Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has been handed a setback by the news that Antony Martial is a doubt for Sunday's Premier League opener against Brighton.
The Frenchman was holding his leg as he left the pitch against Atletico Madrid in Oslo and now faces further tests to determine when he will return. His potential absence might force Ten Hag into a rethink over Cristiano Ronaldo's involvement in the clash. Ronaldo has been pushing to leave the Red Devils all summer and has barely featured in pre-season after missing their tour of Asia and Australia for family reasons.
Martial has led the line in Ronaldo's absence and impressed when doing so, scoring three goals while registering one assist. Ten Hag had reportedly decided that Martial would lead the line against Brighton this Sunday alongside Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, however that now seems unlikely.
The Portuguese international would be the more obvious choice to replace him, with striking options at United currently limited. He scored 23 goals across all competitions last season, comfortably the best return at the club.
Yet he offers very little in terms of build-up play these days, and it’s also very hard for United to press coherently without the ball if Ronaldo is leading the charge. Of the 127 Premier League forwards who played over 600 minutes last season, he ranked bottom in terms of making the fewest number of pressure per 90 (6.67).
That’s an issue only exasperated if he isn’t fit, which, is likely to be the case given he’s managed just 45 minutes of pre-season action.
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Throughout pre-season, better and more coherent pressing has been a noticeable staple of Ten Hag’s United side. That’s something captured by their Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA) average.
PPDA is a metric to quantify high press intensity, by calculating the number of passes an opposition is allowed to make in the final 60% of the pitch and dividing it by the number of defensive actions attempted by the team looking to win the ball back. The lower the number, the more aggressive and better a team’s high pressing is.
United’s average last season was 13.15. However across their last five games in pre-season, their average has dropped to 6.08. Having a more dynamic and fluid front line would have been key to this, and there’s every chance that progression is stunted with Ronaldo coming in the side in place of Martial.
Ten Hag’s alternative option could be to play Rashford through the middle, perhaps bringing Anthony Elanga into one of the wide positions. That move would certainly bring more energy to the United frontline, although there’s every chance snubbing Ronaldo makes an already fractious relationship between the two that bit more difficult.
