Manchester United forward, Anthony Martial has been linked with Juventus, according to recent reports. The player’s agent has been claimed to have met with the club official’s of the Serie A outfit to discuss future terms.
It would not be the most shocking of transfer stories to hit us in recent times with Martial struggling find regular minutes on the pitch. Ever since Alexis Sanchez made his decorated entry to Old Trafford, the 22-year-old has fallen behind the pecking order with Marcus Rashford and Jese Lingard selected ahead of him the majority of the times.
In a way, Jose Mourinho has deployed the Frenchman in a rotational role since the start of the season and things were expected to get unfavourable when a high profile player arrives, who coincidentally plays in a similar position as him. Sanchez is at the peak of his career and his signing was prioritized by the United manager over the prospects of a defensive addition.
The Portuguese tactician was expected to expend all his resources towards a left-back, which has been a problematic position this season.
Martial’s case for a probable exit can be sympathetically agreed upon by the critics and neutral supporters. The United faithful will be reluctant to let go of their £36.3m acquisition from AS Monaco three years ago.
Martial is one of those highly-talented footballers who can appear from any position in the final third and still leave a lasting impact on the game. Judging by his debut season, where Luis Van Gaal utilised him in the number nine role, the 22-year-old is best suited as a centre-forward and still make his presence felt from the wide areas.
Ever since the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romelu Lukaku, Martial has had to sacrifice his starting role and get shifted around in various positions on the offensive end.
His 11-goal and 10-assist tally this season is decent enough for a player who makes substitute appearances half of the time.
This, however, is affecting his case for a national team call-up which is bound to take place for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. With competent youngsters like Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Kingsley Coman breaking strides in the big leagues of Europe, it will be hard for Martial to get the preference if he continues to get featured sporadically for United.
Even Olivier Giroud was cautioned over his meagre involvement in club football which tempted the veteran to make the switch to Chelsea from Arsenal. It would a nice change of pace for Martial to consider the Juventus offer especially now that the Italian side has progressed to the next round of the Champions Leauge, and United have not.
