisa]

Easily marked out of the game today by a hard working team. Right decision to hoof him off as he made himself too easy to mark by not moving from the left touchline.

Mata was central, he had to keep the width.

 

[Damien]

For whatever reason, he didn't move from the left compared to against Bournemouth or Cardiff. When Sanchez came on, he had a bit more freedom to go on the right/central.

Spoiler: heatmaps

Spoiler: Martial v Newcastle

Spoiler: Sanchez v Newcastle

Spoiler: Martial v Cardiff

Spoiler: Martial v Bournemouth

 

[Adisa]

For whatever reason, he didn't move from the left compared to against Bournemouth or Cardiff. When Sanchez came on, he had a bit more freedom to go on the right/central.

Spoiler: heatmaps

Spoiler: Martial v Newcastle

Spoiler: Sanchez v Newcastle

Spoiler: Martial v Cardiff

Spoiler: Martial v Bournemouth

He was clearly told to hold his position, something Sanchez in incapable of. Also think Mata going off allowed Sanchez to do that.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Not his best game but that happens.

 

[Escobar]

He was way too static, a bit like under Jose. Let's hope for a better game against Spurs

 

[Sylar]

Think our lack of RW means everything goes down his side. Can be easier to mark when you set up like Newcastle and have pace in that area. I reckon he will have more joy vs Spurs if we can get the ball to him.
I thought he did ok in the first half. Second half was right to sub him off though.

 

[JohnnyKills]

Thought he played fine. He's actually showing for the ball a lot more than he did previously, and making those killer runs over the top. He's played much worse than last night and ended up with goals and assists.

Looks much more dangerous than Sanchez too.

 

[Jeffthered]

A typical Martial performance I'm afraid. Lacks conviction, direction, impact.

These goals he scored earlier in the campaign have obscured the areas in his game, and this includes his game-intelligence. Last night he saw plenty, plenty of the ball... both close marker in attendance , and when he had PLENTY of room to attack his marker. He didn't create much at all in either circumstance.

He slows our game down, without really using the ball. He attempts ellaborate things which rarely work, and are unnecessary. It's frustrating to watch.

He needs to simplify his game, play with instinct, as he did when he first arrived, and be direct because He is NOT a 'thinking' player ( a la Pogba, Silva, Scholes, Hazard etc..).

He's a v decent player, if he decides on how he wishes to play. He needs coaching, because he will not improve if he maintains such inconsistency.

 

[Adisa]

A typical Martial performance I'm afraid. Lacks conviction, direction, impact.

These goals he scored earlier in the campaign have obscured the areas in his game, and this includes his game-intelligence. Last night he saw plenty, plenty of the ball... both close marker in attendance , and when he had PLENTY of room to attack his marker. He didn't create much at all in either circumstance.

He slows our game down, without really using the ball. He attempts ellaborate things which rarely work, and are unnecessary. It's frustrating to watch.

He needs to simplify his game, play with instinct, as he did when he first arrived, and be direct because He is NOT a 'thinking' player ( a la Pogba, Silva, Scholes, Hazard etc..).

He's a v decent player, if he decides on how he wishes to play. He needs coaching, because he will not improve if he maintains such inconsistency.

You say he needs to play on instinct and also accuse of not being a thinking player. Has to be one?
I don't think he's an elaborate player. He held his position and when he tried to take his man on, it didn't come off. Happens all the time with so many attackers .

 

[Jeffthered]

You say he needs to play on instinct and also accuse of not being a thinking player. Has to be one?
I don't think he's an elaborate player. He held his position and when he tried to take his man on, it didn't come off. Happens all the time with so many attackers .

This is my point exactly. Martial is better when he does NOT think. So I want him to play on instinct.

He has to, HAS to, learn to go outside of his man and use his left foot. It will add to his game, massively. He has all that power and should be dangerous at set pieces... where is that in his game?

Remember a young Ronaldo? He was a right footed player, playing from the left... and he worked and developed his game. Heading, and attacking crosses at the far post...becoming comfortable with both feet. Martial has all the physical attributes to do the same. But he doesn't... why not? That's not the manager.. that's all on him. He is at United, and he should be desperate to be one of the best, most effective attacking players in European football.

I simply do not see any desire, real, real desire in his game. I see him and Lindgard as quite similar in this respect. Just my opinion.

 

[JohnnyKills]

A typical Martial performance I'm afraid. Lacks conviction, direction, impact.

These goals he scored earlier in the campaign have obscured the areas in his game, and this includes his game-intelligence. Last night he saw plenty, plenty of the ball... both close marker in attendance , and when he had PLENTY of room to attack his marker. He didn't create much at all in either circumstance.

He slows our game down, without really using the ball. He attempts ellaborate things which rarely work, and are unnecessary. It's frustrating to watch.

He needs to simplify his game, play with instinct, as he did when he first arrived, and be direct because He is NOT a 'thinking' player ( a la Pogba, Silva, Scholes, Hazard etc..).

He's a v decent player, if he decides on how he wishes to play. He needs coaching, because he will not improve if he maintains such inconsistency.

Sorry but totally disagree. He was constantly running at the Newcastle defence, at pace. Yes it didnt come off but that happens. He looked a million times more threatening than Sánchez for me.

I agree he's been too casual in some games but last night wasn't one of them.

 

[BluesJr]

Agendas can be seen very clearly in this thread.

 

[Andrew~]

Newcastle found it too easy to double-team him because there was basically nothing going on from the right. We need to stretch the field better to give him and Rashford some space.

 

[royboy16]

I thought Lukaku's number replaced him ?

 

[finneh]

Wasn't a great performance. He seems to have followed in Lukaku's footsteps in that he's constantly on his heels and demanding the ball to feet. Therefore when someone rightly plays the ball 5 yards in front of him to run onto he's caught out, making himself look lazy and/or the pass to him appear to be poor.

Not surprising given that our last two managers played a much slower and less incisive style; however needs to quickly adapt to a faster style in the fashion that Rashford has. Having an attacker (whether that be Lukaku or Martial) slow things down is completely counter productive to the system we're clearly looking to implement.

He certainly has all the tools needed to adapt though.

 

[breakout67]

Looks like the excuses get rolled out like an AI or algorithm. Doubled up, best player in 1st half, no support.

The lad had an alrite game, it's alright because he's been great in many other games this season. The fact of the matter is top players don't get to stroll through a game, they get targeted as danger men in the team. Pogba gets a man put on him in basically every game, but his attacking intelligence and movement is supreme so it's very difficult to pin him down. Martial can't be expected to perform only when he gets a free run, attackers for top teams will always get doubled up on.

 

[fezzerUTD]

A typical Martial performance I'm afraid. Lacks conviction, direction, impact.

These goals he scored earlier in the campaign have obscured the areas in his game, and this includes his game-intelligence. Last night he saw plenty, plenty of the ball... both close marker in attendance , and when he had PLENTY of room to attack his marker. He didn't create much at all in either circumstance.

He slows our game down, without really using the ball. He attempts ellaborate things which rarely work, and are unnecessary. It's frustrating to watch.

He needs to simplify his game, play with instinct, as he did when he first arrived, and be direct because He is NOT a 'thinking' player ( a la Pogba, Silva, Scholes, Hazard etc..).

He's a v decent player, if he decides on how he wishes to play. He needs coaching, because he will not improve if he maintains such inconsistency.

You will be rivalling me with worst posts in the thread since September with this "rubbish"

 

[Catt]

Agendas can be seen very clearly in this thread.

People get offended if Martial's not praised after each game.

 

[Mr.Ridiculous__]

It was a typical end of the Christmas period performance. I wouldn't look too much into it. He has proved his quality, quite a bit this season. He should be rested vs Reading and have him firing vs Spurs.

 

[RuudTom83]

You are never gonna get man of the match performances every week (from any player) he did some good things last night but it didn’t really click.

Literally zero reasons to give it a second thought. Just bring on the next game.

 

[Crackers]

It was a typical end of the Christmas period performance. I wouldn't look too much into it. He has proved his quality, quite a bit this season. He should be rested vs Reading and have him firing vs Spurs.

Agreed. We played a lot of games over the christmas period and you can see it's caused some fatigue. Our left side was also jammed so I wouldn't read too much into it. A nice rest in Dubai and he'll be ready to wreak havoc against Spurs

 

[ash_86]

He had a decent game and thats it. We were crowding out the left wing and there is no space to operate or run at which he excels in. Valencia was close to the halfway line 90% of the match even though we were attacking and provided no width down the right. Mata also abandoned the right wing and went where ball was. All these caused a very narrow formation and was easy to defend. When we do get a decent Right winger, we can see the best of Martial in these kind of games.

 

[el3mel]

People get offended if Martial's not praised after each game.

Hilarious isn't it.

Come to a thread just to see he played poor this game, suddenly you have agenda againat him. I bet those who say that will be offended if we labelled then fanboys.

Don't know what it'll take for some to realize that Martial is just like any other players who played this sport has some poor games.

 

[shamans]

People get offended if Martial's not praised after each game.

It's the same with De Gea. You have to write "he's the best goalkeeper in the world though" before and every word you mention him in. That's just how fans are. They aren't willing to accept top players having poor games or poor players having good games.

 

[Raven]

7 in 7 up to a point and my posts bad

Yeah, horrendous post. Where do you get the impression that he's a fair weather player? The reason I said the worst since September is because that was the last time people were posting nonsense about his attitude and demeanour.

 

[BluesJr]

People get offended if Martial's not praised after each game.

He wasn’t great last night, praise isn’t the issue. It’s the constant bullshit negativity when he’s been in great form, his first bad game comes along in which he was still pretty dangerous and up pops the usual ‘attitude isn’t right’, ‘fair weather player’ etc.

 

[Jeffthered]

You will be rivalling me with worst posts in the thread since September with this "rubbish"

Rather than just call a post rubbish, please at least support your statement.

 

[Jeffthered]

He had a decent game and thats it. We were crowding out the left wing and there is no space to operate or run at which he excels in. Valencia was close to the halfway line 90% of the match even though we were attacking and provided no width down the right. Mata also abandoned the right wing and went where ball was. All these caused a very narrow formation and was easy to defend. When we do get a decent Right winger, we can see the best of Martial in these kind of games.

Says it all to me.

This is silly. He didn't play well, because Mata was ineffective????

What does that tell you about Martial then?

And what happens next time a player in the front three doesn't play well?

Utter garbage.

 

[BaseFishing]

Says it all to me.

This is silly. He didn't play well, because Mata was ineffective????

What does that tell you about Martial then?

And what happens next time a player in the front three doesn't play well?

Utter garbage.

To be fair to the post you were quoting I don't think he was saying that - he said he just had a decent game and that's it, but to get the best out of Martial consistently then we will have to make sure that we're also attacking well on the right, so that Martial gets more space, that's all.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Says it all to me.

This is silly. He didn't play well, because Mata was ineffective????

What does that tell you about Martial then?

And what happens next time a player in the front three doesn't play well?

Utter garbage.

It’s a valid point because what the person is saying with Mata not occupying that wing and coming central he has effectively shifted the entire Newcastle defence over to focus on the centre and left hand side, not to mention he was clogging up space making it even harder for people to operate on that side and centrally. No coincidence once Rashford was deployed out there and kept the width space started to open up more freely.

Basic football really. He did play well though.

 

[Kapardin]

He didn't have a good game, let's not make excuses. I wonder how much of it is due to his recent illness, he was a bit off colour last game as well despite the assist.

On the bright side, he's also been a big game player for us in the past, so I expect him to bounce back against Spurs, whether Ole starts him or brings him off the bench.

 

[breakout67]

Using other positions to excuse Martial is nonsensical. Virtually every top team has their play go a lot through one area because of their best players being there, a team with world class players all over the pitch is very rare. So long as Pogba and Martial are in the team the play will go through the left and it's their responsibility to perform.

If we had a right winger that was a threat then the excuse would be he doesn't get enough support or service, if we don't then he's getting to much support and its too predictable. Just twist it around to make an excuse regardless of the situation.

 

[GM K]

Talent? Our players have that.

Consistency? Our players massively lack that.

Martial typifies this more than most of our other players. Pogba, Rashford, Lingard etc. share that problem.

No one can question their talents but questions can be raised about their consistency. Three games of pure genius are usually followed by two games of being merely average or even poor. This has been a major problem in our squad for a few seasons now. You could easily see the potential in Martial yesterday but it just wasn't his day. The problem is, such off or average days are more common than they should be for a player with such talent that ought to be world class.

If we can get our most skillful players putting in 8/10 performances in both halves of 90% of our games, we'll be contesting for the title season in, season out. This is not meant to be a criticism of Martial but it's just the reality I have observed. I won't be surprised if he puts in a world class performance in the next game.

 

[BaseFishing]

Using other positions to excuse Martial is nonsensical. Virtually every top team has imbalanced formations to allow better players to shine, a team with world class players all over the pitch is very rare.

If we had a right winger that was a threat then the excuse would be he doesn't get enough support or service, if we don't then he's getting to much support and its too predictable. Just twist it around to make an excuse regardless of the situation.

The problem is that you're thinking about it in terms of excuses - no one's saying that Martial was anything but unremarkable yesterday.

It's not about excusing that, it's about tactics. It's just people pointing out that there may be a way in which we can set up that allows Martial to flourish even more consistently than he has so far.

 

[Jeffthered]

It’s a valid point because what the person is saying with Mata not occupying that wing and coming central he has effectively shifted the entire Newcastle defence over to focus on the centre and left hand side, not to mention he was clogging up space making it even harder for people to operate on that side and centrally. No coincidence once Rashford was deployed out there and kept the width space started to open up more freely.

Basic football really. He did play well though.

Basic football. Really.

This is nonsense people. Martial had a poor game. Accept it, move on.

Rashford and Sanchez playing wide off Lukaku changed things, as subs often do, but the first goal really changed the game. And that was a set piece.

Mata and Martial had ineffective games. Happens at this time of year, just look at the variety in results.. but Martial needs, in my opinion, to up his game, because he isn't anywhere close to this potential Ballon D'or that some on here suggest.

A talented player yes, could be superb for United. But he needs to learn what type of player he wishes to be, because it isn't clear. Not at all.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Think our lack of RW means everything goes down his side. Can be easier to mark when you set up like Newcastle and have pace in that area. I reckon he will have more joy vs Spurs if we can get the ball to him.
I thought he did ok in the first half. Second half was right to sub him off though.

This. This is why an RW signing is so important.

If you are setting up to defend against us, our threat comes down the left almost every time. If you double up on Martial (as Newcastle did) I don't get why he then gets criticised in here for being 'static' or not having a good game. It's actually amazing that teams fear him because, if we had a decent RW, they would then get so much more space. At least now we have Rashford's movement which can pull the CBs around but we need a lot more to beat the best teams.

To be honest even a half decent attacking right back would give us more balance at the moment because currently our whole right flank is distinctly average offensively and defensively.

 

[ash_86]

Says it all to me.

This is silly. He didn't play well, because Mata was ineffective????

What does that tell you about Martial then?

And what happens next time a player in the front three doesn't play well?

Utter garbage.

Did you even read what i wrote? I said Mata was not playing on the right wing as he was supposed to and hence the play was not getting stretched. When all the attackers are playing in one side of the pitch, it gets very narrow and easy to defend. Since there is no space and Martial had no space to operate. What's so difficult to understand? I have blasted martial plenty of times before.

 

[Foxbatt]

It was silly to do that. Everyone knew that Newcastle was blocking our left side. Mata should have been told in no uncertain terms that he is playing in a team game and his duty is to keep the width.
I remember Thiery Henry saying how Pep had a go at him when he was at Barca for coming inside. Martial cannot play to his best obviously when he has been markerd by two defenders. It is for the team to make the best use of the space so Mata or anyone on the right side should have created that space on the right to take some defenders away from our left.