Anthony Martial: Manchester United have stumbled upon their best striker – now they should stick with him

If there is an accusation that Manchester United are landing upon solutions to their problems through good fortune and process of elimination rather than tactical mastery, this was a good afternoon to put forward the theory. Jose Mourinho has now dropped every member of his attack in a bid to discover some fluency in the final third. In Anthony Martial, he may have found the closest thing to a saviour.

Martial earned Manchester United’s opening goal against Everton with his quick feet and over-exaggerated tumble, allowing Paul Pogba to display his monumentally ponderous run-up and good reactions to the saved penalty. It caused Martial to celebrate with his fellow Frenchman, to delight in taking the lead in a must-win match – they all are these days. But that was a shared experience.

The second goal was individual perfection. After it was rolled across to him by Pogba, Martial swiped across the ball with a flourish that expunged 18 months of struggle for relevance. The ball hadn’t even crossed the line and he was wheeling away to welcome the adoration of an exultant Stretford End. He needed this. They needed this. United needed this.

Season-saving mission

We cannot forget that Martial has had his own serious issues with Mourinho, which rather rules out this all being part of a grand design. If he is indeed this team’s best hope to find some fluency in the final third then it has been a circuitous route to a happy ending. One that has involved club fines, transfer rumours and an expiring contract that Martial is reportedly not in any rush to extend.

But there was more zip to United’s attack, thanks to the game’s best player. Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata drifted in and out of the game as they have been so prone to do over this season. But in Martial, Mourinho has someone who thrives when driving at a full-back and grows in stature with each successful duel. Having watched Alexis Sanchez stutter and stagger in that same role since January, Martial must now be a fixture in this team.

United are now in season-saving mode with seven months of it remaining. If Mourinho wishes to paint his side as an underdog thanks to the failing of his bosses, their results have been made to look far worse by the lack of mistakes made by their peers.

This is United’s biggest barrier to this season-saving mission. Mourinho used his programme notes to insist that the table will look a lot different by the end of December, but his team are relying upon the Big Six dropping points against each other or dropping their level significantly against the rest. Whatever happens between Tottenham and Manchester City tonight, United will be at least seven points off the top four with a quarter of the season played.

Mourinho’s consistency

And then there’s Mourinho’s own history to fight against. In every full season that he has managed in the Premier League, his teams have always finished in the same position in May as they have been after 12 games. That has both worked out very well and very badly for his teams.

It seems unlikely that United will stay in top attacking gear. They had won none of their last 15 home games by more than a single goal, and they let Everton back in at 2-0 thanks to Chris Smalling’s rash challenge and were left to hang on. Mourinho’s team seem intent on making things as difficult as possible for themselves.

But fighting also expends energy. If Mourinho’s concern is that he does not have the squad depth that some of his rivals enjoy, having to wrestle with the opposition and their own incompetence just to beat middling teams at home is hardly the best way to preserve it.

A plan, then, by hook, crook or dice-rolling. In May, Mourinho used Romelu Lukaku as the example for United’s attackers to follow. It was viewed as a message to Martial that he could not expect preferential treatment or survive in this team without mucking in. Yesterday, Lukaku sat on the bench.

For now, though, Mourinho will not care how he has landed on a potential solution and neither will the home support who roared in relief at full time. If it strikes as entirely logical to give your most skillful and quickest attacker the licence to play on the front foot rather than tracking back to defend, Mourinho must now get on board with that same idea. Even if it goes against most of his principles.