Erik Ten Hag sympathizes with injury-plagued Anthony Martial

 “He is the player who has spent the most hours at Carrington this summer, to return to recuperate, to get back. It is truly a pity that he is disheartened.”

“He is not always accessible and we desire him to be always approachable since that will upgrade our sport. Routines can’t become routines when you are not every time obtainable.”

Manchester United gaffer Erik ten Hag sympathized with Antony Martial following his latest injury setback (via The Athletic). The Frenchman has undergone a challenging 2023 so far.

A labor of love

Confirming to The Athletic journalist Carl Anka, Martial comforted an unidentified wound on January 14 that saw him changed off at half-time against Manchester City. Later, Martial would return to the team to find the back of the net as a second-half change in United’s win over Nottingham Forest in the League Cup on February 1. A few days after, he would miss United’s 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace with a hip wound.

Absent again

For most of his Red Devils career, the French ace has had the pace to get in behind backlines but lacked the strength and aptitude to pick his moments correctly. However, a lackluster loan patch at Sevilla has awakened the forward’s want to excel under Ten Hag. This was considered in his persistence and drive during United’s season tour. He boasted the belief to make rushing runs. He became a benefit in more attacking and defending plays – a welcome extension of his array of clinical finishes. A healthy, focused, optimistic Anthony Martial would ease United’s desire to join multiple strikers in the season, as one more substitute would suffice.

Unhappily, as Anka writes, even the lamented Cristiano Ronaldo (1051) and presently returned Jadon Sancho (965) have played more minutes than the wound-stricken forward (722) in 2022-23.

Even new recruit Wout Weghort (498) could gather more playing time than Marital before the end of this campaign. The fleeting existence of United’s No.9 has made Martial more of a “nice to have” bonus player than a backbone attribute of Ten Hag’s team.

An honest review

Anka writes that in an interview with France Football five months ago, Martial told his side of the story regarding his dispiriting 2021-22 season. The forward said he played through the pain for most of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 summers. He went on to say that he could not expedite correctly between August and December 2020.

To his credit, Martial gave a candid judgment of his occurrence in the interview:

“When people say I lack stability, it’s true. When I have my place, it often goes well, but when I’ve been used less, my concert has not been the same. “It’s a ferocious circle: I’m less coherent because I play less, and therefore I play even less. When it’s like that, I can sometimes give up a piece. A player like Cavani, he’s at 3,000 pct even when given little minutes.”

A cruel twist of fate

Journalist Anka highlighted a sad truth about United’s unfortunate forward. For most of his United career, Martial had the skill and physical ascribes to impose himself on games but lacked the mentality to concert frequently. Now the striker finds himself in hazardous circumstances where the opposite is true. He now has a lucid grasp of what is required downstairs to deliver for boss Ten Hag but is at odds with his body to make it an actuality.

Anthony Martial has had to dig deep and empty his reservoir of flexibility and persistence to keep fighting for regular football.

One can only wish that Martial’s fortune changes and fate contract him a better hand for the rest of his career at United.