Why Anthony Martial started as a striker ahead of Mason Greenwood for Manchester United against Southampton

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decided to give Anthony Martial his first match in five months as he wanted to have two strikers on the pitch against Southampton.

The Frenchman had a surprising start for Manchester United on the south coast but suffered a frustrating afternoon before being replaced by Jadon Sancho with half an hour left. His only chance was a header in the first half that was cleared off the goal line.

Martial has been out of service since injuring his knee on international duty in March and had been in poor shape before that. He has now scored two goals in his last 20 appearances for the club, both of which came in the same match.

The decision to start Martial down the middle, to replace Daniel James in the starting line-up, means Mason Greenwood is back in the right despite being impacted centrally against Leeds last week.

Greenwood scored the equalizer for United at St Mary’s as he drifted onto the pitch and when Martial came off a few minutes later, the youngster took the lead up front as Solskjaer’s side looked for a winner.

Unlike Martial, Greenwood now has 10 goals in his last 16 games since the end of last season, and despite not having his best game yet, he’s still finding a way to contribute.

“We wanted to make Anto advance, call him two other strikers, Anthony drifts to the left and Mason enters from the right,” Solskjaer said when asked about the decision to call up Martial.

“Mason scored a very good goal, he didn’t have one of his best days but he still contributed. When Jadon came in I thought he looked really strong in the first 10 or 15 minutes but then the whole team fell away and in the last 15 minutes we didn’t play well in the last 15 minutes. “.

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