Anthony Martial has a debt to pay to Manchester United

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag was in good form during his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

In a relatively packed media room at Carrington, Ten Hag answered questions from journalists for around 15 minutes ahead of Thursday's visit of Sevilla in the Europa League and he was joined by David de Gea, who was also good value.

After discussing the team news, the Dutchman was asked about Anthony Martial by one reporter, who asked: "You've always defended Martial, isn't this time for him to step up because we haven't seen the best of him in a long time?"

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Ten Hag was combative with his answer and he launched a passionate defence. He responded: "You say I defended him but I just point to the stats, the stats tell you the moment he's on the pitch, the time he needs for a goal is really less.

"When he is in the team, I refer to games against Man City and Liverpool, we play our best football. We have the best results as a team. I see how he contributes to this team. We don't have to force things [his comeback], we're careful.

"The frontline against Brentford and Everton worked really well. Continually we were a threat. We were difficult to defend for the opponent. He is ready to start games but as I said the frontline against Brentford did really well.

"We decided to continue that against Everton. The advantage was also that we can bring Martial back slowly, in the team, give him minutes, getting used to games at the highest level, but already against Everton he was ready to start the game."

Martial has made a total of 17 appearances this season and he's scored seven goals. He's averaged 0.79 goals per 90 minutes across all competitions and