Almost as bad as Martial for availability.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 44
- Goals
- 8
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
Only played 23 Eridivisie games last season too
Not good.
Would have liked to see him against Barca.
Any ideas how long he is out this time.
Any ideas how long he is out this time.
Seems to be a complete sick note.
Where is he?
Bruno shown him how to create chances from the right yesterday. Works his ass off as well. It might be difficult for Antony if he doesn't adapt to being more of a direct threat. He needs to come up with something special since he's competing against players on a higher level than him, and can only play RW.
Think his only "real" chance is finding a way to make use of his dribbling. We are still crying out for a ball carrier and/or a player with a certain X-factor. I thought that would be him, if he isn't - just get rid of him as long as people like Boehly are out there paying for reputation.
Good. We need him in the squad for Wembley.
I don't think he has a high reputation though. Makes more sense to keep him for now as I can't imagine there's a lot of clubs who would pay for Antony what we would like to get for him, even taking a loss.
Yeah I get your point but I fear his value might decresase even more, just like VDBs. Never a fan of this huge outlay for him, could have looked at Raphinha a little earlier or Olise for smaller bucks. Lets hope Antony can turn it around - he is undeniably talented and his attitude towards contributing seems fine as well. Hopefully that will be enough.
I can understand criticizing Antony in terms of his end product or 1v1 dribbling ability but I found it strange when it comes to carries - it's ability in which he is closest to the European elite group and we obviously missed him and his ability to bring the play to the final third in some matches.
Apart from carriers into the penalty area, which I think is not surprisingly low given that he is instructed to stay wide rather than to cut inside, he ranks himself pretty high among other elite wingers in the top 5 leagues.
His price tag is something that doesn't go in his favor when we all judge him, but I see three things that heavily influenced the price we paid for him: an already inflated market, a lack of real alternatives on the market and pretty bad timing to make a transfer at the end of the window.
He's still a young player in his first season and he is already playing a big part in our setup, he is far from a flop - give him a little bit of support and trust.
Indeed. Looking at his profile, he seems more of a midfielder than an attacker tbh. Can understand why Ten Hag wanted a player like him. Still can't understand why we paid so much for him but that's too soon to assess.I can understand criticizing Antony in terms of his end product or 1v1 dribbling ability but I found it strange when it comes to carries - it's ability in which he is closest to the European elite group and we obviously missed him and his ability to bring the play to the final third in some matches.
Apart from carriers into the penalty area, which I think is not surprisingly low given that he is instructed to stay wide rather than to cut inside, he ranks himself pretty high among other elite wingers in the top 5 leagues.
His price tag is something that doesn't go in his favor when we all judge him, but I see three things that heavily influenced the price we paid for him: an already inflated market, a lack of real alternatives on the market and pretty bad timing to make a transfer at the end of the window.
He's still a young player in his first season and he is already playing a big part in our setup, he is far from a flop - give him a little bit of support and trust.
Did Phil Jones got to him too? What's with us and sicknotes. We seemed to attract these types of players. Hopefully this is just a blip and not a sign of things to come.
Yes, he is more like a wide midfielder or even a wide playmaker if he improves his final ball. Price was very influenced by factors I mentioned before, Raphinha was already moved to Barca and the only viable option would be Olise. We should move way before, at the start of the window and I think there would be less talk about him.
I can understand criticizing Antony in terms of his end product or 1v1 dribbling ability but I found it strange when it comes to carries - it's ability in which he is closest to the European elite group and we obviously missed him and his ability to bring the play to the final third in some matches.
Apart from carriers into the penalty area, which I think is not surprisingly low given that he is instructed to stay wide rather than to cut inside, he ranks himself pretty high among other elite wingers in the top 5 leagues.
His price tag is something that doesn't go in his favor when we all judge him, but I see three things that heavily influenced the price we paid for him: an already inflated market, a lack of real alternatives on the market and pretty bad timing to make a transfer at the end of the window.
He's still a young player in his first season and he is already playing a big part in our setup, he is far from a flop - give him a little bit of support and trust.
It’s interesting actually. Because he doesn’t beat players with dribbling or pace whenever he does carry the ball he tends to bring our whole team with him. Which helps us pin the opposition back. I’d love to see a graphic of our average team positions with/without him. It feels as though his ability to repeatedly carry the ball deep into the opposition half is a key factor in all our most dominant performances.
If I understand this correctly, we were after him from the start. It's just Ajax refused to sell for the market value because we already got Martinez from them, and they lost some other players.
We were completely desperate when we got him I think. That price has nothing to do with his value, and that's hardly his fault.
Dafuq is up with Antony? We got another Martial on our hands?
TL; DR; He cost a lot but he has realistic scope for improvement while he is already very important to the team and we miss him. He's part of our best XI at the moment.
We might have overpaid for the lad and he might not be reaching the heights anticipated but he is still a very important player for us and there's obvious room from improvement as he gets further acclimatised to the team and league.
When I think of Antony the following very positive traits really stand out:
At the moment his biggest threat in terms of his place in starting XI is coming from Bruno directly and indirectly from Sancho and Martial. Bruno seems to be able to be as creative on the right as he is on the centre, based on his games for club and country, while also working very hard for the team. That opens the options of either deploying a hard worker like Weghorst or Fred as 3rd midfielders or a putting a creative player like Sancho at #10 instead. The former choice adds more steel to the team when we need to close games, while the latter gives more creativity when we press for a goal. Sancho has more goals and assists than Antony from fewer minutes of football. He clearly and visibly links up better with his teammates than Antony does.
However Sancho is not a better right winger and cannot displace a fit Antony on the right. Sancho's place in the starting XI will be either on left or the centre. Also deploying Sancho centrally and Bruno on the right, pretty much means that Rashford has to be on the left because Garnacho is not ready for regular starts. He lacks the tactical nous. Which then means we need a good striker upfront and so far Weghorst has not proven capable enough of that. If Martial was fit and firing on all cylinders, you could argue that him with Rashford, Sancho and Bruno behind him is the most potent attack we have. But since Martial isn't ever fit, our best attacking team is probably with Rashford upfront, Sancho left, Bruno middle and Antony right.
We might have overpaid for the lad and he might not be reaching the heights anticipated but he is still a very important player for us and there's obvious room from improvement as he gets further acclimatised to the team and league.
When I think of Antony the following very positive traits really stand out:
- Tactically good, he keeps the width on the right excellently and stretches the pitch
- Runs with and carries the ball deep into opposition half, driving the team and relieving pressure
- Works hard defensively, pressing for the ball and protecting his right back
- Is a threat when cutting inside due to his curling shots
- Not quite fast, strong or tricky enough to beat his marker more frequently on the wing
- His crossing ability is quite suspect at the moment
- He's been lacking the final pass (still at 0 assists for the season)
- Shoots a bit indiscriminately
At the moment his biggest threat in terms of his place in starting XI is coming from Bruno directly and indirectly from Sancho and Martial. Bruno seems to be able to be as creative on the right as he is on the centre, based on his games for club and country, while also working very hard for the team. That opens the options of either deploying a hard worker like Weghorst or Fred as 3rd midfielders or a putting a creative player like Sancho at #10 instead. The former choice adds more steel to the team when we need to close games, while the latter gives more creativity when we press for a goal. Sancho has more goals and assists than Antony from fewer minutes of football. He clearly and visibly links up better with his teammates than Antony does.
However Sancho is not a better right winger and cannot displace a fit Antony on the right. Sancho's place in the starting XI will be either on left or the centre. Also deploying Sancho centrally and Bruno on the right, pretty much means that Rashford has to be on the left because Garnacho is not ready for regular starts. He lacks the tactical nous. Which then means we need a good striker upfront and so far Weghorst has not proven capable enough of that. If Martial was fit and firing on all cylinders, you could argue that him with Rashford, Sancho and Bruno behind him is the most potent attack we have. But since Martial isn't ever fit, our best attacking team is probably with Rashford upfront, Sancho left, Bruno middle and Antony right.
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Preach It, Father!
Perfect post. I highlighted the bits which I find particularly spot on.
People keep saying "Antony just needs to improve on his right foot" like that ever happened. His whole career he's been playing with his left foot only, you can see it by the way he moves, his position on the ball etc. He is not going to significantly improve on his weak foot, forget it. He is not going to be faster (that is actually a pretty bad combination for a winger). But he has other strengths which make him a good option for RW.
He needs to do much more in terms of creating chances, start crossing, passing, just needs to figure it out. Then I think he will be good. Right now, I do have some reservations but I value his contributions which you nicely explained.
Bruno on the right and Sancho in the center is the biggest danger for Antony. Sancho I don't think will be playing RW often.
Not pictured in any training photos today, very slim chance of him making the Barca game and final I'd say.
What's the impact of his carries if he can't beat a man? Players that score high in that catergory like Grealish, Saka and a few others move vertically and actually go past players. Antony runs into open space and just turns back so its a bit pointless. Yes he keeps possession but his carries lack substance.
Bruno on the right has looked better than Antony has at any point this season. Hard to say he's missed other than from a rotation basis as I think we look more toothless with him on the pitch especially if Wout is also playing.
Bruno on the right has looked better than Antony has at any point this season. Hard to say he's missed other than from a rotation basis as I think we look more toothless with him on the pitch especially if Wout is also playing.
I have to agree. As a person who ridiculed the idea of playing Bruno on the right wing, I believe he was excellent there recently. Bruno is a suspect often at the start of the game, but the level of performance on RW last game was amazing.
Counter attack? Long ball or a good cross.
Position play? Quick dribble and a cross with either left or right foot.
Fantastic work rate.
Also, playing on right wing gives him more opportunities to cross rather than shoot, which is good.
I don't expect Bruno to keep playing on RW on this level, but if he does, he's undroppable. Antony would need to go 2 levels up to compete for RW spot.
Regarding Antony injuries, it's weird that he looks fine on the pitch and then is unavailable for a few weeks. ETH doesn't seem to know what is happening with him either, or doesn't tell.
Carrying the ball relieves pressure and moves the team up the pitch. I think we can all agree that the ball being on the opponents' final 3rd as opposed to ours, can only lead to more goals for us and less goals against us. It's quite an important thing when it's difficult for us to pass our way out and through the opposition. It's not meaningless if it doesn't lead in a goal or assist, I can't agree with that.
That said I'm not going to argue that Antony is anywhere near as impactful as Saka this season. Of course not and of course we'd like to see a lot more end product from him, even if he doesn't reach Saka levels. But I will remind you that last season a 26yo Grealish (whom you mention) really struggled to have any impact on the City team, aside from carrying the ball and providing an odd goal here and there. He didn't do any better than what Antony has done this season, despite being older, more experienced in the EPL and costing significantly more.
Basically, some patience and tempering of the expectations created by the fee might be required.
EDIT: I do agree Bruno has looked good on the right and that with Antony and Weghorst both on the pitch we might be lacking penetration. But the latter is not a big concern. They haven't even played together yet so it's only speculation at this point. But even so Weghorst is only on loan, has not really convinced and Antony coming back is more likely to limit his appearances than lead to them playing together.
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i think we will see an improved verion of him, soon.
Here are graphics showing our average positions in recent matches with and without Antony, so we can conclude that our shape is much narrower without him, which is not a surprise given that Bruno was mostly his replacement. We were also slightly deeper on the opponent's half with Antony and we were taking a wider shape.
The only real anomaly is the game versus Reading, where we were quite narrow with Antony on the field and it is a game where we all mostly agreed he showed positive signs making a beautiful assist for Casemiro and he could score himself on one or two occasions.
We can all agree that Bruno currently offers more from the right side, but I would love to see Bruno back at #10 because he is simply better than Weghorst. Basically, if I have to choose between Weghorst + Bruno or Antony + Bruno I would choose the latter.
Also, it's quite interesting that someone mentioned his "meaningless" carries and Grealish in the same sentence, do you remember Pep facing critique last year about Grealish and he replied that he didn't sign him for goals and assists ? I think we can all search for an answer in that premise.
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But Grealish is TOP player in terms of carrying the ball into penalty area (99 percentile, 3,48 vs 3,53 as the highest registered). Antony is 41 percentile. That might be because of instructions, but they are very different players. It's like comparing winger to a midfielder.
I was wondering recently why Antony doesn't win many fouls, but that's quite easy to explain after all.
My whole point with Pep's quote was that ability to carry a ball into the opponent's half and to "eat ground" is somehow a criminally underrated trait but very much an essential tool for every team.
There was no intention to compare those two players as you said correctly, they are very different players.
I think hes a piece that will become more applicable when other pieces are added. I think Sancho is the same and I expect more type of goals like Sancho's this week from both, than just being reliant on Rashfords pace....
Indeed. That's a good catch (Pep quotes).
We didn't have a natural ball carrier in the squad so kind of can understand why ETH wanted Antony so bad.
Get fit you pleb.
No he's not. I'd want us to keep the attack with whatever we started vs Barca. I think that's the most balance and best for the team.
Agree with all of this
*on the right*
Yeah, RW is just a graveyard. Look at today's games, huge gulf in quality between Kvara-Lozano and Vinicus-Rodrygo. I think it gets obscured in the Prem a bit by Salah and Saka being good, but there are probably 20 guys you'd be okay as first choice RW for us in the whole world (about 10-12 actual RWs, then sure Bruno, Griezmann De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Musiala, Kvara, Diaz and Chiesa would do well there in an assymetrical 4-4-2 like we've been playing lately with Bruno out right, but they'd do better at their actual positions). At LW it's probably double that with promising options like Mudryk, Adeyemi, Fati and guys like that probably emerging as stars in the next couple years.
There's top class RW options, but the 2nd tier types like Raheem Sterling, Rodrygo and Son just don't exist in the same number on the right.
It's why Arsenal, whose business lately has been sharp, went for Trossard. Better to just get a solid 3rd tier type LW in to backup Martinelli and spend the big money elsewhere, they're not going to actually get someone better than Martinelli there if he develops as expected in his mid 20s and hits his peak.
Obviously entitled to your opinion, but wanting Weghorst in the starting XI over Antony is sheer madness to me. We still need to score and win.
When fit, ETH clearly trusts him, so that's enough for me.
Looks like he's fit enough to be involved with Barca.
Lets hope he can stay clear of injury now, we need him.
Lets hope he can stay clear of injury now, we need him.
This really.
The manager trusts him. He has played well enough for us without being outstanding. I think we do lack attacking options who can rotate in and out. So it will be good to have him as an option to probably rotate with Sancho.
Would be great to see a front 3 of Rashford Sancho and Antony at some point. I think that would be quite a lot of fun!
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