Premier League: Manchester United Anthony Martial has four months to prove he is good enough

Three words that frequently crop up when Anthony Martial is described by those who knew and know him are shy, quiet, and private. If ever a footballer’s key personality traits come across on the pitch, then it is in the case of Manchester United forward.

Head down, eyes lowered, shoulders hunched over, he can often appear as a barely interested bystander when the ball is not near him, as though he may switch channel for a bit and perhaps catch the end of the second half of the game gets better. Football fans can purchase Premier League Football Tickets online to enjoy its stunning performances.

Only when he is on the ball, however, does Martial come alive: dribbling at defenders chasing a pass he believes he knows, he will reach before an opponent when he has the ball at his feet and just the goalkeeper to beat.

Premier League: Manchester United Anthony Martial has four months to prove he is good enough

The rest of the time it is nonchalance verging on boredom. Standing around lightly jogging here and there waiting for Manchester United to attack an increasingly, infrequent phenomenon in games.

Martial commitment

Martial freely admits he has come across like this from a young age, and it was perhaps, why Manchester City chose not to take him on when he went on trial there aged 12.

Ryan Giggs, the Manchester United legend of the left-wing who probably sees a little of himself in Martial when the player gets going believes Martial can be a victim of his body language and it is true that five years after he signed from Monaco for £36million.

The initial fee, back in September 2015, is a factor which has ultimately worked against Martial in terms of the image the player has adopted.

There was a surprise across much of France’s football fraternity that Manchester United was willing to part with £36m a fee which could have raised to £58m.

For a start, he was still a relatively unproven teenager, not then a full France international and with a decent but not mind-blowing return of eight goals in 31 Ligue 1 games the previous season. Monaco had also only paid £4.4m to sign him from Lyon two years previously.

Such was Manchester United’s optimism; one of the clauses they included in the deal was that they would pay a substantial add-on if he won the Ballon d’Or by 2019.

It remains to be seen whether he is quite good enough for Manchester United, let alone able to compete with Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, et al for the title of the world's best footballer.

Martial had permission from the club to fly from Los Angeles, where they were due to play AC Milan, to Paris, to be with his partner.

Manchester United Mourinho complain

Yet only four days later Mourinho was publicly criticizing him for not returning to the tour. “He has the baby and after the baby is born, a beautiful baby, full of health, thank god. He should be here, and he is not here," Mourinho complained.

Footballers and clubs tend to operate on a different plane to the rest of us but last time I checked men were entitled to two weeks' paternity leave if they wish to take it. 

Premier League: Manchester United Anthony Martial has four months to prove he is good enough

And it was not as though Martial had decided to miss the Champions League final or the crucial match against rivals to decide the Premier League title. He was missing a soulless, money-spinning tour of another continent.

What happened to Martial? He was fined £180,000, or two weeks’ wages. Worse than that, it added to the perception that Martial was not much up for it that he had better things to do than play football.

Which, when you are paid that much money, obviously does not go down well with fans, especially those of a club who has enjoyed domestic domination for two decades and are now in dramatic decline?

Opportunities for Martial

Martial will get few better opportunities to change the perception of him at Manchester United than the rest of this season with the club still competing for two trophies only just admittedly, in the Carabao Cup and with a sniff of chasing down Chelsea and Leicester City for a top-four spot.

 All that without Marcus Rashford ruled on Sunday for up to three months with a double stress fracture in his back, who has carried the burden of goals with more than a third of Manchester United’s league tally 19, this season.

Now is Martial’s time. His best position winger or No 9 is a regular point of debate and the player himself has made clear he prefers to play as an out-and-out striker.

Premier League: Manchester United Anthony Martial has four months to prove he is good enough

In the absence of Rashford now more than ever Martial has to prove he is good enough for Manchester United, giving him a window of around four months.

Hopefully, he would not stare out of it blankly, waiting for something to happen, and instead seize the opportunity.

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