Antony’s Manchester United form under spotlight
JADON Sancho’s Manchester United career has been so underwhelming that it might come as a surprise to discover that the team won their last five Premier League games in which he started.
It is 14 matches unbeaten with Sancho as a starter.
Even as he departs for what is hoped will be a career relaunch on loan at Borussia Dortmund, Sancho can claim to have scored at Old Trafford more recently than Marcus Rashford. More recently too than Antony, the £85m signing who usurped him.
If Antony’s own presence has quickened the journey of Sancho — a £70m signing himself — towards the exit, it only puts more focus on the Brazilian. Manchester United have a winger problem and it remains unclear whether he is a player capable of solving it.
Sancho’s struggles were complex. Ranking seventh in the Premier League for expected assists from open play last season hinted at promise, but the sense that he failed to step up prevailed. The breakdown of his relationship with Erik ten Hag soured things.
The fear with Antony is that even if his hunger is interpreted positively, even if his mentality is charitably described as that of a winner, there are question marks over his ability to be the player United need him to be. Doubts were there from the outset.
“He plays so childishly,” said Dutch legend Marco van Basten at the time of his move. “I do not like his shooting either. It is all about stats, about goals and assists. I am not impressed.” Fellow great Ruud Gullit also openly wondered whether he could cut it in England.
More recently, former United player Jaap Stam, another Dutchman who has followed Antony’s career, framed his time at Ajax in less than effusive terms. “In Holland, he did okay,” Stam told The Overlap. “It was not like he was the best player in Holland.”
To put that into context, the list of players to both score and assist more goals than Antony in his final Eredivisie season included not only Dusan Tadic, Cody Gakpo, Luis Sinisterra, Sebastien Haller and Jesper Karlsson but Norwich flop Ricky van Wolfswinkel.
The younger ones got their moves. Sinisterra left for Leeds that same summer for £21m, Karlsson to Bologna for £9.5m. Gakpo had to wait until winter for his £37m move to Liverpool, by which point it was a bargain following Antony’s astronomical fee.
How about the example of Lois Openda, born one week before Antony, who was snapped up by Lens for £8.5m after scoring 18 goals for Vitesse that season, before being flipped to RB Leipzig for a profit the following summer. There were deals to be done, no doubt.
The point is not to chastise United’s recruitment — not this time — but to ask how much more it is reasonable to expect of Antony at Old Trafford. At Ajax, he was a player of eye-catching skill but moderate output. That juxtaposition has
been pronounced at a higher level.
Since finishing low into the far corner against Arsenal on his Manchester United debut in September of last year, that remains his only Premier League goal at Old Trafford. A lack of dynamism coupled with his obvious one-footedness has presented a problem.
Unable to beat his opponent on the outside, Antony has habitually come inside. It is not terminal to his hopes of making an impact but challenging when he lacks the power to shoot with conviction or the creativity to cut through a defence with clinical passes.
If that has been an issue against compact opposition, his weaknesses have been even more apparent when expected to counter-attack. Increasingly, that is the idea under Ten Hag, who wants to turn United into a team that can thrive on transition.
Antony does press well. He ranks second in the Premier League for possession won in the final third, dispossessing Clement Lenglet in the build-up to the winner against Aston Villa recently. But he lacks the physicality to really capitalise on wideopen spaces.
Contrast that with his former Ajax team-mate Mohammed Kudus, who has become such a popular player for West Ham this season. “Antony has his skills, but he is confused with the things he is trying to do. Kudus has much better technique,” says Van Basten.
“Kudus is smarter and more technical. He knows what he is doing. He is much more of a footballer, you can place him anywhere on the pitch, an all-rounder for the team. In fact, I like him much better than Antony. He is more fun to watch play.”
More fun and more effective. He has already scored more goals in the Premier League despite Antony having a one-year head-start. If the Kudus comparison feels unfair and the Sancho one now moot, establishing Antony’s ceiling as a player remains relevant.
Stam’s comments will chime with many. “When you are looking at Antony now, at this moment, you do not see where he can make the progress to make the next step in the Premier League, to be up there with the top wingers who can make a difference.”
Gary Neville, who was part of that conversation with Stam, has since offered a possible route for Antony to begin to turn his United career around. “He has to develop a pattern in his game so that his team-mates understand what he is doing,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“That can be just simplifying it. Riyad Mahrez is someone I have said before that he should really go and watch and study and look at. He only did a couple of simple things in the game but he was always very effective. His team-mates could read his moves.
“Look, he has courage and always gets on the ball, but what you need obviously is end product and he will be judged on that. That will come maybe as he gets a bit older. But to start with, what he has to do is just start to create parts of his game that are consistent.”
It is a modest ambition. Antony turns 24 next month, entering what should be the peak years for a winger. Competition from Sancho has been seen off for reasons beyond the pitch. Whether Antony is any closer to finding the answers on it, remains to be seen. —