Squawka Journalist Muhammad Butt believes that Anthony Martial is ready to be a striker once again after the France international’s performance against Tottenham Hotspur in a pre-season friendly.
Martial opened the scoring for the Red Devils as they beat their Premier League rivals 2-1 in Shanghai.
The 23-year-old had a stop-start season in the Premier League last campaign, as he scored 10 goals and assisted a further three, playing in just 27 games.
However, Butt reckons he could be ready to start up front again, citing his role this pre-season as his argument.
He said: “This pre-season. however, he’s rotated with Marcus Rashford as United’s leading forward. Not that he hasn’t played wide too, but he’s often led the line”
“Today (Thursday) he started the game up-front and absolutely terrorised Spurs’ defence for the whole 45 minutes he was on. His movement was sublime, he smacked a shot off the post and buried United’s opening goal.”
“With Romelu Lukaku likely to leave the club this summer, Martial could once again don his favoured number nine shirt, stepping back into the central role he was destined for. He’s ready to be a striker again.” (Source: Squawka)
Butt is quite wrong in his opinion of Martial and his form in pre-season.
It’s called pre-season for a reason, it’s preparation done before the season. Many of the teams will not have been playing at 100% commitment, so to judge a player based off it is wrong. This can be seen in the mass substitutions carried out by managers, where the majority of the team is changed at half-time. In Manchester United’s game versus Tottenham on Thursday Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, himself made 11 changes at half-time, showing his lack of care about the result.
Romelu Lukaku’s potential exit from the club is linked with not wanting to be second-choice striker, meaning Marcus Rashford may well be the club’s starting centre forward next campaign.
But, if Martial can carry his pre-season form into the new season, there’s no reason why he can’t take over the number nine role. However, as of right now, the Frenchman is not ready to play as a striker.
