OLD TRAFFORD — He burst on to the scene with gusto, scoring a debut goal to remember, but, six years on, Anthony Martial continues to be biggest cause for perennial frustration at Manchester United.
As the below-par Red Devils laboured to a very flattering win over Newcastle on Sunday, Martial was doing it again – showing fleet-footed skill, coupled with the willingness of a teenager asked to do some household chores.
Without the injured Edinson Cavani, Martial was deployed as United’s focal point, but he may as well not have been there. Goals from Marcus Rashford, Daniel James and a Bruno Fernandes penalty got United over the line, but it wasn’t pretty.
“I am never going to say that it [title race] is over until it is done,” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. “We have seen so many examples of teams just hanging in there and doing their own job. Something might happen. I am not saying we think about it, we just think about our own performances.”
While United are back up to second, and technically Manchester City’s nearest title rivals, last night’s performance, from the team and their lifeless No 9, will not exactly have given the City juggernaut any cause for concern.
There was a slight doubt over whether the game would go ahead after several of United’s coaching staff were forced to self-isolate following a Covid-19 outbreak. However, it quickly emerged that no player, nor Solskjaer, had been affected, so the game could go ahead with academy coaches Nicky Butt and Mark Dempsey joining Solskjaer on the first-team bench.
It wouldn’t be a United match without a customary slow start from Solskjaer’s men. There was the usual chaotic, even slapstick defending early on, as United did their best to concede the first goal for the 12th Premier League game this season.
A better team, or one with a fit Callum Wilson leading the line, would have taken advantage of such sloppiness in the United defence and David de Gea had to be at full stretch to tip a Joelinton effort over as the Spaniard atoned for his wayward pass out.
Yet, as has so often been the case for United this season, individual brilliance further forward, this time from Rashford, got Solskjaer’s side out of a hole, as the nation’s saviour nutmegged Emil Krafth before darting inside and firing into the bottom corner – his second goal in as many games after two strikes in his previous 13 in all competitions.
It was the only bright moment in a lacklustre first half for United and that lead lasted just six minutes as they conceded another very avoidable goal. De Gea, looking shaky every time the ball came into his penalty area, failed to come for the corner, Harry Maguire could only head clear as far as Allan Saint-Maximin, and the returning Frenchman fired into the top corner.
Martial didn’t have a shot, create a chance or win a duel all half. There were no runs into the channels, either, as he made just three sprints in the entire first 45 minutes. James completed 11.
At the start of the second half, Solskjaer came running from the bench, seemingly with an important message for his players, but it was Martial that had got the United boss moving quicker than the Frenchman had all match. “Some movement, Anto, start moving!” This was 50 minutes into the match.
Martial was not alone in his sluggishness as United struggled to get going again after the break, but again one fine finish turned things around. Nemanja Matic squared the ball across, Fernandes got studs to it – he couldn’t have anyone else getting in on his assist-making – and James, in from the cold in recent weeks, hammered into the net – his third goal in his last three appearances.
Awoken from his slumber, Martial burst into life, showing lovely footwork to beat his man, before being denied by a fine save from Karl Darlow, providing United fans with that annoying reminder of what he can do.
The win was made safe by Fernandes’s penalty after Rashford had been fouled in the penalty area by Joe Willock, and that was flatteringly that for United. A second win in six league games sends them back above Leicester on goal difference, while Newcastle are now just three points above the relegation zone, giving the Steve Bruce naysayers plenty to shout about.
For Martial, he must be concerned. How many more chances is he going to get? Cavani is showing no sign of slowing down, while Mason Greenwood, who started as United’s central striker in the Europa League in midweek before coming on for the Frenchman against Newcastle, will only get more games as his development continues.
One thing is clear – Solskjaer needs more from his frontline striker to keep United acting as at least something of a nuisance in City’s rear-view mirror.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3pDhAd7
Post a Comment