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Is Anthony Martial playing better under Solskjaer than Mourinho?

Anthony Martial came pretty close to departing Old Trafford under Jose Mourinho but the Frenchman's fortunes changed following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's arrival in 2018.

martial

Bengaluru, June 3: Anthony Martial came pretty close to departing Old Trafford under Jose Mourinho but the Frenchman's fortunes changed following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's arrival in 2018. He was largely used on the left-wing as Mourinho did not trust him as a number nine.

In his three years spell at Old Trafford Mourinho brought in two first-team strikers with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku.

Martial mostly has had to occupy the wide position. But since Solskjaer's arrival, the Norway coach has purely deployed him in an out number 9 so far and the results have been pretty impressive, to say the least.

Martial have already registered career-best goal tally in Premier League despite missing almost two months with injuries. His preferred no. 9 slot, coupled with Marcus Rashford's position on the left side of the attack has allowed both players more freedom and creativity.

Although Marcus Rashford’s long-term absence created more pressure on Martial, but the France international has responded with one of the best campaigns of his career to date. The 24-year-old may have been inconsistent in bit-part however his rise to big occasions can't be ignored. Manchester United have not lost any of the 11 Premier League games this season in which Martial has scored.

Solskjaer precisely see him as a long-term number 9 hence did not think enough before shipping off other forward options Lukaku and Sanchez. His perception about Martial now regards to be completely opposite of Mourinho. However, stats do show that the Norway manager has been right in his opinion.

We have compared Martial's performance under Mourinho and Solskjaer so far, and the result looks pretty clear.

Martial played 106 games under the Portuguese manager starting 68. Due to his position in the left-flank, he registered more assists but that is also not a significant number. He scored 27 goals and 17 assists under Mourinho scoring a goal in every 226.5 min and assist in 139 min.

Compared to Solskjaer he has only played 53 games, starting 42 and he has already outscored the previous number. He has scored 20 times for Solskjaer with a goal in every 179.8 min while registering 8 assists in every 128.3 min.

The stat clearly shows that the player is gradually improving under Solskjaer and the Norway boss is not wrong in putting in trust the former Monaco player. Martial is precisely slowly getting back his lost confidence and his scoring boots once again speak volumes about how much he has improved under the manager.

Story first published: Wednesday, June 3, 2020, 21:20 [IST]
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