[Syphon Wallet]

How did we pay so much for someone so limited.
He has his moments but he's not up to the grade.
Not sure about ten hags judgement on players, perhaps he underestimated the step up to the prem for players.

 

[Solius]

Eh? I don’t understand. Do you think he’s been a good signing?

I think he’s been mixed. Not amazing. Not awful. But there is something there imo. I’m not fussed about the money. The reasons were the reasons and we’d have been absolutely fecked without that right side balance this season with the way Sancho has regressed.

He’s only 22. Players develop at different rates and I’m happy to give them a season to settle.

 

[Matt851]

He just isn't very good despite what his fan club on here seem to think

 

[mu4c_20le]

Someone jokingly called him the Brazilian Chris Eagles, but when he's not on it, I can kind of see it. Even if he came through the academy for free he'd be criticized, and his ceiling rightfully questioned.

 

[ScholesyTheWise]

I think he’s been mixed. Not amazing. Not awful. But there is something there imo. I’m not fussed about the money. The reasons were the reasons and we’d have been absolutely fecked without that right side balance this season with the way Sancho has regressed.

He’s only 22. Players develop at different rates and I’m happy to give them a season to settle.

Spending 80m on a player who doesn't look like he's worth 30m (atm) is an issue.
We don't have the cash to just burn into thin air.

We're gonna have to start being much better with our marquee signings.

 

[Solius]

Spending 80m on a player who doesn't look like he's worth 30m (atm) is an issue.
We don't have the cash to just burn into thin air.

We're gonna have to start being much better with our marquee signings.

I’ll judge that in a couple years and not in his first season.

 

[M Bison]

The caf experts writing him off, probably the same crowd that voted yes in the sell Rashford vs new contract thread.

He’ll be an asset imo, far too soon to write him off imo.

 

[darko1963]

Criticism has been over the top for Antony. He's not set the world alight, and has been inconsistent, but he absolutely works his bollocks off and has shown enough ability to demonstrate why he was bought. Not to mention he seems to have the right kind of mentality and attitude.

No one is a guarantee, but I'm expecting him to put in a 7 or 8 out of 10 next season.

I wish Antony I'm watching is good as the Antony you're watching.

 

[Garethw]

I think he’s been mixed. Not amazing. Not awful. But there is something there imo. I’m not fussed about the money. The reasons were the reasons and we’d have been absolutely fecked without that right side balance this season with the way Sancho has regressed.

He’s only 22. Players develop at different rates and I’m happy to give them a season to settle.

We definitely look better balanced when he plays.

Hopefully he’ll hit the ground running next season as there is a very good player there potentially.

 

[Mindhunter]

He can keep the ball in tight spots and can show some aggression and has a great engine. But apart from that, I just don't see the hype. He seems like a mediocre player to me who is severely restricted by being one-footed. Even when he is through on goal, he doesn't have the skills to either pass it or take the shot without moving to his left foot by which time the defense is back and has organized itself.

It is frustrating to see all our attacks from the right break down because of this limitation. He did try to mix it up today by trying a right footed shot but it didn't even hit the target.

I am going out on a limb here and declaring that he doesn't have a future here. I just don't see it.

 

[Carl]

I wish Antony I'm watching is good as the Antony you're watching.

Cool.

 

[ScholesyTheWise]

I’ll judge that in a couple years and not in his first season.

Do we have the luxury to expect such an expensive player to only show his true form/ceiling in a couple of seasons' time?

 

[Solius]

Do we have the luxury to expect such an expensive player to only show his true form/ceiling in a couple of seasons' time?

I guess we’ll see. Top 4 and a trophy was the aim this season and we’ve done that.

 

[bosnian_red]

I guess we’ll see. Top 4 and a trophy was the aim this season and we’ve done that.

A point all these posts about how "player a/b/c" costed us this season, or Ten Hag's decisions to use weghorst costed us, casemiro's red costed us, or whatever else seems to miss... is that we've actually achieved our objectives, so by definition then none of these factors have costed us at all.

 

[Member 109952]

He's not bad he's not great but the truth is if we want to challenge for the CL or the PL we will need someone who contributes way more. Recent PL winning teams of challenging teams have had Mahrez (+ Bernardo + Foden), Saka, or Salah, Mahrez at Leceister playing there - all top wide RWs or players that contribute. You cannot carry average players in actual challenges.

It's a necessity in the modern game - Barca have two, the fact Real don't have a RW is a big reason why they so often look toothless. Very few people want us to sign another RW but the hard truth is a striker alone won't make us good enough - we will need to address the RW spot too.

 

[ScholesyTheWise]

I guess we’ll see. Top 4 and a trophy was the aim this season and we’ve done that.

Yes, and it's not like he had zero contribution to it and is the worst footballer ever.
but his contribution was and is very underwhelming for many of us.

The price we paid for him is not his fault but it's not a sum you pay for someone who needs a lot of time to bed in.
We would totally laugh at Man City if Grealish or Haaland needed until 2025 to look like great footballers.

Antony was expected to be a very very reliable option that'll fix something in our attack that was lacking for years;
He doesn't do that (and it's not helping him that most of the other attacking players we have are sub-par in their own ways).

Credit to him for balancing our play,
But if you have a right winger that that's his forte,
You ask a hell of a lot from your left winger, striker, and attacking midfielder if you play with one.

I don't like the look of such an attack, even if we don't go into names.

 

[Solius]

Yes, and it's not like he had zero contribution to it and is the worst footballer ever.
but his contribution was and is very underwhelming for many of us.

The price we paid for him is not his fault but it's not a sum you pay for someone who needs a lot of time to bed in.
We would totally laugh at Man City if Grealish or Haaland needed until 2025 to look like great footballers.

Antony was expected to be a very very reliable option that'll fix something in our attack that was lacking for years;
He doesn't do that (and it's not helping him that most of the other attacking players we have are sub-par in their own ways).

Credit to him for balancing our play,
But if you have a right winger that that's his forte,
You ask a hell of a lot from your left winger, striker, and attacking midfielder if you play with one.

I don't like the look of such an attack, even if we don't go into names.

Grealish literally took a season to get going and he came from the same league.

 

[Red in STL]

I wish Antony I'm watching is good as the Antony you're watching.

That is a fair and balanced opinion and I agree, he's been inconsistent and not what I was expecting offensively, but he's been very good defensively, mush better than I was expecting, and he works his socks off unlike a certain other winger

 

[skc_18]

Our attacking for what ever reason is still based on counter-attack rather than building up/holding the ball like City or Liverpool. For that we need our wingers to be fast paced. We have Rashford who does that and gets goal.Greenwood used to be similar on other end. Antony seems to be different kind of player so not sure what is the plan from Eth on our playing style , may be we will know in a couple of seasons.

The miss from Wout's through-ball is too bad IMO. Rashford/Greenwood/Garnacho would have atleast have a shot at the goal. Antony was through and had lot of space and time to test the keeper but could not. I see resemblance of Antony's playing style in counter-attacks with that of Martial(last two seasons , Martial in his earlier seasons had great pace)/Sancho where we missed the extra yard of pace to beat the defenders.

 

[Amar__]

I actually think he is playing quite well considering his talent. The problem is that some people are seriously overrating his talent. His problems are:

1. Lack of assists/creativity - he is simply not creative enough to massively improve on this. His crossing is shite, and he is playing on the right so I doubt we will exploit it anyway, and his passing forward is really shite(he simply doesn't see the space in front of him, and his weight of forward passes doesn't seem great either), so it's really difficult to see how he will improve his creativity. He also doesn't use his striker, AT ALL!

2. Scoring - using his right foot more means feck all when his left foot isn't that special either. To be a good goalscorer in PL you need to have good shot on you and have the body balance and power to shot in crucial moment(something that all best PL forwards have), and he simply doesn't have that in him. He can become good goalscorer in the sense Sterling was - with good movement and once we start creating 3 clear chances for him per game means he will eventually start scoring, but once our chances dries he will stop scoring again. But to be fair we have created a lot for him this year and he still hasn't started scoring, so that's a concern too.

I think he’s been mixed. Not amazing. Not awful. But there is something there imo. I’m not fussed about the money. The reasons were the reasons and we’d have been absolutely fecked without that right side balance this season with the way Sancho has regressed.

He’s only 22. Players develop at different rates and I’m happy to give them a season to settle.

What do you think would happen if we signed someone like Haaland and didn't spend our all available transfer money on him? Or if we actually had money for a striker in January instead of peanuts for someone like Wout? You don't think we would be much better team?

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

He got the ball in dangerous areas so many times in that 2nd half and it always amounted to nothing.

Very frustrating player to watch.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Casemiro has more goals and assists then him... Which is nuts.

 

[Fabio Rochemback]

His unwillingless to use his right foot is absurd at this point. Never seen an EPL player like that, even Valencia was nowhere near as one-footed

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I’ve often defended and praised him but yesterday was unacceptable. Constantly missing simple passes and messing up great chances. Needs a dressing down for that display and be forced to work on his passing range. Unless he’s paying a short pass inside or pass to the underlapping fullback he doesn’t know what to do - how to switch it, how to cross, how to use his right, how to execute penetrative passes etc He’s had some good displays and his off the ball work is superb but needs to show more next season.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Having spent nearly 200m on right wingers, I am done with big money buys in that position.

Maybe let’s try out Diallo next season. I think he has a good chance to make it here.

Diallo - skills/ball control in final third, some goals

Antony - work rate, some goals, some progressive run from own half

Sancho - some build up play in safe zone

 

[DRJosh]

I think Antony will become a real powerhouse despite the glaring shortcomings. This is his first season and I've followed football long enough to know that players can evolve quite drastically from their first season

 

[Freak]

He’s useless. Doesn’t try to beat his man. Wastes countless opportunities. Refuses to go onto his right foot. Wtf does he do other than work hard?

 

[tenpoless]

Its funny how we have 3 Ant(h)onies in the team and none of them is good enough at the moment. What are the odds on that

 

[croadyman]

He needs to feel some pressure for his place,maybe that will push him to beat players more and use that right foot (nah)

 

[Jev]

You can't think that, apparently. He's young, needs time and is an excellent ball-progressor, I've been told.

He's also really good at the incredibly difficult skill of standing still on his touchline. You'd think it would be an advantage for an attacking player to move around and make attacking runs, but no, no, no, this way he's intelligently stretching play.

 

[Andersonson]

Brazilian Chris Eagles!

 

[Biggins]

His unwillingless to use his right foot is absurd at this point. Never seen an EPL player like that, even Valencia was nowhere near as one-footed

Valencia was that one footed…

ETH couldn’t get all the transfers right.

Licha, Cas and Eriksen were great /superb buys.

Malacia and Antony are ok transfers but so far nothing special.

 

[Sultan]

I think he has a chance to succeed. Unlike, Sancho he has a personality and a willingness to fight for the cause. Just too early to write him off. Salah at Chelsea would be a good comparison of what can happen if players are written off too early.

 

[Judas]

He's done ok this season, but he's got a lot of work to do if he's ever to be the player we need him to be if we want to challenge for the league. He's young, so its foolish to write him off, but simple things for a professional football like using his unfavoured foot is painful to watch and makes for so many wasted chances. I can't truly remember a more predictable attacker playing for us.

There's plenty of positives, the positions he finds himself in and his clear desire, but there's a lot that needs to be harnessed and improved.

 

[Nou_Camp99]

Antony has been incredibly disappointing but he gets a second season for sure.

Sancho on the other hand .....time is up. There's no improvement and that 3 month holiday for him seems to have done little.

 

[Donut]

I hope he has enough drive and self awareness to spend the entire summer working on his right foot. I’m quite certain he has the drive, not too sure about the other thing, and he seems the kind of guy that would tell the coaches to f*** off if they pointed it out to him.

 

[M Bison]

Ineffective, i'm still on the side of he'll come good and will be a good player for us next season however. Is another one where it would be good to take him out of the side for a few weeks to freshen up but we don't have the personnel for it.

 

[Oly Francis]

Valencia was that one footed…

ETH couldn’t get all the transfers right.

Licha, Cas and Eriksen were great /superb buys.

Malacia and Antony are ok transfers but so far nothing special.

Yeah, we can definitely thank ETH for discovering Casemiro et Eriksen.

 

[roonster09]

Yeah, we can definitely thank ETH for discovering Casemiro et Eriksen.

WTF are you on about?

I hope that post wasn't too difficult to understand. Can always take chapgpt help.

 

[lex talionis]

Antony was clean through but just slightly right of center and he couldn’t resist the temptation to slow down to shape to his left. Glorious chance botched without a shot.