Liverpool beware – refocused Martial is turning around his difficult second season
Landmark goal approaches as Frenchman appears to have heeded Mourinho’s words, writes
It is not often that someone would gleefully part with £10 million, but if Anthony Martial manages to score two goals at Old Trafford this afternoon to sink Liverpool, Manchester United would gladly take the hit. Monaco are due that additional sum when Martial reaches 25 competitive goals for United, with the France forward on 23. There would be few more romantic storylines today than Wayne Rooney coming off the bench to claim the winner and, with it, a club-record 250th goal against the side he loves to hate.
But the prospect of Martial reaching a milestone of his own, on the same ground and against the same opposition against whom he announced himself so spectacularly on his United debut 16 months ago, would not be a bad substitute.
It has been a tough second season in English football for the most expensive teenage signing in the game’s history but, just as United are coming to the boil after a difficult start, so the player Louis van Gaal said he signed as a present for his successor finally appears to be taking Jose Mourinho’s bait. Rip-roaring displays against relegation-battling Middlesbrough and a hopeless Reading, plus a sprightly cameo against an injuryravaged Hull City, may not be enough to guarantee Martial has turned a corner. But the keener United observers will have looked not at the opposition but at Martial’s positive body language, the cut and thrust going forward and the aggression and determination to his play, and wonder if the focus that had wandered in the second half of last year has finally returned.
Mourinho has spent plenty of time talking to Martial this term, concerned that problems in the player’s personal life, specifically his split from partner Samantha Jacquelinet, had distracted him to the point that his head was in the clouds. In the days leading up to United’s Europa League tie against Feyenoord in Rotterdam, for example, Mourinho had placed considerable responsibility and pressure on the youngster to perform, only to witness another limp display. And after Martial was dropped for the return game against the Dutch in November, Mourinho was quick to warn that he could not keep wasting opportunities given the competition for places out wide.
Yet it is since the manager pulled Martial aside 2½ weeks ago, in the wake of some ill-advised comments from his agent, that the player seems to have truly re-engaged. Philippe Lamboley had claimed they were weighing up the option of a loan move to Sevilla. Martial responded by producing his best performance of the season against Middlesbrough, his equaliser setting the stage for Paul Pogba to score the winner a minute later and offer another snapshot of the team spirit and belief being forged under the Portuguese.
Mourinho’s warning to Martial to “listen to him and not his agent” was actually advice echoed by a teammate, but there are other factors that help to explain the upturn in form and attitude. For one, Martial is believed to have a new girlfriend and is enjoying a little more stability, as well as time with his young daughter, Peyton.
Paul Scholes, the former United midfielder, once said that Martial seldom looks happy, even when he scores, but that occasional scowl or vacant expression belies a keen sense
In the wake of some ill-advised comments from his agent the player seems to have truly re-engaged
of humour. Laid-back and easygoing, he loves a laugh and a joke. Martial watched replays of his sublime debut goal against Liverpool more times than he could remember in the days after his showstopping turn, but he is due a performance in a big game, his last coming in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace in May. With Henrikh Mkhitaryan expected to start on the right, Zlatan Ibrahimovic up front and a midfield trio of Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba, it is a tossup between Martial and Jesse Lingard for a berth on the left flank. Both could ask questions of Liverpool and England right-back Nathaniel Clyne, who may leave space in behind to exploit. Having rediscovered that spark of late, though, Martial would be the daring choice. One suspects United will have few qualms about paying Monaco that additional £10 million fee if Martial has helped chalk up a 10th consecutive win in all competitions and moved them to within two points of their Merseyside rivals.