Jose has declared his pre-season is focusing on Sanchez, Mata and Martial as his front three (because of players to be rested following the World-Cup) – second on the list of Man Utd attackers today, is Anthony Martial

One eye on the past: In the long-term, he has an average of 0.7pts per game (goals, assists & bonus points) – which is woeful versus our value for money target of 2.6pts per game (4.6 including appearance points). In the short and medium-term he has returned zero pts per game – largely because of being out-of-favour and thus, lacking game-time.

Roughly speaking, the way our stats are calculated (and the way Martial’s points are distributed), you can multiply his 0.7pts per game by 3 to gain an idea of what he might have returned if he had been consistent over the long-term; and at 2.1pts per game we are at value for money levels that are close to acceptable.

Couple this with memories of his defence destroying performances of the past, the promise of consistent game-time might benefit him greatly – but do be mindful that he is yet to prove he can do it week-in week-out.

One eye on the future: There is a mixed bag forecasted as far as Man Utd’s opening fixtures – they should score a couple per game at home, up to 3 goals versus Burnley in week 4 but might struggle to click versus Brighton and Watford. But all in all there are goals to be had across the period, it is just a matter of who grabs them.

The worry for Martial is his poor historical returns versus similar opposition, with only one big scoring chance every five games. His forecasted influence rankings are very poor with seven to eight players in front of him, but this can be purely attributed to game-time.

What to do: There are glimmers of hope hidden deep within Martials stats, but this assumes he is able to find form, sustain it and be regularly selected – and at £7.5M it feels like £1-1.5M too high to take a gamble.

That said, if I had to chose between Sanchez, Mata or Martial, it is Martial who would probably edge it – he’ll likely score less points than Sanchez, but will be better value for money; and will likely score more than Mata and be better value for money.

FPL Tip: The outcome of this three player review has concluded in “if I had to chose one” – and this is sometimes what you end up doing, without recognising it, when chasing fixture coverage. Fixture coverage is not always a bad thing, but it can become debilitating when picking the best of a bad bunch.