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One of Manchester United’s key players last season under Louis Van Gaal, Anthony Martial has found life a bit harder under José Mourinho, being on the bench more often than he would like.

The 21-year-old has only made 16 appearances so far this season, and has been left out of a lot of important games, notably the derbies against Manchester City, only coming off the bench for 10 minutes towards the end of the 2-1 loss at the beginning of the season.

Quietly keeping his head down and trying to impress his new manager at Old Trafford, Martial has also, in this period, seen his status with the France national team drop as he was overlooked by Didier Deschamps for the Frenchman’s last squad.

The player, however, took some time this week to speak to SFR Sport about his situation ahead of the game against West Brom, and discussed what it was like being benched when he was so used to playing regularly last season.

He said: “It’s annoying, it’s really annoying, but it’s a challenge you have to overcome, and that’s how you progress. It’s hard. All you want to do is try and help your team, and when you’re on the bench, you can’t. In the end, these are choices, and you have to accept them.”

Martial has also seen a few critics come his way, and the young forward was asked if he felt people expected a bit too much of him at times.

He said: “No, I know people expect a lot from me. Maybe they also forget I’m still young at times. They can say what they want, to be honest, it won’t change anything.”