Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville says Anthony Martial needs to up his work rate if he is to become a player worthy of a new contract at the club.
Analysing the French winger for Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Neville says Martial’s running stats are holding him back from joining the Premier League‘s elite players.
“I can’t make my mind up with Martial,” Neville said. “Some weeks I think he’s brilliant, but other weeks I’m not sure he’s a Manchester United player.”
“What drives me crazy about him is his off-the-ball work.
“I’m not talking about his defending, forget his defending. I’ve gone past the point of wide players generally coming back and doubling up and all that. What do they do going forward?
“The best players I played against as a right-back were better off the ball than they were on it. The runs in behind you, in between centre-back and full-back, were difficult to play against.
“The best players I played against, they caught me. So as I was looking to see where the player was, the minute I looked back towards the ball, they would be gone.
“Martial doesn’t get that. He doesn’t know where to be and when to run at the right time. He hasn’t got any timing in his off the ball runs. What Martial tends to do is wait and wait and hangs wide. He needs to change that.”
Neville pointed out that though the 22-year-old’s goal ratio is surprisingly high, this lack of running is holding him back.
“What I started to do was look a bit deeper into the stats of Martial and I got the shock of my life.
Image credit: Sky Sports
“When you look at the stats equivalent to a full season of Martial, he’s actually matching the likes of Sadio Mane and Eden Hazard in terms of minutes played, goals and assists, and that’s incredible.
“Then you say to yourself what am I watching? It confuses me even more because they are incredible stats.
“I looked at his physical stats against the players on the list and again I got the shock of my life. I got to the point where I thought that’s why (France manager Didier) Deschamps, (United manager Jose) Mourinho and others don’t fancy him.
“When you look at the players in and around, as we did before, Mane nearly runs 2km more than Martial. Hazard, who gets accused of not working hard, is 1.5km more than Martial.
“We’re not talking about defending or anything like that, Martial is well down on his physical stuff.
Image credit: Sky Sports
Martial joined United for a £36million fee in 2015, then the record fee for a teenager – and a fee that has since risen as the player has met various add-on clauses.
He has scored four goals in his last three league outings for United after getting an extended run in the side for the first time since Alexis Sanchez‘s arrival in January pushed him out of Mourinho’s regular starting XI.
With Sanchez’s own form dipping, Martial has picked up the slack, scoring the equaliser when United fought from 2-0 down against Newcastle earlier this month – a game in which Sanchez scored the winner – and then grabbed a brace in a 2-2 away draw with Chelsea, before scoring what proved to be the winning goal in Sunday’s 2-1 win over Everton.
The Frenchman had requested a transfer this summer, a request Mourinho was happy to grant, only for United’s board to reportedly block any move and attempt to tie him down to a new contract.
Negotiations are still ongoing, with Martial out of contract at the end of the season. Meanwhile, while player and manager have seemingly moved on from their impasse.
