Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag says his side plays ‘the best football’ with Antony Martial in the team.
The 53-year old made these remarks on Wednesday during his news conference ahead of Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final first leg at home to Sevilla.
“You say I defended him but I just point to the stats, 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 games against Man City and Liverpool, we play our best football and have the best results as a team.I see how he contributes to this team.”
Martial came off the bench and scored over the weekend in United 2-0 victory over Everton. But he has only played in 17 of the club’s 49 games this season due to five different injuries.
In those 17 games, he has found the back of net seven times and assisted his teammates twice.
“We don’t have to force things, we’re careful,” added Ten Hag
“The frontline against Brentford and Everton worked really well. Continually we were a threat, difficult to defend for the opponent.
“He is ready to start games 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.”
With the absence of Marcus Rashford, the frenchman is in contention to start his first game since January 14 when he was named in the starting lineup against Man City – in a game he was forced off at halftime with a hip injury.
Rashford is ruled out “for a few games” with a muscle injury he sustained on Saturday in the Everton game.
United will also be without Luke Shaw and Alejandro Garnacho against Sevilla on Thursday but welcome back Christian Eriksen.
