Shearer: Martial isn’t good enough to be Man United’s main striker

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

Newcastle legend Alan Shearer has suggested that Manchester United forward Anthony Martial is nowhere near good enough to be the club’s main striker. 

Martial joined Man United in 2015 for a staggering £54 million and in that time the forward has scored 78 goals and bagged a further 49 assists in 254 games. 

Indeed, last season was the French striker’s best at Old Trafford when he managed to finish the campaign with 17 Premier League goals and seven assists. 

However, the forward has only managed seven goals and eight assists in 32 games for Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer’s team this season and, according to Shearer, Martial has never shown enough quality to be considered Man United’s key source of goals over an entire league campaign. 

Shearer told The Athletic: “I’ve read that Martial wants to be Manchester United’s main centre-forward and that he sees it as his position. I don’t.

“He’s been there for six years. Last season was his best in terms of numbers, but he’s never scored more than 20 league goals in a campaign and I just don’t see the desperation, the hunger, desire and know-how to be a No 9, to score as many goals as he should.”

Can Man United rely on Martial to score enough goals?

Although Martial hasn’t shown his best for the club lately, Man United have still been pretty tremendous in front of goal this season. 

Attacking midfielder Bruno Fernandes currently has 22 goals in 38 appearances for Solsjkaer’s side and Marcus Rashford is sitting rather comfortably on 18 goals in 40 appearances. 

In fact, the Old Trafford side have scored more goals than any other Premier League side this season and currently have three more than league leaders and cross-city rivals Manchester City. 

However, after the aforementioned attacking duo, Solskjaer’s strength in depth in the attacking department isn’t great. At the moment defensive midfielder Scott McTominay currently has as many goals as Martial and Edinson Cavani, while younger prospects like Daniel James and Mason Greenwood only have a handful of goals each for the season. 

As good as Rashford and Fernandes have been, perhaps a more consistent goal scorer to help support them is needed if Martial isn’t up to the task.