In Premier League action this past season, Manchester United forward Anthony Martial scored 17 goals and registered six assists, while taking 80 shots. The Frenchman combines with Marcus Rashford to form a dynamic duo in the Red Devils’ final third.
Rashford scored 17 goals, on 95 shots, to go along with seven assists in the Premiership competition of 2019-20. Both players were on the short list for the league’s inaugural Young Player of the Season award, along with teammate Mason Greenwood.
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold eventually claimed the plaudit. Still nothing is better for Anthony Martial than Marcus Rashford, and vice versa. The two young stars have a healthy competition with one another, and that helps drive the pair forward in their ambitions to propel the team to greater heights.
For Martial specifically, the renewed faith in him, from manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has provided a massive boost.
“With Marcus, I think that we’ve been playing together for five seasons now and so, yes, we have that good understanding,” Martial said to the club’s official publication, Inside United magazine.
“It’s a real positive for us that we have this great connection.”
“We just try to help each other out. For example, there are some games where maybe a shot is on and then I decide to wait and see, and I give him the ball because I want him to score. ”
“And he does the same thing for me, so you see, we’re not just focused on scoring all the time.”
“We’re always going to do everything we can for the team to win which means that, if he is better placed than me or I’m in a better position than him, we’ll always give each other the ball in order to score.”
“There is healthy competition, but the biggest thing is the positive rapport that we have with one another.”
Providing service for Martial, Rashford and Greenwood, serving as the sparkplug for the United attacking third is Portugese magnifico Bruno Fernandes.
A full season with this quarter working in sync with each other, plus Paul Pogba, and maybe the club starts to work towards closing the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool next season.
United are currently on post Europa League break, with camp expected to commence early next month.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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