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Anthony Martial may have a future at Manchester United despite the club’s ongoing striker search, with Erik ten Hag billing him as a great player.
The France international forward endured another injury-hit campaign in 2022-23, with limited opportunities seeing him register just nine goals through 29 appearances. United are now very much in the market for a new No.9 – amid links to the likes of Rasmus Hojlund and Harry Kane – but Martial could still have a role to play in the Red Devils’ plans for 2023-24.
Ten Hag told reporters when asked for an update on Martial, who is yet to figure in pre-season due to a hamstring injury that he picked up in last season’s FA Cup final: Today he was in the team training, so that is really hopeful. And, yeah, of course, when you have player in a squad you expect that he is available and then the players have to take the responsibility to be available. But when he's not I have to deal with the situation and we show that we also then can be successful without that striker. But yeah, of course, it's more easy when you have that striker in your team because I think every club who wins big trophies has scoring abilities in that team.
Pressed further on whether Martial is still in his thinking, Ten Hag added: We need a good squad and Anthony Martial is a brilliant football player and so he will help us. He scored goals and also in other areas of football like pressing, in possession, combinations, he's a great player and, yeah, let's hope he will be fit and he stays fit.
While leaving the door open for Martial, United are closing in on a deal that will add another striker to their ranks in the summer transfer window. Ten Hag said of that process: We make progress, yeah, but you know how it works. Jadon Sancho started as a central striker for United in their 2-0 pre-season win over Arsenal, while Marcus Rashford is also capable of filling that position, but the Red Devils are hoping to have another proven goalscorer on board in the not-too-distant future.
Source: goal
