Anthony Martial-Medusa’s Twin Brother
Investigating the forward’s poor run of form.
Anthony Martial is, I think we can all agree, a very talented footballer. Back in October of last year, Martial was on the receiving end of criticism from several pundits regarding his shoddy goalscoring form. “The problem with United’s forwards is that none of them is an actual centre-forward,” said Paul Scholes. “Martial almost conned us into thinking he was one at the end of last season because he scored so many goals and was quite good.” The discourse around Martial has taken a slightly more nefarious tone over the past few months. To fully understand Martial’s frailties in front of goal, one must first examine the Frenchman’s best position across the frontline
In my eyes, Martial shares several characteristics similar to that of Medusa. Well, who is Medusa? Greek mythology paints Medusa as a hybrid creature; part animal, part human. She had wings, boar-like tusks and fangs. Her eyes were bulging, and she sported some unsightly facial hair. During the French Revolution, Medusa became a force for change and similarly, after Manchester United parted ways with Romelu Lukaku, Martial symbolised the change in United’s attack. Like the well-known transformation of Medusa from a goddess to a petrifying creature, Martial had to undergo a transformation from a wide creative forward into a goal-hungry striker. Medusa’s transformation is, in a way, enigmatic; however, one has no difficulty in apprehending the transformation Martial has experienced.
The Search for Balance
It won’t surprise you to learn that Martial is not a pure number nine. He’s a hybrid between a creative winger and a striker. Martial possess great ability to shield the ball, deceptively so considering he’s not built like an “old-school” target man, and he uses that well to find pockets of space in order to get a shot away. United’s ideal front three from last season was — Rashford on the left, Martial as the number nine and Greenwood on the right. There are a lot of arguments as to why this attack isn’t structurally stable, and one of the most important reasons is Martial trots into the left-halfspace which is already occupied by Rashford. Well, this might not sound eyebrow-raising, but this specific movement from Martial leaves United with minimal central presence in the opposition’s box.
The above graphic shows the heatmap of United’s attacking trio against Sheffield United. A closer look at the graphic reveals that United fails to attack the penalty box when Martial is the designated number nine. This results in both Martial and Rashford overlapping the left half-space. Well, you might be thinking, two players overlapping the same space isn’t a sizeable issue right? But, this pattern cannot come at a cost and the downside here is that United’s attack becomes structurally fragile.To mitigate this occurrence, Solskjaer has deployed Rashford on the right, Cavani as the striker and Martial on the left-wing. Rashford adds the much-needed ‘width’ United lack on the right-wing and simultaneously acts as a runner. This renders balance across the frontline where Rashford is more focused on beating defensive lines, Martial dropping or linking play and Cavani occupying the opposition centre-backs.
Where are the goals, Tony?
In the context of strikers, there are several intangibles responsible for their end product. Confidence, rhythm and tactical fit all have a substantial importance in enabling strikers to score goals. It is imperative to discern that the above mentioned three factors have pivotal roles to play in Martial’s dismal goal scoring form. Also, trying to isolate & identify the causes for players’ who experience a slump in form is inefficient when we can instead look at trends & repeatability outside the myriad of these so-called intangibles. Martial has consistently overperformed xG throughout his career, thus a regression in finishing was bound to happen sooner or later. The Frenchman was sent off against Tottenham and was suspended for three matches which hampered his rhythm going into this season. Couple this with Edison Cavani’s excellent synergy with Bruno Fernandes, the ex-Monaco forward found it tough to thrust back into the starting eleven. Martial’s biggest issue is the lack of movement he offers in pinning back the opposition defensive line. He constantly wants to receive the ball to his feet which doesn’t complement Rashford’s movement on the left as the latter also loves to drop deep which vacates a gaping hole in the centre. Whereas, Cavani’s movement is terrific. He constantly drags defenders out of position to open up space for his teammates. He also excels at dropping deep and bringing others in to play before, crucially, spinning back towards the penalty spot. Cavani adds a different dynamic to United’s attack as he is proficient at pinning back the opposition defensive line.
It’s Numbers time!
One thing which caught my attention is that Martial is taking fewer shots inside the box compared to last season and they are significantly of lesser quality. Martial’s shots are down from 2.7 per game last season to just 2.2 this season according to Fbref. The quality of his shots have also plummeted from 0.41 to 0.27 xG per shot. Why is he shooting less? Is he getting into good positions? Or is he not being fed by his teammates? These are all valid questions that should explain the forward’s poor goalscoring run. But then something different happened this season — Martial is more involved in United’s build-up compared to last season. He has 17 touches per90 in the middle third as opposed to 13.7 per 90 last season. This indicates that he is dropping very deep once United transition from second phase buildup to final third consolidation phase. But what does this convey? Well, this implies that Martial is less active in the opposition’s box which explains the drop-off in the quality of shots he’s taking. The lesser quality of shots insinuates that he fails to get into good positions to shoot.
Perhaps it is crucial to realize that Medusa’s beauty is a much more sophisticated phenomenon than history has suggested, we should also see that her various transformations make up a set of coherent and interrelated notions about art and its function in the world. This is where Martial and Medusa are largely misunderstood as both of them transmits a sense of duality, which makes it hard to assess their identity. What constitutes them is the mystery and beauty they possessed pre-transformation. That being said, I strongly believe Martial is better utilised on the left and shoehorning him as a striker curtails his cogency within United’s attacking structure. Is he facing a sort of identity crisis? Is United’s attacking structure lopsided with him? Or maybe, just maybe, he might not be the long term answer to United’s centre-forward problems!
