Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told Anthony Martial to prove his worth as Manchester United’s No 9 last summer, when he allowed the Frenchman to revert back to his old squad number. The forward arrived at Old Trafford from Monaco in the summer of 2015 and was immediately given the jersey in his debut season.
However, things soon changed when a year down the line Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain.
The big Swede requested that he was given the shirt and that meant Martial had to change to the vacant No 11.
Ibrahimovic has since moved on, joining LA Galaxy before returning to Serie A with former club AC Milan.
Romelu Lukaku then took over the reins but he also departed last summer, joining Inter Milan.
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Martial has certainly repaid Solskjaer and is enjoying his finest scoring season to date for United.
The 24-year-old has clocked up 16 Premier League goals with a further five in all competitions and is playing his part in a formidable new-look front four alongside Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood and Bruno Fernandes.
Former United defender Patrice Evra played alongside Martial for France and admitted that Jose Mourinho’s decision to let Ibrahimovic take the No 9 shirt damaged his confidence.
“I think he had a brilliant start when he played under [Louis] van Gaal,” Evra told Sky Sports.
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“Then I remember one episode, unfortunately I think they let him really down when they swapped the shirt with Zlatan.
“I remember we were in the national team and he received a call from the club and they say you have to give your No. 9 shirt, and he was like, ‘no, absolutely not’.
“But after, Mourinho contacted him to say Zlatan is going to take the No. 9 and you’re going to take the No. 11. It’s not like I’m going to say Martial’s been not playing well because of that number shirt, but it started from there.”
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