Anthony Martial's level of consistency is abnormal and puts pressure on his teammates to perform, according to Manchester United assistant manager Ryan Giggs.
The 20-year-old France forward was signed by United for £36 million on Sept. 1 from Monaco as a long-term development prospect, but the player has already become a talisman despite his relative inexperience. He has played in 45 games this season, 37 of which were for United, five for France and three for Monaco.
Giggs told the Daily Telegraph: "Anthony has been a breath of fresh air. He came in for big money and he has been so consistent this year. It puts pressure on other players who aren't as consistent because it is not normal for a young player. They can be brilliant for two or three games and then it will dip, but it doesn't happen very often.
"You look at Cristiano [Ronaldo]. For 18 months he was indifferent. Now, phew, he scores every week. People just mature at different times. It's up to the individual to work hard and the cream usually rises to the top if you work hard and you have got the quality."
Although Martial has been consistent, the same cannot be said of United. Louis van Gaal's men seemed to be finding some form recently, with four wins in a row in all competitions from mid-February, but that has followed by back-to-back defeats followed by a draw.
"The consistency has been frustrating," Giggs said.
"We would go on a good run and then have a disappointing result. Obviously there have been a lot of injuries. A lot of them have been freak injuries - shoulders and Luke Shaw's leg. A lot of knocks, the kind of things you can't do anything about.
"And then when the squad gets small you are asking a lot of players to play games when maybe they could be rested or rotated. So it seems to have a domino effect when you do get a few injuries and we have just never got out of that.
"We are nine, 10 weeks left of the season and we are still in the FA Cup, still in the Europa League and still trying to get that top-four spot. We are still fighting and we still have something to play for.
"There are clubs in worse positions. The FA Cup is a competition we have a massive history in and we haven't won it for 12 years so that's huge for us."