Sharpe: ‘Give Martial confidence boost and he can

JOSE Mourinho needs to play Anthony Martial every week to get the best out of him, according to club great Lee Sharpe.

The arrival of Alexis Sanchez last January meant Martial struggled for game time in the second half of the last campaign and his agent said the France international wanted to leave.

But, Sharpe, who played on the left wing for United in the 1990s believes there’s a solution to the issue if Mourinho starts playing him every week.

“I think Martial is a fantastic talent but for some reason he seems to be a bit like myself in that his confidence levels are up and down, which you usually get with attacking players,” Sharpe told M.E.N. Sport.

“Confidence can be an issue and if the manager doesn’t fill him with that and fill him with trust and play him every week I can see why he has those problems.

“He’s a top drawer player but for me he just needs to play more regularly to find his rhythm. In and out of the team he is not that sort of player that can do that and be in and out of the team.”

Mourinho alternated Marcus Rashford and Martial on the left wing before the arrival of Sanchez from Arsenal earlier this year and while competition can spur some players on to up their performance level Sharpe believes it’s having a detrimental effect on Martial.

“Sometimes you think you have done alright and you get dragged off after an hour to give someone else a game, or you’ve not done so well and you get left out the team the week