Erik ten Hag had sent Manchester United firing on all cylinders with his genius even reigniting talk of a possible title charge among supporters.
But the disappointing results last week put a stop to those whispers and now the coach has to try to make sure that the chance to win the Carabao Cup is not wasted.
The depth of the squad was a problem that paralyzed the Dutch coach in the match against Arsenal and his center forward, Anthony Martial, had to be lost once again.
Martial’s unfortunate injury record
The Frenchman’s impressive performances in pre-season meant the former Ajax manager stuck with him this season and believed he could score the goals.
He’s missed 18 games due to a combination of injuries and Ten Hag can hardly count on him when needed. He has started just once against the traditional big six and in that game he didn’t last past the first half.
Anthony Martial’s stoppage time this season:
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— Utdcentre (@CentreManutd) January 22, 2023
Ten Hag, however, has defended the Frenchman’s injury record.
“He doesn’t get injured all the time,” Ten Hag said during the pre-match press conference against Nottingham Forest.
“Martial is playing. He has to work on it and he has to be more available and he can’t do anything about it in that sense. Sometimes it’s also bad luck.
“Sometimes you don’t know the cause or the reason behind it, and it can be so. But when it’s there it’s very important to us because we play our best football when it’s available.
Marcial leaving himself and ETH
“He also has to be aware of that. If you want to be successful, we need it, but the first thing is that it is available”.
Martial has let down another United coach. He was selfish when he blamed former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for his treatment or when he badmouthed José Mourinho.
But the Frenchman deserves to take part of the responsibility. He is about to reach his peak in terms of age, but he has never lived up to his enormous potential.
The fans have always backed him, just like Ten Hag is currently rooting for him. But if this keeps repeating itself, the club will have no choice but to cut their losses and Martial will have no one to blame but himself.
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