[UNITED ACADEMY]

I think he’s the best one from the front 4 today. His hold up play once again is very good. He’s not having a good night not because he gave the ball away cheaply but because Arsenal is defending very well. Everytime he got the ball, one of Luiz or Sokratis made sliding tackle to stop him, if they didn’t then Martial hold the ball successfully but everytime he past the defenders, Torreira always in there to clear the danger.

On the other hand. Lingard played poor not because arsenal players but because he’s done the damage to himself. Poor touch and poor pass. In contrast with Martial scenario.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

He tried to make something happen at least. He seems a bit more determined recently.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Not a fan of Martial but he was the only one of our forwards who actually had the balls to try to make things happen. Best of a bad bunch.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Not a fan of Martial but he was the only one of our forwards who actually had the balls to try to make things happen. Best of a bad bunch.

I've been harsh on him in recent weeks but agreed, I don't fault his effort or talent in the last few games. He was let down by everyone around him.

 

[The United]

He was determined and the left flank was actually threatening because of him on 2nd half.

 

[Raven]

The only attacker that escapes with any dignity, really tried to force the issue when he realised his teammates didn't show up.

 

[Marcelinho87]

Him and Fred for me the only ones who can come away from that saying they gave it a go.

 

[izec]

His dribbling from the left was quite good, was going past a few players on a few occasions. Absolutely isolated today, was by far the best attacker in a shit team.

 

[Slevs]

I commend his mentality to keep trying, he'd usually give up in the same scenario in previous seasons.

 

[Amar__]

He definitely deserves praise for tonight, not something we see from him often. He looked motivated.

 

[11101]

He was the best attacker today.

When he goes on his dribbles it would be nice if Rashford bothered to move instead of just standing and watching in admiration.

 

[ValenciasDrilledCrosses]

He was the best attacker today.

When he goes on his dribbles it would be nice if Rashford bothered to move instead of just standing and watching in admiration.

Infuriating. Noone at the backpost either for a ball across goal. Our forward movement is beyond a joke. Martial's dribbling was quite good today

 

[Alejandro Angel]

Not a fan of Martial but he was the only one of our forwards who actually had the balls to try to make things happen. Best of a bad bunch.

No Utd player can hold their head up, and if we forgive Martial his performance in the first half it Is just wrong he would have been my first substitution along with Lingard. He made David Luiz look amazing with his slow and purposeful closing down he gave every opportunity to the centre back to go where he wanted and cause damage.
His movement is poor and does not help the team, he is a very lazy forward. I have watched games where Le Tessier has worked harder, although a talented forward and the best at the club with their back to goal, he isn't good enough to get into the France squad for good reason.

 

[Raven]

No Utd player can hold their head up, and if we forgive Martial his performance in the first half it Is just wrong he would have been my first substitution along with Lingard. He made David Luiz look amazing with his slow and purposeful closing down he gave every opportunity to the centre back to go where he wanted and cause damage.
His movement is poor and does not help the team, he is a very lazy forward. I have watched games where Le Tessier has worked harder, although a talented forward and the best at the club with their back to goal, he isn't good enough to get into the France squad for good reason.

What a terrible post.

 

[Sayros]

It was another one of those rare games where he didn't settle with the rest of the forwards into mediocrity or worse, he actually tried to drag his side to a win. It's been happening recently where he's standing out to the rest of the forwards and that's an important shift that I hope continues when they do have poor games because he's had a tendency in the past to settle for whatever level the rest of the team is in. Not today.

 

[KennyBurner]

It was another one of those rare games where he didn't settle with the rest of the forwards into mediocrity or worse, he actually tried to drag his side to a win. It's been happening recently where he's standing out to the rest of the forwards and that's an important shift that I hope continues when they do have poor games because he's had a tendency in the past to settle for whatever level the rest of the team is in. Not today.

I think it’s more to the fact that he isn’t one dimensional. He can play on the counter and also against low blocks. Lingard, James and to an extent rashford are too one dimensional.
At least he tried but it didn’t matter because the other three weren’t on the same wavelength.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Was decent. Certainly the most liveliest of our attacking players. Needs that play behind him to link and interchange with, as he like to drop off.

 

[lumeyes]

I think it’s more to the fact that he isn’t one dimensional. He can play on the counter and also against low blocks. Lingard, James and to an extent rashford are too one dimensional.
At least he tried but it didn’t matter because the other three weren’t on the same wavelength.

I am of the strong opinion that Rashford can have a significant improvement in his overall play with proper coaching. I've seen enough of him to believe he can be a better player. James to an extent too, and in fact a number of players in the team. Sometimes I wonder what they do in training, because we keep seeing the same issue time after time. If all a coach does is pick eleven players to go and run around the club can as well have we fans do that job - via voting.

 

[KennyBurner]

I am of the strong opinion that Rashford can have a significant improvement in his overall play with proper coaching. I've seen enough of him to believe he can be a better player. James to an extent too, and in fact a number of players in the team. Sometimes I wonder what they do in training, because we keep seeing the same issue time after time. If all a coach does is pick eleven players to go and run around the club can as well have we fans do that job - via voting.

Oh I definitely believe this too. I stated it in his own thread. In September when he got the ball on the edge he always tried to cut in and shoot or run blindly into defenders. We’re in January and he is still making these same errors. It’s obviously a lack of coaching at this point. I’ve seen enough to believe he has it in him to make better decision making if he is simply told to by management. The whole team has no regular passing patterns and it’s affecting our inexperienced players.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

Not great, but the service was poor. Not many chances created from us at all and he didn't help matters much.
This game should have suited him, but he did almost nothing.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

He can’t do anything if he doesn’t get the service. Think he’s more than capable of getting 20 goals a season if he has someone like De Bruyne feeding him the ball, We all seen how good he was in his first season when we had Carrick in midfield who could provide him with it consistently.

 

[Canagel]

He's also our best player on the left. And that's quite scary when you think about it. Our best striker is also arguably our best left winger and because of that we can't utilize all of his skills at once. If he plays wide permanently we will miss his hold up play and other more important things in the centre. Striker is still his best position but it's good to see that he didn't lose any of his dribbling instincts at left wing, it can very useful when we have a top team again to be more all rounded I think.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

He’s a bit of a weapon and hard to stop at times. How he was coming out with the ball after going through like 4 Arsenal players insane but he must be deceptively strong as on occasion he just brushes people you would expect to be stronger aside like they are nothing.

Let down massivly today by the no show of James, Rashford and Lingard and unfortunately bar Fred who I mean is t the best there is no one who actually gets the ball to him I mean Shaw for Christmas sake probably finds him more than our midfield.

 

[Hawks2008]

He was ok, the service from midfield and the other forwards was dreadful so probably did well under those circumstances.

 

[MikeKing]

He is in good form at the moment. Too bad our team wasn't.

 

[Badunk]

He's the best United forward at holding the ball up since RVN. He is a stand out in this team. I used to think he was a headless chicken who would just run head first into defenders, expecting them to disappear or something, but he is coming into his own. If he has a decent midfield that can support him, then it's a different ball game.

 

[-Supreme-]

I feel sorry for him as he's been the only player capable of creating something against defensive sides.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Pogba's absence is more unfair for him than most as they combine excellently. There's few other players on the same wave length as him in the final third.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Not great, but the service was poor. Not many chances created from us at all and he didn't help matters much.
This game should have suited him, but he did almost nothing.

Crazy to say that. When no one wanted the ball or bothered to do anything with it he was the one coming deep to get it and beating 3/4 people.

Theres a ball he cut back to Rashford, Rashford somehow didnt see Fred edge of the box.

 

[Santoryo]

Pogba out for a few weeks and Scott for a few months. Left with Matic and Fred only as our sole midfielders our attacking players are gonna suffer and they'll mostly have to rely on individual brilliance to get something out of games.

Honestly we need to identify a midfield fast and go for him this window. I know Ole mentioned not buying just for the sake of buying etc but a midfield player is a must right now.

 

[Stadjer]

He was pretty good. Not that he could have done much better in yesterdays team. He basically had to be a one man attack with Rashford having a bad game, James having a worse game and Lingard having the worst game.

 

[Kostov]

Our best player yesterday. Tried to make things happen in a team that has no idea how to attack. I actually feel sorry for some of our more talented attackers.

 

[jderbyshire]

When I saw the bullshit links to Jimenez and Neves yesterday, I thought I'd check out Jimenez's stats in the PL this season, (he's only scored 8 goals, but weirdly got 6 assists - quite high for an out-an-out striker)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/top-scorers

Anyway, I came across this "shots on target percentage" stat which I found interesting.

Our lad Anthony Martial has the highest percentage of shots on target out of all the top scorers in the PL at 77%. (20 shots on target out of 26)

He's a more accurate shooter than Vardy (66%), Aubameyang (55%), Kane (55%) etc. etc.

We desperately need creative midfielders to create more chances - because this guy will put them away.

 

[Handré1990]

When I saw the bullshit links to Jimenez and Neves yesterday, I thought I'd check out Jimenez's stats in the PL this season, (he's only scored 8 goals, but weirdly got 6 assists - quite high for an out-an-out striker)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/top-scorers

Anyway, I came across this "shots on target percentage" stat which I found interesting.

Our lad Anthony Martial has the highest percentage of shots on target out of all the top scorers in the PL at 77%. (20 shots on target out of 26)

He's a more accurate shooter than Vardy (66%), Aubameyang (55%), Kane (55%) etc. etc.

We desperately need creative midfielders to create more chances - because this guy will put them away.

Faulty logic, Martial only shoots when he feels very confident he’ll score, as such he will miss out on a chunk of goals (i.e. keeper mistakes, deflections and lucky hits). Without even checking I feel confident he shoots a lot less per game than those you compared him to. Imo he doesn’t have that top scorer mentality, perhaps a biproduct of his low intensity/relaxed style.

Edit: Not to say he’s not a very good player. He’s the only one of our attackers who seems to know how to try to break through a low block, and the close control to pull it off. Just never going to be a top scorer.

 

[bsCallout]

Said it before, will say it again - he's class. I'm not Martial FC or whatever but this guy is the real deal if we could only find him in the box with a decent pass once in a while.

He doesn't get in the box.

One of our biggest problems is lack of players in the box. I think the 4231 system is partly to blame, as is our lack of good attacking midfielders and the fact they clearly aren't being told to get in there.

 

[jderbyshire]

Faulty logic, Martial only shoots when he feels very confident he’ll score, as such he will miss out on a chunk of goals (i.e. keeper mistakes, deflections and lucky hits). Without even checking I feel confident he shoots a lot less per game than those you compared him to. Imo he doesn’t have that top scorer mentality, perhaps a biproduct of his low intensity/relaxed style.

Edit: Not to say he’s not a very good player. He’s the only one of our attackers who seems to know how to try to break through a low block, and the close control to pull it off. Just never going to be a top scorer.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think we need another option up front, but I don't think it's as high a priority as the midfield/chance creation.

I think the key, as we've seen at Liverpool and City, is to have two or three players who will score 15-20 goals each.

But we need more creativity in midfield/no.10 - we knew this in the Summer.

 

[VeevaVee]

The fecker better not be too ill to play now

 

[Handré1990]

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think we need another option up front, but I don't think it's as high a priority as the midfield/chance creation.

I think the key, as we've seen at Liverpool and City, is to have two or three players who will score 15-20 goals each.

But we need more creativity in midfield/no.10 - we knew this in the Summer.

Yeah, that’s not even debatable at this point. Never have I seen such lack of options in midfield for United before.

 

[KennyBurner]

He doesn't get in the box because he either 1. Swans about 2. Comes for the ball because it never gets to him. Both can be changed with good coaching. It frustrates me to see a player with this ludicrous skill set being wasted. With a well coached midfield he'd be on another level.

Our midfield options have always been to blame. We saw it with greenwood against wolves. Posters kept complaining why greenwood was consistently dropping deep not realizing it’s because he knows he would never get the ball if he stays in the box. No pogba means no risky passes with this team.

 

[Raven]

He doesn't get in the box because he either 1. Swans about 2. Comes for the ball because it never gets to him. Both can be changed with good coaching. It frustrates me to see a player with this ludicrous skill set being wasted. With a well coached midfield he'd be on another level.

On your first point, I don't think he can be accused of swanning about this season. If we could however get the ball to him faster and higher up the pitch, he would be absolutely devastating, as you say, his skill set is largely being wasted.