Anthony Martial returns to the Manchester United starting line-up today and Erik ten Hag stressed in his pre-match interview that the Frenchman is “ready” after lots of individual work in recent weeks.
The Reds should perform better against Nottingham Forest than they did in the win over Wolves and defeat versus Tottenham Hotspur now that we have an actual striker.
Martial, 27, missed out on a lot of football last season due to injury and we’ve seen a repeat of that during pre-season. Today he returns to lead the line against Steve Cooper’s Forest side.
Speaking to MUTV ahead of the match, Ten Hag said Martial is ready after being carefully monitored during his recovery. The Dutchman is convinced he is ready to play.
Ten Hag said (via Manchester Evening News): “We built him very carefully throughout the whole pre-season. So he did a lot of work individually in the last few weeks with the team, and he is ready to play.”
🇫🇷 @AnthonyMartial = ready 💪
💬 The boss explains why our no.9 starts today on his 300th United appearance…#MUFC || #MUNNFO
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 26, 2023
Footage courtesy of MUTV
This will come as a blow for Jadon Sancho because he had been played as a false 9 during the summer. However, we’ve yet to see him in that role since the competitive season kicked off.
The starting line-up consists of three changes from the side that suffered defeat against Tottenham last week. With Martial being one of three players to come in, the other two include Christian Eriksen and Diogo Dalot.
“We are more than 11 players, and we know both can play,” he added. “They will contribute, and they are also all the time they are considering for the starting XI, even if everyone is fit.”
There is also places on the bench for academy duo Alvaro Fernandez and Daniel Gore.
“We have seen in pre-season they can be in the team. Both very talented players, and they have to play in their potential and get everything out, go to the maximum. They have to be ready to come into the team”
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