Anthony Martial is proving Jose Mourinho right at Manchester United

The first time Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial fired blanks in a 1-0 defeat at Brighton they were involved in some friendly fire from Jose Mourinho.

"I think you should be disappointed," Mourinho said at his post-match press conference. "And when I say you I say media in a general way, because for many months you are always asking me why this player doesn't play, why that player doesn't play, why this player is on the bench, why always Lukaku, why always this guy?

"So I think you should be disappointed more than me because probably I know my players better than you and probably you don't know them so well to be always with these questions."

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This and that were Rashford and Martial. Rashford ended the season with 13 goals and Martial 11. The injured Romelu Lukaku scored more than twice as many as both.

Questions still linger of Martial. Rashford has developed into an accomplished goalscorer in the last four years, bar last season's five-goal aberration. Martial has not lived up to the number nine and Mourinho had his number.

Including this season, Martial's goal tallies in the last three campaigns are currently worse than his worst under Mourinho, purportedly the scourge of the Frenchman.

The power brokers at United saw it that way. Martial's agent, Philippe Lamboley, outlined the striker's intention to leave United a month after the Brighton defeat in June 2018 and Mourinho was only open to letting Martial leave on the basis of that public declaration.

When United triggered the one-year extension in Martial's contract on December 17 of that year, Lamboley spoke within hours to say he was "pessimistic" of an entirely new deal. United sacked Jose Mourinho the following day