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Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has warned Anthony Martial about his current form in the club, asking him to buckle up or find himself on the shelf.
This comes after Martial drew stinging criticism from Gary Neville for his performance against Arsenal last weekend, having scored just once in the Premier League this season.
According to UK’s Sun Sport, Martial is believed to be upset over Zlatan Ibrahimovic being handed the number 9 shirt, at a time when he was drawing up plans to trademark ‘Martial 9’.
But Mourinho has urged him to start showing why United moved to net him in a £57million deal at the beginning of last season.
On Thursday in the Europa League match against Feyenood,
The boss was quoted as saying: “You have one opportunity, you have two, you have three – if you don’t bite then somebody comes and takes the bait.
“Anthony was OK for Feyenoord. I cannot play with 12 players.
“The players have to win their positions. They are friends, they are colleagues who work together every day but in the end they compete between themselves to have more chance to play.
“Anthony played against Arsenal. Thursday was a moment to give (Henrikh) Mkhitaryan a chance to start.
On Thursday in the Europa League match against Feyenoord, Mkhitaryan put up an impressive performance in Martial’s absence.
Recall that Martial drew stinging criticism from Gary Neville for his performance against Arsenal last weekend, having scored just once in the Premier League this season.
And Mourinho continues: “The way the team played last season – I’m not saying better or worse, just different – was probably more adaptive to Anthony.
“He was probably more comfortable playing that way, at that intensity, that rate of ball possession and ball circulation.
“Probably he also needs some time but in our squad, especially in these positions, we have Mkhitaryan, (Jesse) Lingard, (Memphis) Depay, (Juan) Mata, (Marcus) Rashford. These are probably the positions where we have more options.”