Has Martial done enough to be backed as our long-term #9?

Mr Smith

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MOTM for me, I know he skied his chance late on but did everything right up until that point. His goal was class but the assist for Rashford's goal was even better.
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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He has confidence now and doesn't seem mentally weak. He's acting like the main man in attack. He's been really good so far
 

flappyjay

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Has matched Lukaku's best league goal return for us (16 league goals) and should surpasse Zlatans 17 league goal haul.
 

lsd

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His misses and poor decisions cost us the three points . We should have been three or four goals to the good .
 

Bebestation

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His misses and poor decisions cost us the three points . We should have been three or four goals to the good .
It was also his own plays that managed to get us a draw otherwise we would have lost.

The whole first team looked dodgy yesterday and Martial was the only one doing something to a positive standard almost by himself.
 

FrankDrebin

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The only player last night to leave the pitch with any credit. If he keeps this form up the major clubs will come sniffing.
 

Siorac

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His misses and poor decisions cost us the three points . We should have been three or four goals to the good .
Jesus fecking Christ man. He had a goal and an assist and should have had another assist but for Bertrand's freakishly unlikely block. Yes, he missed that early chance. He more than made up for it.

(Also, why do people seem to consider his solo run in the second half an "easy chance"? It really fecking wasn't, after running past basically the entire Soton defence on his own)
 

FrankDrebin

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Jesus fecking Christ man. He had a goal and an assist and should have had another assist but for Bertrand's freakishly unlikely block. Yes, he missed that early chance. He more than made up for it.

(Also, why do people seem to consider his solo run in the second half an "easy chance"? It really fecking wasn't, after running past basically the entire Soton defence on his own)
That was a great run,didnt get much praise from Neville,though he (Neville) basically had a live orgasm when Rashford beat just one player.
 

sherrinford

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His misses and poor decisions cost us the three points . We should have been three or four goals to the good .
The early chance was a great save. On the two occasions where he could have passed to teammates they were not in a better position to shoot than Martial was himself. He was the biggest contributor to both our goals. Generally, he was one of only two people in the team who played well.
 

Cassidy

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His misses and poor decisions cost us the three points . We should have been three or four goals to the good .
Hahahaha. Without his excellent play yesterday we lose the game
 

roonster09

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Jesus fecking Christ man. He had a goal and an assist and should have had another assist but for Bertrand's freakishly unlikely block. Yes, he missed that early chance. He more than made up for it.

(Also, why do people seem to consider his solo run in the second half an "easy chance"? It really fecking wasn't, after running past basically the entire Soton defence on his own)
It's sort of obvious what that poster is doing. He posted the same thing in Martial's thread yesterday, he was called out for that. Didn't reply to any post and he posted same thing today.
 

R'hllor

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He will never do enough for some, people gunning shamelessly for him since that summer under JM. Compare that to some other players, who being protected for this and that reason.
 

Ashish Negi

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I will search for Phil Neville, Owen and bloody all pundits who wants us to buy that big no 9 who can score 25 goals when next season Martial will score 30 goals in all competitions.

Even after giving performance these host keep on asking same question to these pundits and irrespective of Martial performance their answer is same.
 

thepolice123

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He singlehandedly bailed us out yesterday. That 3 minute comeback was an impossible feat for years.
 

OL29

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His misses and poor decisions cost us the three points . We should have been three or four goals to the good .
You’re a WUM.

I would get rid in the summer if we get a decent offer . His attitude is disgraceful his movement non existent and he has no strikers instinct at all.
I don't know about being a false no 9 but he is a false player and stealing a fortune at Utd while doing nothing to justify it
Wasn't missed no surprise . Just hope we get a half decent offer for him
He shouldn't be a Utd player
He is pathetic an absolute waste of space and we need to get rid as soon as possible .

There's no other big team in the world that would put up with lack of effort
 

Cassidy

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With better finishing we win
I guess Aguero when he misses a few chances is now not a world class striker ey...
We would also win if Rashford put the chance Martial put on a plate for him away, or better yet if our defenders did their jobs.
He was by far our best player and the criticism is a joke
 

Woodenlung

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Martial deserves the run he's gotten in the side. Every aspect of his game has improved this season. He's always been able to beat a marker 1 v 1 but he's now working hard off the ball as well. His hold up play with his back to goal has come in leaps and bounds too.

I think it's fair to say that his finishing needs to improve, but he's not the only player that could use some polishing on that front. Unfair to single him out for criticism when Rashford most a gilt edges opportunity to put us two goals ahead.
 

Siorac

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Martial deserves the run he's gotten in the side. Every aspect of his game has improved this season. He's always been able to beat a marker 1 v 1 but he's now working hard off the ball as well. His hold up play with his back to goal has come in leaps and bounds too.

I think it's fair to say that his finishing needs to improve, but he's not the only player that could use some polishing on that front. Unfair to single him out for criticism when Rashford most a gilt edges opportunity to put us two goals ahead.
As it has been pointed out, repeatedly, Martial has one of the best conversion rates in the Premier League. Strikers miss chances. Even the very best do.
 

Striker10

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Martial is in great form. But we need to be tighter. As a team the goals we concede are mostly avoidable. We can talk about the chances we missed but we scored 2 goals still. We were leading up till the last seconds. If the injuries never happened it's more then likely we'd have got the 3 points. So luck went against us but we still got a point but Martial is playing very well. I though his effort after the run took a deflection but it don't matter anyhow. I think he's shown more then enough.
 

troylocker

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I was not his biggest fan before, but I think he has elevated his game a lot this year. He seems to have the "ON"-switch on more often, plays with more confidence, more energy and has improved his movement and finishing massively the last 6 months. Credit to him, Ole and the other coaches for that. He created both goals for us yesterday, and even though he missed a couple of finishes and the obvious pass to Greenwood when he balooned it late in the game, he delivered an all in all a good performance. He's having his best season so far and is showing progress. My guess is he will deliver better numbers next season, but we still need another top class striker though.
 

led_scholes

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Motm by far for me. He created 4 chances, 2 resulted in goals, one was a lucky save from their defence and one he had to run the whole field and dribble 3 players..

Unfortunately, he didn't have great support from Greenwood and Bruno yesterday, otherwise he would have created more chances.
 

Bebestation

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As it has been pointed out, repeatedly, Martial has one of the best conversion rates in the Premier League. Strikers miss chances. Even the very best do.
The thing with Martial is that even if his conversion rate was average - he brings world class link up play to forwards who play outside.

Fans who keep crying about Aguero, Zlatan or Kane just dont see the benefit of link up play and associate the creativity all to come out from wide and midfielders when that's not been the case in modern football for over a decade.

When Martial plays in a front 3 - it feels like a front 3 against a 4 man defence all capable of interchangeable positions and interplay. When people talk about Kane, Jimenez, Zlatan or Aguero they are usually playing like a 1 man striker against a 2 man central defence constantly which changes the gameplay of the wider players. We saw this happen with Zlatan when Rashford and Martial were playing like perisic for Mourinho.
 

spontaneus1

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I've had plenty of doubts about Martial but he is really starting to win be around. Been putting in some fantastic performances recently.
 

Random Task

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Motm by far for me. He created 4 chances, 2 resulted in goals, one was a lucky save from their defence and one he had to run the whole field and dribble 3 players..

Unfortunately, he didn't have great support from Greenwood and Bruno yesterday, otherwise he would have created more chances.
But he missed chances that could have won us the game. That is unacceptable by any standards and I for one have had enough.

Sell him to Molde and be done with it.
 

Siorac

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The thing with Martial is that even if his conversion rate was average - he brings world class link up play to forwards who play outside.

Fans who keep crying about Aguero, Zlatan or Kane just dont see the benefit of link up play and associate the creativity all to come out from wide and midfielders when that's not been the case in modern football for over a decade.

When Martial plays in a front 3 - it feels like a front 3 against a 4 man defence all capable of interchangeable positions and interplay. When people talk about Kane, Jimenez, Zlatan or Aguero they are usually playing like a 1 man striker against a 2 man central defence constantly which changes the gameplay of the wider players. We saw this happen with Zlatan when Rashford and Martial were playing like perisic for Mourinho.
I agree with all of that but really, the icing of the cake is that his conversion rate is not average at all, it's actually very good! But some fans seem to think that a "proper number nine" should never miss a chance - but such a number nine never existed.
 

lsd

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Surely this guy needs to be thread banned? @mods

Look we dropped vital points purely down to our own faults so quit with the butt hurt feelings here .

Martial and Rashford are talented but wasteful and neither is good enough to be our long term number nine .

A better centre forward would have scored at least two last night and those misses and bad decisions at the worst times can be the difference between champions league and Europa

We will never win the league again if people refuse to see where we need improving
 

Cassidy

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Look we dropped vital points purely down to our own faults so quit with the butt hurt feelings here .

Martial and Rashford are talented but wasteful and neither is good enough to be our long term number nine .

A better centre forward would have scored at least two last night and those misses and bad decisions at the worst times can be the difference between champions league and Europa
Please go and find a centre forward who doesn't miss any chances, don't come back till you find one.
 

flappyjay

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Look we dropped vital points purely down to our own faults so quit with the butt hurt feelings here .

Martial and Rashford are talented but wasteful and neither is good enough to be our long term number nine .

A better centre forward would have scored at least two last night and those misses and bad decisions at the worst times can be the difference between champions league and Europa
We literally had Zlatan missing sitters, even Rvp in a clutch moment vs madrid. It happens to all strikers