Shearer slams ‘frustrating’ Man Utd man for lacking ‘hunger’

Joe Williams
Alan Shearer Man Utd
Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer thinks Man Utd striker Anthony Martial lacks the “hunger” to score more goals and found his performance frustrating in the Red Devils’ 3-1 loss to Leicester City on Sunday.

A Kelechi Iheanacho brace and a Youri Tielemans effort was enough to see the Foxes overcome Man Utd in their FA Cup quarter-final and move into the semi-finals at Wembley next month.

Mason Greenwood had equalised for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side but Leicester took control of the match in the second half to dump Man Utd out of the competition.


OPINION: Iheanacho stars as Leicester secure statement win


Martial started and played the full match but was unable to get on the scoresheet as he took his run without a goal to nine matches in all competitions.

And Shearer described the Frenchman’s performance as “frustrating” while he questioned whether the 25-year-old has the desire to improve his poor goalscoring form.

“He was very isolated but then sometimes you need help off your team-mates but you can also help yourself by putting yourself in better positions,” Shearer told BBC Sport.

“It was a really frustrating performance for him because when his team-mates are looking for options from him, for him to either come short to be the link-up play, a lot of the time I’m thinking, ‘Come on, help’.

“Paul Pogba is looking for some help, he needs a run off the forward, there’s no one there. In his defence, he never really had any midfielder who was prepared to run past him or prepared to give him that little bit of support he so badly needed.

“He kept on pulling onto the full back for the long diagonal, which is fine that can be good but not every time. It didn’t really work for him tonight and I was really frustrated for him on the sidelines.

“I don’t think he’s a nine. He doesn’t look comfortable in the nine position. He doesn’t look as if he’s got that hunger to score as many goals as he could and should. It was a frustrating performance.”

United’s last remaining hope of silverware is in the Europa League where they will face Granada in the quarter-finals, with the first leg taking place on April 8.