This particular assessment doesn’t quite add up.
Jamie Carragher is a great pundit. Not good, but actually great. His ability to analyse games with great depth and knowledge and offer nuanced, forthright opinions on football’s biggest issues makes him a hot ticket for Sky Sports.
His debates with Gary Neville – another credit to football punditry – are also compelling (their disagreement over Alexis Sanchez was the highlight of this week’s programme). Yes, they make tuning into Monday Night Football at 7pm instead of 8pm (when games actually kick-off) worth it.
But, not unlike Neville, Carragher gets it wrong sometimes. When it came to the reason he believes Jose Mourinho is chasing Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, however, he got it very, very badly wrong.
Speaking on MNF, Carragher claimed that United’s pursuit of Sanchez is a result of Mourinho’s rapidly diminishing patience with Martial.
“So often you say you want more from Martial and you see the ability and the quality he has. If anyone in this team is under more pressure with the news of Alexis Sanchez supposedly coming… it’s possibly, not the end, he’ll still be part of the squad but you think it’s going to be difficult for him going forward if Sanchez came.
"Mourinho has lost patience with Martial"
Carragher taking over from Souness for pure arse clownery views on football this evening
— Enda Higgins (@endahiggins88) January 15, 2018
“This is a player who came to Manchester United a couple of years ago and you were thinking he was going to be a world beater. It just hasn’t happened and I think Jose Mourinho has probably ran out of patience. That’s why he’s come out of nowhere to try and get Sanchez who’s come on the market. He’s saying I want more from this player and it’s not enough.”
While it’s true that Martial hasn’t always been a pillar of consistency for United, it’s difficult to discredit his contributions this season. The Frenchman has ten goals and nine assists in all competitions this season, which is an impressive return at the halfway stage considering he has, for much of the season, shared his starting berth with Marcus Rashford.
His productivity comfortably trumps the young England forward, too, with the 20-year-old having managed nine goals and five assists. It’s strange timing to suggest that Mourinho has lost patience with Martial when he has started the last two Premier League games, notching two goals and assist in return.
Big win tonight & 3 points! 👊🏼 Thanks for your support 🔴🔴🔴 #MUFC #MUNSTK pic.twitter.com/FdD0u6WOfD
— Anthony Martial (@AnthonyMartial) January 15, 2018
Throwing the effort/commitment/work-rate comments into the mix were also just too tempting for Carragher. Against Stoke, the winger was far from work-shy, endlessly running up and down the flank to give Stoke debutant Moritz Bauer a rough initiation into English football.
It’s also questionable to claim that Martial’s side in the United line-up would be plunged into doubt by Sanchez’s arrival. Surely it’s closer to the truth to suggest that Mourinho wants to bolster his attacking ranks by playing the Chilean alongside Romelu Lukaku and Martial, with Jesse Lingard or Juan Mata playing behind a front three.
At the end of the day, Carragher was giving his opinion. That’s what he’s paid to do. It just seems that, with regards to Martial, his argument was weak and would have been rang truer last season when Martial was struggling with his form.
It was harsh to dismiss Martial’s encouraging trajectory this season. The man deserves better, he’s earned it.
