Where Martial is succeeding and Rooney isn't

While Anthony Martial has got off to a cracking start since his arrival, Rooney has yet to score a single goal in the Premier League.

One of the greatest movies ever made, The Shawshank Redemption, echoes the sentiment on which the world runs: hope. It is the thread of hope on which the world hangs and the movie’s tagline, “fear will imprison you, and hope will set you free,” makes the subject as clear as possible.

The other thing which the movie so beautifully divulges is how time can change a person so much that she or he could lose track of the seed on which the tree of their personality was sown. As Brooks Hatlen so beautifully depicts, a person – if locked in a cage for a long period of time – hates even freedom when she/he is newly-acquainted with it.

Wayne Rooney, at the age of 16, was supposed to be the next best striker produced by England. It was all going great and according to what had been suggested, despite some highs and lows, until a European night at Old Trafford in November 2011 altered the course of it all.

The midfield trio of Michael Carrick, Tom Cleverley and Darren Fletcher were unavailable. With United’s midfield as thin as a cracker, Sir Alex Ferguson fielded the English forward in central midfield and he put in a display that gave the impression that he was playing in a wrong position all his life at center forward.

With a man of the match performance against Otelul Galati, it was the onset of a transition to a midfielder for the former Everton starlet. Looking back to that now, one can only perceive a repugnant feeling of repentance, especially if it is a Man United fan.

Rooney has seemed directionless in his striker’s role

4 years down the line, Wayne Rooney is neither a forward nor a midfielder. He was pushed to travel in two boats at once. For a time, it worked. But now it seems as though the rough tides had spread the boats so apart that Rooney finds himself falling in the water and drowning within its depths.

The 2011/12 season was the last time he crossed the 20 goals in all competition barrier – and it is no coincidence since the metamorphosis of position began from that season.

When Michael Carrick sustained an injury and the Red Devils once again found themselves short in midfield, Louis van Gaal looked at Rooney to fill in the gap. Since then, he has played more games in midfield than leading the line.

He hasn’t been pathetic like many suggest, but great is not a word with which one could describe his performance. He is just there, like a passenger in a subway train from London to Manchester who is gazing through the windows and is completely unaware of what to make from the underground surroundings.

This, right now, is Rooney’s regardless of where he plays. Too slow at moving the ball around and immobile with his movements, the midfield flirtation doesn’t seem to yield the result that it did against Otelul Galati. It is only against physically unimposing midfield where he has an influence in the game from midfield.

At striker, the misery continues. He has played in midfield for such a long time that it seems that he has forgotten the primary necessities of being a forward – a Brooks Hatlen-esque scenario which is attacking the goal. His withdrawn movements leave the team with no focal point in attack and when he does get the ball, he is almost always too far away from the goal – making it impossible for him to pose a scoring threat.

He tries to do too much but ends up doing too little.

The want for a striker wasn’t a want anymore, it became a need and so van Gaal insisted on splashing a potential world-record fee for a teenager whose name is little known outside France. And with 4 goals in 4 games, Anthony Martial is doing what Wayne Rooney has long forgotten: scoring goals like a natural forward with bags of talent.

Arsene Wenger, in another show of extreme naivety, suggested that the French teenager is a winger and hence passed the chance to sign him since he had sufficient cover in that position. But looking at the way he has played so far for United, Le Professeur couldn’t be more wrong.

Martial netted a double in his last game

Martial’s off the ball movements are similar to that of Madrid’s Ronaldo

If we go by Wenger’s logic, then Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t a forward, but a winger. However, a winger doesn’t score you 60 goals a season.

While Martial might not be in the mould of Cristiano Ronaldo, his off-the-ball movements are similar. Though he spends more time in the box than the Portuguese, it is his floating to and fro from the left-wing that bears resemblance with the former United star.

Another thing that stands out with the young Frenchman is his ability to appear drowsy. His soporific movements from the center to the wing is a drapery that he uses to shroud the defenders’ vision and make them follow him; leaving space in the middle for him to then burst in.

His movement, from the center to the wing, is so passive that defenders don’t even realise that they are following him out of their zone and leaving vulnerable spaces at the back. And when he gets the ball at his feet, his sticky close-control and brilliant turn of pace leaves the defenders trying to catch his shadow.

And his directness and clear-cut mentality leaves him with only one target when he gets the ball- to score. When, however, Wayne Rooney gets the ball, he is like that kid who is being offered money as a gift by a relative: someone whose state of mind exudes waves of contradiction.

It is here where he has succeeded and his captain hasn’t. The United captain has been a liability whenever played up front and too sturdy when played deeper, leaving van Gaal in a dilemma. For now, Anthony Martial seems to be saving United and Rooney from the blushes.

And he will continue to do so for a considerably long time.