WHY JOSE WOULD BE REALLY RASH TO PUT MARTIAL FIRST
JOSE MOURINHO was spot on in his assessment of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial at the weekend. After Rashford lost his way a little in the second half against Swansea, Martial came on, performed impressively and for the second week in succession, scored. Predictably, in a short-term environment, there have been calls for the switch to be made from the start: Martial in, Rashford out. Yet as Mourinho explained, there is a difference between the first hour or so when players are relatively fresh, and the last 15 minutes when tiredness takes hold and space opens up. ‘If Rashford came on in the last 15 minutes, he would do the same as the other guys,’ he said. Exactly. Martial benefits from the exhaustion of defensive players who have spent 75 minutes running after Rashford. His cameos have been superb, and with Manchester United’s schedule he will get his chance to start but, thankfully, Mourinho knows what he has got in Rashford, too.