Even when looked at it objectively, it hurts to watch the dreadful decline that Manchester United have experienced this past decade.
A team that used to win the Premier League title practically every year, Man United have only won 3 trophies ever since the irreplaceable Sir Alex Ferguson retired from the club in 2013.
Yes, even back then, Sir Alex was making do with a squad that was at times either unbalanced or had quite a few underperformers. His greatness, however, was in making sure he got nothing but the best out of his players, extracting very last bit of their potential and transforming it into concrete results.
The same simply cannot be said of Sir Alex’s protege, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. While the Norwegian legend has technically sound tactics, he has failed to make full use of the talents he has been provided.
Martial, in particular, has been attracting heavy criticism over his finishing ability lately, with club legend Roy Keane simply stating that he is “not quite good enough” for United.
At present, however, there does seem to be some legitimate winds of change blowing through Old Trafford.
Amazingly, the Red Devils decided not to make a slew of signings this transfer window as they have done on previous occasions (Harry Maguire’s shocking 95 million euro price being an excellent example).
Instead, they tightened their purse strings, opting to buy only talented midfielder Bruno Fernandes and bringing in Nigerian striker Odion Ighalo on loan, deciding to focus on improving team morale rather than bloating the squad with big money signings.
It certainly seems to have paid off as United secured a crucial 2-0 victory over bitter rivals Chelsea with Martial latching on to a corner from Fernandes and heading in one of the goals.
In fact, the pair have developed quite a bit of bonhomie, seemingly becoming the best of pals off the pitch as one of the animated interactions between the two during a recent training session was shared online:
United fans will pray that now, with some flair and attacking creativity injected into the middle courtesy of Bruno, Martial hopefully gets some free reign to play in his goal-scoring role again.
In fact, even in the difficult season that he’s had so far, he’s still managed to have nineteen goal contributions (goals and assists).
Gelling well with a player like Bruno, who had provided a whopping 28 assists and scored 39 goals in his two and half seasons at Sporting Lisbon, will only help Martial’s case and reaching a 30-goal per season contribution would no longer be just a wild fantasy for the French striker.
The duo could feed off each other in terms of assists, become a devastating partnership and help the Red Devils get their attacking mojo back.
