Player Focus: Martial Fee Obscuring Impressive Capture for United

Amid all the grander storylines of the night, it was easy to overlook one of the more understated elements. Arsenal, however, should have been paying it much more attention.

Because, for all the understandable focus on the London side’s collapse and Dimitar Berbatov’s return in Monaco’s brilliant 3-1 win at the Emirates back in February, there was one other constant of the night beyond the home side’s hapless naivety.

That was the sight of Anthony Martial surging though the pitch to power another French counter-attack, sending Arsenal into a panic, and so often linking up beautifully with the rest of the Monaco forwards. Some of the interchanges were excellent. Some of the moves just made Monaco look so good.

It barely needs to be pointed out that, Memphis Depay aside, this is exactly the kind of exhilarating spark that Manchester United have been missing from their attack this season.

And this is the thing with this somewhat surprising transfer. Taken in isolation, with no emphasis on the fee or the fact he becomes one of very few players in United’s squad capable of playing up front, Martial is obviously an excellent buy.

He’s one of the finest young players in Europe, and was being watched by many of the biggest clubs. Jose Mourinho is said to be a huge fan, as are those at Barcelona.

It’s just that, precisely because he is such a precocious talent, it’s an awful lot of responsibility place on him. Louis van Gaal was understandably preaching that he be given time and space to develop.

“We need to give him time to adjust to his new environment… the rhythm of the Premier League,” the manager said. That makes it even less understandable why he was United’s sole attacking purchase in the last few weeks of the window.

Some sources maintain that Monaco jacked up the price by £15m because they knew of United’s desperate need to bring in a forward, since they only had Wayne Rooney.

There are huge questions to be asked of the Old Trafford club’s transfer policy - not least given the naive way they scrambled about for a star - but Martial can at least begin to help answering some of the questions from the pitch.

For one, there are the stats that begin to state just how exciting he is. Martial scored more goals than any other teenager in Europe’s top five leagues last season, with eight of his nine Ligue 1 goals coming after he broke into the team at the turn of the year.

Those strikes came from an impressive conversation rate of 22.9% from the turn of the year to the end of the campaign, with the 19-year-old hitting a goal every 145.5 minutes in that time.

Of course, it’s not even so much about the goals, given that it’ll be a lot to expect a young player to immediately deliver the same rate in a different league and different football culture.

It’s also about the general place, most pointedly that pace with which he so unnerved Arsenal. Martial - provided Van Gaal’s system lets him - will offer the kind of runs and vigour that United have missed.

Last season, he went on 2.4 dribbles per 90 minutes, forcing the opposition into 2.2 fouls per 90. Only Memphis Depay dribbles more often out of United’s current squad - at 2.5 per 90 minutes.

That shows the staleness of Van Gaal’s attack right now. Martial will enliven it, even if he should still be allowed the space to do that at his own pace.

Will Martial be a hit at Old Trafford or will the transfer weigh heavy in his shoulders? Let us know in the comments below