Ferdinand reveals what frustrates him most about Martial

The Manchester United legend gave an honest account of Anthony Martial’s progress at Old Trafford.

Anthony Martial’s inability to live up to expectation has frustrated Rio Ferdinand, who claims the Manchester United forward has ‘gone backward’.

Since a €60 million move from Monaco in 2015, Martial has made 260 appearances in all competitions. He has managed 78 goals and 50 assists but still struggles to deliver as a central striker.

“I think the most frustrating thing about him is that he’s actually gone backward from when he first signed,” said Ferdinand of Martial on his FIVE YouTube channel.

“If you’re a player and you look at when he hit the scene with the two goals against Liverpool and you think to yourself, ‘Wow what have we signed here?’. He’s not really hit those heights since.

“As a player, I’d love to be able to get inside his head and spend time with him. Everyone thinks they can affect someone with a conversation. You’d be saying to him, ‘Are you actually happy with what you’re doing, are you happy with your trajectory of how it’s going?’.

“Talent-wise, from what I’m told from people, I remember Michael Carrick first went in and saw him and said, ‘Rio, this kid could be one of the best players on the planet easy, some of the stuff he does in training takes your breath away’.

“But sometimes there are players who are great in training but don’t replicate enough in games. I hope he’s not going down [that route]. He’s still young enough to change it by the way but I don’t know what he needs, a rocket, or he needs someone in the changing room to be getting hold of him and demanding standards every single day and every single game.”

With the summer transfer window still active, United could still search for new hitman. Gary Neville, for one, has urged the Red Devils to beat Manchester City for Harry Kane’s signature from Tottenham.