Manchester United's week went from bad to worse last night. Following a 3-0 derby day demolishing at the weekend in the Premier League, the Red Devils had a chance to get back to winning ways at Old Trafford against bitter rivals Newcastle United in the EFL Cup, a replay of February's final at Wembley.
The Magpies picked up just one point from their last two games in all competitions and Eddie Howe heavily rotated his starting eleven, with upcoming games against Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund on the near horizon.
However, it was Howe's men that came out on top, matching Manchester City's scoreline from Sunday and piling further misery on Erik ten Hag and his players, but one Manchester United man in particular dropped a below-par performance on the night.
Anthony Martial slammed for performance
Anthony Martial came from AS Monaco in Ligue 1 to Manchester United on transfer deadline day in 2015 as a relatively unknown entity, with the English giants forking out an initial £36m for his services, although this fee was to eventually rise to £57.8m with add-ons.
The Frenchman hit the ground running in his debut campaign as a 19-year-old, lighting up Old Trafford on his debut by scoring a memorable third goal in a 3-1 win over Liverpool after coming on for Juan Mata in the second half. Former teammate Paul Pogba even labelled the forward as "one of the best" players he had ever seen.
Martial started against Newcastle on Wednesday night, while summer signing Rasmus Hojlund dropped to the bench and the feeling around his performance was quite a contrast to his infamous debut eight years ago.
Manchester Evening News' Chief Writer Samuel Luckhurst, who was at the EFL Cup game, claimed that fans were "audibly irked with Martial" throughout proceedings. Club legend and pundit Gary Neville didn't hold back in his criticism of the centre-forward, stating that there "there is no way he should be leading the line in any competition".
The 27-year-old penned a new deal with the 20-time league champions back in 2019, keeping him at the club until 2024 with the option to extend his stay for a further year. According to Sportrac, Martial is currently on £250k per week at the Theatre of Dreams.
Martial's stats vs Newcastle
The frontman has earned £35.36m at Man United since the beginning of the 2021/22 campaign but has scored merely 11 goals in all competitions for the club, which comes to around £3.2m per goal. The France international even went on loan to La Liga outfit Sevilla during this time and the side's president, Jose Castro, admitted that the move "didn't work" out.
Last night, Martial's performance left a lot to be desired and the former Monaco man was replaced after 64 minutes by Hojlund after failing to make an impact on the game.
In fact, Martial registered just one shot across his time on the pitch which came shortly after the interval when he cut across the Newcastle defender to latch onto a nice low cross from Aaron Wan-Bissaka but failed to convert the opportunity. This shot registered an xG of 0.17 which was also his one and only touch inside the opposition's penalty area, as per FotMob.
Minutes Played
64
Accurate Passes
13/15
Total Shots
1
Expected Goals (xG)
0.17
Expected Assists (xA)
0.02
Touches In Opposition Box
1
Duels Won
1/8
Stats via Fotmob
Furthermore, the opposition centre-backs had a relatively comfortable night against Martial who won merely one aerial duel from a possible five as well as zero ground duels and had only 22 touches of the ball in a side that ended the game with 62% possession.
With his contract running out at the end of the season, it looks highly unlikely that Manchester United will extend Martial's deal by a further year, particularly based on last night's turgid display.
