Mourinho's Tough Love Works For Martial

Manchester United forward Anthony Martial believes Jose Mourinho’s tough love approach to man-management has fuelled his excellent contributions on the pitch this season.

The 21-year-old former AS Monaco star has impressed supporters as both a starter and substitute, scoring six goals and tallying as many assists from his 16 appearances in all competitions so far.

Martial’s admirable form with United led to him being recalled to the France squad by international boss Didier Deschamps earlier this month and, on Tuesday night, he claimed another assist when setting up Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette during a 2-2 draw with world champions Germany in Cologne.

Impressively, a statistic emerged afterwards that claims Anthony has been involved in a goal every 58 minutes for both club and country this season, which highlights his creative capabilities at present.

It also represents the player's more clinical performances in 2017/18 following the challenges of last season, when he featured regularly (42 appearances) but only scored eight goals in total.

During a recent interview with Premier League Productions, our maturing Frenchman agreed that Mourinho’s “tough love” approach is fuelling his game-changing displays this campaign.

“He is hard with all of us and he is hard with me, there is no question,” Anthony said. “I know that it is for my benefit, but I also know that he really likes me as a person so there is no issue about the discipline being for the wrong reasons. Our objective, of course, is to have all of us in audition [training] and being fit to play every match, and that is what I'm hoping to do.

“At the beginning, we didn't know each other too well but over time we have gotten to know each other better. He knows my strengths and he knows my weaknesses, such as they are, but the outcome is that we are learning to give everything in the right way.”

THE STORY OF MARTIAL’S SEASON SO FAR

Pre-season: In the summer, Tony completed his first pre-season tour with United; he missed the first one after signing in late August of 2015, and then the second due to his involvement at Euro 2016. As we have seen on the pitch so far, he appears to be reaping the benefits of that training camp in the US.

Six goals: That’s how many he has tallied this campaign and it is just two fewer than his 2016/17 total. The pick of the bunch so far is probably the late winner against Tottenham Hotspur, when he latched onto Romelu Lukaku’s header to finish past Hugo Lloris in front of the Stretford End.

Six assists: With his fast feet and pace on the ball, Anthony is a nightmare for opposition defenders and that was evident against Burton Albion in the Carabao Cup, when he arguably produced his standout assist, rolling the ball inwards with his right boot before passing it back out to Jesse Lingard with his left.

Awards: In a true recognition of his form, United supporters have voted Martial as our Player of the Month for September and October. With four games to come in November, beginning with Newcastle on Saturday, he now hopes to complete an unprecedented hat-trick of monthly prizes.