Martial back on track?

​​​​​​​Anthony Martial scored twice as Manchester United reached the EFL Cup semi-finals with a 4-1 win over West Ham. It has been a difficult second season for the Frenchman under Jose Mourinho, but could this impressive performance be a turning point?

Jose Mourinho is not one to mince his words and last week he was typically candid on the subject of Anthony Martial. “You have one opportunity, you have two, you have three,” he said. “If you don’t bite, then somebody comes and takes the meat.”

The Manchester United boss had just left Martial out of his squad for their 4-0 win over Fenerbahce, and he omitted the 20-year-old again for Sunday’s Premier League meeting with West Ham. While Henrikh Mkhitaryan was finally starting to find his feet, Mourinho felt Martial simply wasn’t offering enough to merit inclusion. He wasn’t the only one.

“He’s got to produce a lot more,” said Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville last weekend. “He doesn’t look happy at times, he needs more energy and dynamism in his game. Martial has gone under the radar and he needs to start delivering because some of the performances I’ve seen have been nowhere near good enough.”

Martial has looked a different player to the one who took the Premier League by storm last season, but on Wednesday night he was handed another opportunity, making only his ninth start of the campaign and only his fourth in the last two months. This time, to use a phrase from his manager, he took the meat.

Martial doubled his tally for the season with …

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