Eyebrows were raised across the footballing world when Louis Van Gaal and Manchester United signed then 19-year old Anthony Martial from Monaco for 36 million pounds, potentially rising to almost 60 million pounds with certain performance bonuses. The French attacker had scored 15 career goals for the principality club and most Premier League fans had barely heard of him, let alone seen him play at all.

Martial didn’t take long to make an impression on United fans, as he scored United’s goal of the season in his debut against Liverpool. The Frenchman went on to start in 45 of his 49 appearances, scoring 17 goals and creating nine more across all competitions. At the end of 2015, he was awarded the Golden Boy award, given to the best player in Europe aged 21 or younger. The now 21-year old earned a spot in France’s squad at Euro 2016 and looked set to become a star under the watch of Jose Mourinho and alongside new signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrik Mkhytarian and compatriot Paul Pogba. Now, however, Martial looks like a player short on confidence and approaching a do-or-die season at Old Trafford.

Mourinho has shown distaste for wingers who are inconsistent, which is every winger, and Martial is now at risk of becoming the next in a talented list of attackers discarded by the Portuguese. Players he has thrown to the side have often proven their worth elsewhere. Romelu Lukaku, Andre Schurrle, Juan Mata and Kevin De Bruyne are some prime examples.

This season, Martial scored only eight goals and assisted the same across 42 appearances in all competitions as he failed to play the full 90 minutes in 17 of his 28 starts. The Portuguese manager also publicly criticized the Martial for his attitude and the Frenchman’s only consistent playing time came after United had given up on the Premier League.  Although you wouldn’t expect United and Mourinho to give up on such a talented player so quickly, its happened before and unless Martial can turn things around this season, it will happen again.