The best footballers in the world have no qualms about wearing their influences on their sleeves, and Anthony Martial is no different.
Luis Suárez has spoken of looking up to Gabriel Batistuta, for example, while Sergio Agüero has spoken of watching and wanting to be Michael Owen when he was younger.
However, the best forwards in the game are those who take a great number of influences and use them to mould a fresh new identity for themselves – one strong enough that the next generation will end up invoking their names when reflecting back on their childhood heroes.
Martial was always destined to draw comparisons with Thierry Henry upon arriving at Manchester United from Henry’s former club Monaco.
It wasn’t exactly a lazy comparison, either, though there’s no doubt some will have been relieved when the dots they blindly joined before watching the youngster play were quickly vindicated.
There’s the fact that he’s a speedy forward comfortable with cutting in from the left, of course, but the early coup de grâce arrived on Martial’s debut against Liverpool when he produced the kind of finish Henry was able to pull out at will during his time in England.
It was a reverse-Robben, of sorts, but its relative rarity makes defenders less likely to see it as a foregone conclusion.
The finish, for Martial, is more like a tennis player’s drop-shot: he knows how effective it can be when used at the right time, but he also knows overusing it will hurt him in the long run.