Rashford and Martial are a problem

[HowYouDoin]

Theyre both too inconsistent and too hot or cold. Thats why you do preferably need to keep one, sell the other one and get a genuinely world class player instead. Hopefully Greenwood becomes that. Hopefully Diallo perhaps too, who knows.

 

[Snow]

Rashford has been good this season so far. Martial? Needs to improve a lot.

He hasn't. Poor against Palace, Spurs, Chelsea, Istanbul and one of our better players against Arsenal which isn't saying much because the team played poorly. That's half the games that he hasn't been good which is a problem. We didn't win any of them except today.

 

[united_99]

They are not the problem, but we still need a classic CF, fingers crossed Cavani can do this job and stay fit.
Martial and Rashford obviously won’t finish every chance, neither will Cavani, but defenders are scared / aware of them which should give more space to other players to take advantage.
We need to improve our build up and get more players involved, this will benefit everyone, including Rashford and Martial.
Despite not being in form yet both have made important contributions this season.

 

[Fooza]

Totally agree with this, and every season it's a hope they can finally become consistent enough to get us challenging in all fronts.

But we are still waiting....and you have to wonder if it'll come.

 

[Offside]

Gotta remember still both very young...

 

[Njord]

I hope and think that long term it will be Rashford, Greenwood, Sancho and that Martial will rotate with those three.

Having four players for three spots will give us options when one shows bad form.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

I'd give Cavani a little run in the team in place of Martial.

 

[HowYouDoin]

Martial is out of form right now.. Hopefully he will get back to form pretty soon

No he is not out of form, this is just who he is and has been since he got there. Very inconsistent. At times he will look brilliant but then he will follow with 3 bad games. Its who he is.

 

[Tormentor]

They both have a talent but their inconsistency is a huge problem. Why's that? That is the question only for themselves to answer.

 

[AltiUn]

Rashford's contributed loads this season, he's inconsistent but has still been one of our best players. Martial's been a waste of time so far.

 

[meamth]

Martial needs a goal in the premier League to lift himself up.

Honestly? We need to be playing like that consistently first before worrying about them. If we kept playing like that, both of them will score easily.

 

[arnie_ni]

Both very poor today but when they are both on, with bruno, we have one of the best attacks in the league.

Its a tough call to make, but if you can get a class striker i think you sign one and let rash and martial play either side

 

[sincher]

Martial is definitely looking off the boil. Wouldn't say the same for Rashford.

 

[Amar__]

OP's favourite United striker ever, and our all time top scorer scored more than 17 goals in the league just two times in his career, in 2010 and 2012. Those are Rashford and Martial's numbers in the league respectively in the last season.

Last season we have scored embarassing total of 66 goals in the league, so 50% of those goals were scored by Rashford and Martial. Just a quick reminder.

 

[HowYouDoin]

Those bringing up Mourinho are right. I think Mourinho liked Rashford but he wanted to get rid of Martial. As time goes by I think hes proven right in that assessment.
Rashford still offers a lot even when inconsistent but Martial just isnt a player for an elite club IMO

 

[Hammondo]

So Martial on the bench then. Rashford rarely plays through the middle

But his passing is terrible, he ruins so many attacks.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Manchester United c. 2006?

We had Ruud then. Shortly to be replaced by Tevez, who was also frustratingly inconsistent. Hence Fergie signed Berbatov. Another peak age player.

 

[JJ12]

But his passing is terrible, he ruins so many attacks.

His passing is sometimes fantastic.

7 goals and 3 assists in 11 games when apparently he isn’t even playing that well.

In this form I can’t see what Martial offers, at all.

 

[Sandikan]

Martial is very overrated on here. Rashford carries him.

Rashford and Greenwood are irreplaceable but Martial, as silky and talented as he is, could easily be upgraded in my opinion.

For the short term I'd start Cavani and bench Martial.

Did you miss the 6months where Rashford barely looked like a Premier league player, while Martial was superb?

The two of them are very up and down. Currently Rashford is in decent form - hatrick and a couple of other good games, albeit not today, Martial isn't. Probably not helped by his massively disjointed season

 

[Kag]

Were two of the most consistent forwards in the league last season

Pretty much.

They can be inconsistent, but they’re not the problem either. I’d revisit this after the next run of fixtures.

 

[cyberman]

His passing is sometimes fantastic.

7 goals and 3 assists in 11 games when apparently he isn’t even playing that well.

In this form I can’t see what Martial offers, at all.

Martial isnt even in bad form! He has 2 in 2 going into today and played well v PSG, RB anf Istsnbul imo. He was even good today and held the ball up better than Evertons no 9.

 

[Gibb11]

There not the classic striker in that they both love to play intricately inside the box with quick one two's, it's great when it comes off but it rarely comes off, particular in a game when the opposition get deeper there's less space to do this. It reminds of the Arsenal era after the success they had under Wenger and how they went wrong. The space gets less and we have so many close calls, blocked shots etc. Ironically they had a Robin van Persie when fit and we really miss that type of player, a player who just takes one touch in the box or two to finish from cross with a swipe of foot or whatever, we see that rarely from Rashford and Martial and they lack that clinical instant to be desperate to score.

I want to see more tap ins from, 1 or 2 touch then a shot from these players however they aren't helped of course from a lack of quality/ability from our wide players in Wan Bisakka, James, Shaw etc

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Martial’s form is worrying.

Not worried by Rashford, he’s always been a hot & cold player.

 

[JJ12]

Martial isnt even in bad form! He has 2 in 2 going into today and played well v PSG, RB anf Istsnbul imo. He was even good today and held the ball up better than Evertons no 9.

Christ.

 

[TMDaines]

Thought Rashford was decent today. Very threatening. Martial couldn’t do anything right though.

 

[Brwned]

We had Ruud then. Shortly to be replaced by Tevez, who was also frustratingly inconsistent. Hence Fergie signed Berbatov. Another peak age player.

We have Fernandes in Rooney's position, who is much more experienced / more of a finished product, if you want to get particular. But the question was about whether two young, inconsistent attackers could play a role in a successful team. So Martial and Rashford are a straight swap for Rooney and Ronaldo, and that 06/07 team played some lovely football with a lot of success. Without another elite forward beside them, if we're being really critical. Van Nistelrooy had left and was mostly out of the picture the season before.

Not sure about the Berbatov point either. He didn't really improve the team so I'm not sure how that's evidence that signing another peak age player is the right strategy. Sir Alex just really liked buying forwards.

 

[thepolice123]

Thought Rashford was horrendous today. Absolutely nothing came off for him, even simple 5 yard passes were intercepted.

 

[Bobcat]

Rashford hasn’t been poor at all.

Martial is a waste of space when in this sort of form.

Sort of agree. Imo Rashford was poor today, but even when he has a shite game he manages to do something. Involved in the 2nd goal and got clean through vs Pickford and managed a shoot

Martial when hes not in form is just a non entity.

Everyone is shouting about Ole not being consistent enough, which is true, but this applies to our attackers as well and particularly Martial. After last season i thought Martial would kick it on and become more consistent but it seems hes never going to change.

 

[El Jefe]

Scholes was right. The sensitive posters were up in arms about his criticism of our strikers but we have no one who guarantees us goals and plays like a proper centre forward. We have Cavani but he's a short term player.

Haaland is a must next summer, that's if we have a chance of getting him.

 

[acnumber9]

I’d rather not turn this into Rashford vs Martial. The question is, can any fan of either player honestly say they’re consistently playing well enough to be the two main men up front for a club that is trying to win big trophies?

No they aren’t and I think they both want to play in similar spaces. We get enough Rashford v Martial but it will end up being one or the other. Ideally, they should both be playing in central positions with a real wide player out wide.

 

[Wade3]

Martial repeatedly pressed the opponent's defense, held the ball up and got himself into promising positions. The problem is, a striker needs to be fed somehow and he isn't. Part of the problem is Rashford's poor passing from the wing and his desire to score himself. If you have wingers who enjoy scoring themselves, it's always a bit harder for the striker.
At the same time, Martial is too emotional when he's playing, as in he checks himself out of parts of the game when he is not involved.
Rashford on the other hand has more of a workhorse type of character who lacks a bit of footballing intelligence paired with some technical abilities.

Lastly though, I don't think our inconsistent attack is down to them alone. Everybody is more or less inconsistent, with Bruno perhaps being the most consistent one but also enjoying a very free role, which obviously provides him with plenty of opportunities to get involved.

I like Solksjaer, but players will always look better with a coach who has some sort of offensive strutcture and a game plan that creates spaces for them. If you have ever coached yourself, you realize how bang average a player who thrived in your system can look if used differently or poorly in another system.

Just look over at Bayern Munich, one of the top European clubs, and some players who have been there for a while to realize how good and bad some looked under different managers. Thomas Mueller is only one example of that.

 

[Andycoleno9]

No, they are not. They just had poor game.

 

[Mickeza]

I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again - the first thing SAF would demand if he was in charge of this squad would be a world class number 9.

 

[HowYouDoin]

Greenwood is a natural striker and will surpass both and hopefully we get a good output from Diallo too.

 

[elmo]

Martial's turning 25 by Christmas and he's still playing like he's in his first season with the first team.

We really need an upgrade over him because between him and Rashford, it's not Rashford that's going to be dropped if we can only play with one of them.

 

[-Supreme-]

Thought Rashford was decent today. Very threatening. Martial couldn’t do anything right though.

No wonder people feel Rashford has been great this season.

 

[HowYouDoin]

I’ve said this before and I’m going to say it again - the first thing SAF would demand if he was in charge of this squad would be a world class number 9.

100 %.

 

[Lee565]

So Martial on the bench then. Rashford rarely plays through the middle

I still dont see why rashford can't be just as effective on the right wing with his technique of how strikes the ball and could probably produce far better balls into the box than any of our other options that we have seen play there.

 

[el3mel]

Martial is really weird one. He'll be 25 in a month and still as inconsistent as shite. Unbelievable really.

 

[stu_1992]

As others have said, quite harsh on Rashford. Yeah he wasn't great today but jaysus he's had a decent start to the season for goals and assists. Inconsistent yes, but there are signs that it may be getting less frequent than before.

Martial hasn't had the best start to the season, but I've no doubt the red against Spurs and the interruption to his game time that came with that has contributed. I'm also not convinced he's a player that relishes a battle for his position, something he may now have with Cavani in the squad. Having said that, he could easily go and have a very good season from here.