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“He is the player who has spent the most hours in Carrington this season, to recover, to recover. It’s really a shame that he’s disappointed.”
“He’s not always available and we want him to be always available because that will improve our game. Routines can’t become routines when you’re not always available.”
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has expressed his solidarity with Antony Martial following his latest injury setback (via The Athletic). The Frenchman has endured a challenging 2023 so far.
a labor of love
According to The Athletic journalist Carl Anka, Martial suffered an unspecified injury on January 14 that saw him substituted at half time against Manchester City. Martial would later return to the team to find the back of the net as a second-half substitute in United’s win over Nottingham Forest in the League Cup on 1 February. A few days later, he would miss out on United’s 2–1 win over Crystal. Palacio with a hip injury.
This season, the French striker Martial has already missed 20 games due to injury:
Hamstring Injury July 31-Aug 18: 2 Games Achilles Strain Aug 23-Sept 26: 5 Games Back Injury Oct 10-October 31: 6 Games Non-Injury specified from January 14 to January 30: 5 games
Since joining United in 2015, Martial has missed 70 games through injury.
absent again
For most of his Red Devils career, the French ace has had the pace to get behind the baseline, but lacked the intensity and instinct to choose his moments accordingly. However, a lackluster loan spell at Sevilla has awakened the striker’s desire to excel under Ten Hag. This was reflected in his tenacity and drive during United’s summer tour. He boasted of the confidence to make dart runs. He became an asset in more offensive and defensive plays, a welcome addition to his variety of clinical endings. A healthy, focused and confident Anthony Martial would alleviate United’s need to sign multiple forwards in the summer, as one more alternative would suffice.
Unfortunately, as Anka writes, even the late Cristiano Ronaldo (1,051) and recently returned Jadon Sancho (965) have played more minutes than the injured striker (722) in 2022-23.
Even new recruit Wout Weghort (498) could rack up more playing time than Marital before the end of this campaign. The fleeting presence of the United number 9 has made Martial more of a “nice to have” extra player than a main feature of Ten Hag’s team.
an honest review
Anka writes that in an interview with France Football five months ago, Martial told his side of the story about his disappointing 2021-22 season. The striker said he played through pain for most of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. He went on to say that he was unable to adequately accelerate between August and December 2020.
To his credit, Martial gave a candid assessment of his circumstances in the interview:
“When people say that I lack consistency, it’s true. When I have my site, many times I do well, but when I have used it less, my performance has not been the same. “It’s a vicious circle: I’m less efficient because I play less and therefore I play even less. When it’s like that, sometimes I can give up a bit. A player like Cavani is at 3,000 percent even when they give him a few minutes”.
A cruel twist of fate
Journalist Anka highlighted a sad truth about the unfortunate United striker. For most of his United career, Martial had the skill and physical attributes to prevail in games, but he lacked the mentality to perform consistently. Now the striker finds himself in precarious circumstances where the opposite occurs. He now has a clear idea of what is required above to deliver Chief Ten Hag, but he is at odds with his body to make it happen.
Anthony Martial has had to dig deep and drain his store of resilience and perseverance to continue fighting for regular football.
One can only hope that Martial’s fortunes turn and fate gives him a better hand for the rest of his United career.
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