Talent may finally win out for Anthony Martial and Manchester United

Since his first United appearance, it’s been clear that Martial is an interesting and unusual talent. He has good pace and decent physical presence, along with exceptional close control and a contract-killer’s calm – skills he has not always found the wherewithal to deploy.

He began his United career playing principally as a centre-forward, and recorded a decent goal tally. This was a notable achievement, given how hard it must have been being the main scorer in a team trying its best not to create chances – never mind as a teenager getting used to life in a new country.

It was clear though, that Martial did not make, nor was Martial inclined to make, a centre-forward’s runs. He rarely attacked the near post, rarely followed in the shots of others and rarely gambled to attack space, pursuing perfection or nothing – offensive though the accusation is, he looked more like an Arsenal player than a United one.

So he was relocated to the left wing, only for that not to work either. Occasionally, he would be devastating, but most of the time he played like a man carrying a handbag, asking to receive possession when standing still rather than on the burst; as such, he was frequently crowded out, and showed the same unwillingness to attack the back post, uninterested in the cheap thrill of a cheap goal.

Things then got worse for him when Jose Mourinho succeeded Louis van Gaal. Young, mercurial and aesthetic – everything Mourinho detests – it quickly became clear that Martial, along with Luke Shaw, would be the Special One’s special scapegoat. He was quickly out of the first team, and following a particularly miserable performance at Brighton, Mourinho took righteous, carnal pleasure in how poorly he – and Marcus Rashford – had performed.

When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Mourinho, he immediately restored Martial to the team – down the left – and was rewarded with some good performances. It is no coincidence that United stopped winning and playing well around the time that Martial got injured, but not unreasonable to challenge his lack of intensity once he recovered.

Had Solskjaer been given more money to spend last summer, there’s a fair chance that Martial would have started the season on the bench. But the appalling mis-management of the post-Fergie Wilderness YearsTM meant that he had priorities elsewhere, and as such decided to force Martial to attack the box by moving him back into the middle.

It looked a plan – Martial started the season well and, replacing him on the left, Rashford not only looked in the right place too, but a suitable foil. Except Martial then got injured – again, United’s form dropped then improved when he returned – and he has since become integral to their metamorphosis from shambles to seriousness.

Nevertheless, he remains unreliable. Though his top level has always been a brilliant one, he hits it nothing like often enough – especially given that the best players are those with good bottom levels, and Martial’s is lower than the Dead Sea.

Now, he has run out of excuses and time. As well as Rashford outside him, he has two superb creators behind him and is part of a generally functioning unit, so if he does not prove himself, there will be consequences: he will either lose his place to Mason Greenwood after United sign a right-winger, or he will lose his place to whichever striker is signed to replace him.

It is beginning to look like talent will win out. Though Martial was under par against Spurs he might still have scored, and against Sheffield United he was extremely good. Solskjaer, who has worked extensively with the player on his movement and finishing, will be especially pleased with his first two goals – one scored attacking the near post and one scored attacking the space, both via the application of natural, deceptively difficult finishes. His third, meanwhile, was a thing of beauty, the perfect climax to the kind of sweeping move that is usually the preserve of teams who know what they’re doing.

Don’t shout it out loud yet, but even morons are right sometimes.