Erik Ten Hag says forward Anthony Martial is ready to start games for Man Utd and believes his side have played their best football when he has been involved.
The Frenchman scored off the bench in United’s 2-0 Premier League win over Everton on Saturday having recently recovered from a hip injury, and Ten Hag believes he is now ready to step into a starting role in the absence of the prolific Marcus Rashford, who is set to miss the next few games with a muscle injury.
Martial has struggled with persistent injury issues over the past couple of seasons but Ten Hag says he has shown that when he is available, he improves the team in a big way.
Embed from Getty Images“I think he is ready to start games,” Ten Hag said.
“But as I said, the frontline against Brentford did really well and we decided to continue that against Everton, and they did very well again.
“The advantage was also that we can bring Martial back slowly, in the team, give him minutes, getting used to games at the highest level, higher intensity, but already against Everton he was ready to start the game.
“The stats tell you the moment he’s on the pitch, the time he needs for a goal is really less.
“When he is in the team, I refer to the games against Man City and Liverpool, we play our best football and have the best results as a team.”
United host Sevilla in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final on Thursday and will also be without Luke Shaw and Alejandro Garnacho.
Shaw is expected to return to the side soon but Garnacho’s injury is “more severe”, Ten Hag added.
