After coming on as a substitute in Manchester United's draw against Galatasaray, Anthony Martial has come under fire for "not doing anything."
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United drop two-goal lead to draw 3-3 Schmeichel criticizes Martial's substitutionMan Utd's Champions League hopes in shamblesGETTYWHAT HAPPENED?
The Red Devils led 3-1 before the break thanks to goals from Scott McTominay, Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes, but they gave up the advantage and finally drew a thrilling six-goal match in Istanbul. During the game, Erik Ten Hag made a lot of substitutions, but his replacement didn't really stand out. With only two touches in the Galatasaray box and 16 touches during the whole game, Martial was unable to record a shot despite being given more than thirty minutes to make an impression. One of the main concerns, according to Peter Schmeichel, was the decline in work rate once Martial was brought in to take Rasmus Hojlund's place.
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He told CBS Sports [via ]: "When you’re 2-0 up – and it’s not the first time we’re 2-0 up in this tournament – you kill the game. You make sure the other team can’t get into it. You keep the ball, you make sure you don’t make mistakes – and a lot of mistakes were made today.
"And of course, you also have to look at players like when Hojlund came off, a lot of the pressure from the very, very front disappeared. The guy (Martial) he (Ten Hag) put in doesn’t do anything, where you had before someone who works really, really hard for the team up front all of a sudden you don’t have that pressure.
"And that gives the other team a lot of opportunities to pass the ball around. So there are many, many things you can look at, but, again, if you score this amount of goals you expect to have more than one point."
Getty ImagesTHE BIGGER PICTURE
Ten Hag's campaign at United has been unsatisfactory, and the draw is only the most recent setback in this unfortunate run. The Red Devils' prospects of qualifying for the Champions League are now in shambles, and Ten Hag's choice to sign Andre Onana this summer will likely come under scrutiny following yet another performance marred by mistakes from the goalie.
GettyWHAT NEXT FOR UNITED?
United's upcoming Premier League matchup against Newcastle presents another challenging task. Ten Hag's team has lost five of their first 13 Premier League games and is now four points outside of the top four going into the contest.