Martial has proved worth to United, says Smalling

Chris Smalling said Anthony Martial has made Old Trafford his own after taking Manchester United by storm in his debut season.

United were criticised for spending in excess of £36million for Martial in September, but the 20-year-old has repaid the faith, scoring an injury-time winner to send the club into the FA Cup final on Saturday.

Martial has scored 14 goals in all competitions this season, eight of those coming in the Premier League.

And United team-mate Smalling said the France international has proved his worth to the team.

“No one is going to have a harder circumstance coming to Old Trafford with the pressure he had and he is performing brilliantly,” said Smalling.

“A lot of players come with potential but it’s how they perform on that stage and luckily enough for us he’s taken to it like it’s like it’s nothing.

“Not many players come in with that amount of pressure and he was relatively unknown to the majority of us so to see him turn up week after week, he’s our main attacking threat and he’s been brilliant all season.

“Nothing seems to faze him and you can see that when he gets the ball, he’s got the beating of anyone no matter who he’s playing against.

“More often than not he gets the beating of them and that’s great for us because you just want to feed players like that who are constantly that high on confidence all season.

“You can tell in training sessions, his pace, his ability to take on people, after a few training sessions you have to try to suss him out.”