Most frustrating thing about Anthony Martial is he has gone backwards, claims Rio Ferdinand
Anthony Martial has made 260 appearances for Manchester United
|Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand believes that Anthony Martial hasn’t improved but regressed since he has arrived at Old Trafford with the forward struggling for form. The 25-year-old signed for the Red Devils in 2015, making well over 250 appearances since then for the club.
While Anthony Martial enjoyed a career-best 21 goal spell during the 2019/20 season, the forward has failed to live up to those levels since. He endured a tough time last term as Martial finished with just seven goals across all competitions for Manchester United. That is a major drop-off with many fans and critics alike concerned as to how the forward would react this season. But so far things haven’t gone according to plan for the 25-year-old despite him playing in the club’s opening two games.
It has seen many affiliated with Manchester United clamour for Martial to be sold or sent on loan to help with his poor form especially with him failing to convince fans in his seventh season at the club. But Rio Ferdinand believes that the problem is the fact that the 25-year-old has actually regressed since he has arrived. The Manchester United legend further added that he hopes Martial changes his trajectory and finds his way forward again.
"I think the most frustrating thing about him is that he’s actually gone backwards from when he first signed. If you’re a player and you look at when he hit the scene with the two goals against Liverpool and you think to yourself, 'Wow what have we signed here?'. He’s not really hit those heights since,” Ferdinand said on his FIVE YouTube channel.
"As a player I’d love to be able to get inside his head and spend time with him. Everyone thinks they can affect someone with a conversation. You’d be saying to him, 'Are you actually happy with what you’re doing, are you happy with your trajectory of how it’s going?'.
“Talent wise, from what I’m told from people, I remember Michael Carrick first went in and saw him and said, 'Rio, this kid could be one of the best players on the planet easy, some of the stuff he does in training takes your breath away'.
"But sometimes there are players who are great in training but don’t replicate enough in games. I hope he’s not going down [that route]. He’s still young enough to change it by the way but I don’t know what he needs, a rocket, or he needs someone in the changing room to be getting hold of him and demanding standards every single day and every single game,” he added.
