Will Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho prefer Anthony Martial or Jesse Lingard this season?

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It’s fair to say that, all things considered, Manchester United are hardly short of attacking options heading into the new season in just under three weeks’ time.

Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Andreas Pereira are just a few of the names that can be thrown around as potential first-team starters to support new arrival and number nine Romelu Lukaku during United’s season opener against West Ham – but this isn’t the big conundrum facing the Europa League winners.

This instead comes between Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard, two youngsters that are on the precipice of nailing down regular first-team spots at Old Trafford and could be close to being special.

The duo combined on Sunday evening to open the scoring against Real Madrid in a high-key pre-season friendly – with Martial’s run spectacular to behold – and it re-opened the question of who is better.

To shed some light on who should start on 13 August, The Boot Room dissects stats from last year.

End product in the final third

With the Europa League and a lengthy FA Cup run to cater with, as well as the tense race for the Champions League spots, there was an awful lot of rotation in the ranks at United during last year.

Both Martial and Lingard featured 25 times in the Premier League, both being on the pitch for around 1400 minutes, so it can be inferred that even Jose Mourinho doesn’t quite know who he prefers.

Should the Portuguese boss persist with two wingers next season, complementing Lukaku in the striking role, then there will need to be a cutting edge in the final third. Last season, the 21-year-old Frenchman made 18 key passes inside opposition territory, while Lingard trumped this with 27.

Yet, Martial contributed three times as many assists as his English teammate (six to two), having a keener eye for a final ball – and this showed last night with a sensational run and pass for Lingard.

With Manchester United struggling to see off teams at home last year, drawing 10 of their 18 matches at Old Trafford, the wide duo need to improve on their end product to become regulars.

Shot shy

Another place where United need to improve is with the goal-scoring contributions from the midfield and from the players out wide, with Romelu Lukaku unable to take on all responsibilities this year.

Despite making 25 appearances each, Martial only managed four league goals last season and Lingard only scored once. This comes in spite of having a combined total of 79 shots on goal.

Compare this to Chelsea’s Pedro, who had 59 shots himself, scored nine goals and managed an additional nine assists by playing a similar role, and it’s clear that there’s work to be done at United.

Endless endeavour in a United shirt

What both Martial and Lingard might have lacked in definitive end product last season they certainly make up for in endeavour and effort, completing 45 and 20 offensive take-ons respectively.

The ex-Monaco man was successful on more occasions (56%) than Lingard (48%) but he, on the whole, attempted a lot more as he almost tried too hard to impress Mourinho when given a chance.

The main issue with Martial has been his confidence more than anything and, as he showed against Real Madrid last night, he still has the raw ability to be world-class, it just needs to surface more often.

Likewise, Lingard isn’t the mould of player that will catch the eye with mouth-watering statistics. Instead, he is far more valuable to this United side with his grit, under-rated passing around the final third and his clever movement, and as we’ve seen in recent years (FA Cup and EFL Cup) he delivers on the big occasions.

After many different trials by Mourinho during pre-season so far there’s been very little to suggest how he will line up his side on the Premier League opening weekend – but it’ll be interesting to see.