Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has lauded Anthony Martial for his match-winning performance against Everton noting that The Frenchman is playing the way he wants him to play.
Martial continued from where he left from in the English Premier League after his brace heroics against Chelsea last weekend. The Frenchman scored a goal and earned a penalty for Manchester United which Paul Pogba made amends for his miss by pouncing on a rebound to open the scoring for Jose Mourinho’s charges.
Mourinho heaped praise on Martial in a long post-match interview noting that Martial is now playing the way he wants him to play, “Well, when the players are playing bad is my fault, when the players are playing well, is my responsibility. Let’s be honest, or we go to the middle of it which I think is fair, and say when a player plays bad is half me and half the player. And when a player plays well is half me and is half the player.
“I think he coped well with his development process. He took quite a long time to understand what we want from him, took quite a long time for his brain but also his body to be ready to play the way we want him to play. But in this moment he is solid, he’s playing very well and even if he doesn’t score or is not in his best days to create the way he’s creating his performance, is a solid performance for the team. And that’s what we need, so very happy.
“Positional is not just abut the defensive action itself,” Mourinho added of Martial, who struck his fifth goal against Everton on Sunday. “Is also about closing the spaces, compact with the midfield players, know how to be in relation of the ball position.
“He’s understanding now things we didn’t before and he wants to play and he knows that to play and be consistent in the team he has to go in a certain direction and he’s finding that direction.
“His performance today without the goal would be a good performance and what I want from him is exactly that. You cannot score every time you play but in these matches, where you don’t score and you don’t assist, where your creation is not at a high level, but you have a certain balance in your performance. And that’s the way I think he’s going now.”