Maybe some stuff also happening off the pitch ?
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I thought he did a bit better yesterday first half, but still no signs of something that justifies the price.
The frustrating thing is if we had got e.g. Gakpo for half of it we would have enough left for a decent striker. Now we are left with Antony and Wout and no more money.
The frustrating thing is if we had got e.g. Gakpo for half of it we would have enough left for a decent striker. Now we are left with Antony and Wout and no more money.
Yet another one footed player, at least the previous one was bulk and speedy.
Maybe not now but in his first 10 or so games his close control and low centre of gravity were clear to see. He'd wriggle out of tight spaces like technical gifted players do. Instead of growing from that he's sadly shrunk.
Raphinha was starting ahead of him for Brazil and no one else was really in for him. £50 - 60M was his fair price but we already knew that.
Yeah I actually had exactly the same feeling on Depay. Most of his clips he was running with ball into space. He simply didn't get many chances to do it in England.
Is that the case though? I expect him to get in sync with the team with time, and make better decisions. But should we really expect Antony to learn how to use his weaker foot, to get faster? He isn't in bad shape, he is just slow and weak.
Antony isn't a junior player, he's been playing football on this level for a few years. The biggest worry is this is his final form.
I don't know where the optimism comes from when it comes to players who have clear and obvious limitations.
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Yeah starting to worry. Keeps the ball well and everything but barely shows anything on the attacking side. Extremely disappointed, I thought he was gonna get to the next level.
Antony lack of pace? He is rather quick as he showed times and times. The problem is he is one dimensional, out of sync with the team and not direct enough. Garnacho clearly in better form and should start
There was a counter attack in the 2nd half which baffled me.
He's running shoulder to shoulder with the Palace defender for a through ball, no other players in close proximity, Palace with a high line cause they were piling the pressure. If he beats the defender in the race, he is in a very dangerous position which could get us a goal with some quick passing and link up with Bruno/Rashford.
He beats the Palace defender for pace, gets to the ball first, you think this is it, he's gonna keep going past him and then..... he stops running and stops the ball right where it is.
He's running shoulder to shoulder with the Palace defender for a through ball, no other players in close proximity, Palace with a high line cause they were piling the pressure. If he beats the defender in the race, he is in a very dangerous position which could get us a goal with some quick passing and link up with Bruno/Rashford.
He beats the Palace defender for pace, gets to the ball first, you think this is it, he's gonna keep going past him and then..... he stops running and stops the ball right where it is.
Not much point whinging about him now....we are stuck with him.
He will come good. Trust the coach.
Nah. It's just in the heat of the battle, Bruno said something to him, Antony reacted and they settled it 3 minutes later.
He had one good run after we had a corner, so he proved he can outrun and outmuscle opponents. I wish he would use this more, instead of playing safely all the time. His ball control and passing is good but he should definitely take more risks. I dont think its time to make conclusions on the whole on him like some are doing but at the moment he should do a lot, lot better.
I have full confidence ETH will coach him into a better player look at AWB for example
I was not intending to blow the situation out of proportion. Just that the dynamics between the players off the pitch is something we know nothing about. Even if they settled it like you said (it was after the goal), it doesn't mean it can't happen again
It happens every game.
Hell it even happens in 5 a side games. We give each other so much shit then laugh about it after the game.
Neymar and Jordi Alba had a game where they were killing each other with shit talk for each others' respective performances, doesn't mean there was problems outside the pitch.
Of course it can but I trust ETH to deal with this. You know Bruno, he waives a lot and Antony didnt like it maybe.
Haha yes, people are usually at their worst while playing football, the stuff which is being said isnt something you'd say in a street or to a friend never. After the game finishes we're all having a beer laughing.
Going by some of the stuff I say, I might owe them more than 1 beer...
Anyways, I'm sure there's nothing in it, just two competitive players trying to win a game and having a disagreement as to how it should be played. Nothing to see here.
When I was in school only fights we had were while playing football.
He has just started coaching AWB...he has had Antony for quite a while now.
It's not all that black and white. He had him in Ajax, now he's in a different system and in a different, a lot harder league. So the fact he isnt playing how he should be doesnt mean ETH cant make him better.
He represents all that is wrong with the modern game: overhyped, overrated, overpriced (valued). I said some time ago that he is nothing but an average player. He would not improve any, any other team in the Premiership. Think about that, and he is our first choice attacker.
He doesn't know how to play in a far more competitive league. Weak, lacks awareness, seems to have no idea how to apply that heavily one-sided dependency he has on his left-foot to disrupt or threaten any defence.
His form is now awful, awful and he needs to be dropped for his own good. Guy is playing crap.
Put Elanga or start Pellistri. They can't do any worst.
This summer is crucial for Manchester United and ETH, because some of these players have to go.
He doesn't know how to play in a far more competitive league. Weak, lacks awareness, seems to have no idea how to apply that heavily one-sided dependency he has on his left-foot to disrupt or threaten any defence.
His form is now awful, awful and he needs to be dropped for his own good. Guy is playing crap.
Put Elanga or start Pellistri. They can't do any worst.
This summer is crucial for Manchester United and ETH, because some of these players have to go.
He needs to go to a AWB/Sancho resort. He’s hopeless right now.
Sancho is levels above Antony. In everything.
Only thing because of which i think that Antony will become good is ETH. He knows him and knows what Antony can do.
We will see if Erik perseveres with him then because I am sure he is not asking Antony to slow down the counter attacks or to keep playing it safe all the time.
Of course. I'm sure he sees the same things and is or will work with him on it.
If a player, at 22 years old, is totally incapable of using their weaker foot, that seems more like a psychological thing rather than a coaching thing. Almost like the opposite of phantom limb syndrome where he thinks he’s had his right leg amputated.
It’s a serious weakness in his game and makes him one-dimensional and very easy to defend against. I’ve never seen a top level player be so one-footed.
Speaking of the spin, I can't believe I've missed the entire discussion on Martinelli receiving the ball with his back when he could've just taken it down on his chest. Because surely there must've been a big discussion in the media on showing respect to your opponents, right?Not even this??
100m well spent.
Even if he's very timid in terms of attacking his opponent, which I'm sure EtH will have him work on, his ability to keep the ball is very valuable to us in our build-up. Everyone talks about the striker needing to link play up and hold the ball up, and a lack of one severely limits us as a team, but Antony does the same thing for us on the wing and allows the team to take up more attacking positions while being very good at not being tackled, losing the ball and exposing us to counter-attacks.
Compare this to Bruno and see how we were put under pressure once he went out to the right wing. Every out ball of ours became a chance for him to try a neat little flick, resulting in him inevitably losing the ball and exposing us to counter-attacks whenever AWB had pushed up (as he is encouraged to do). It also led to us losing Casemiro because Bruno tried to do a little tippy-tappy outside of the boot lay-off instead of receiving the ball and waiting for support.
Late edit: People keep saying that we lost control once Weghorst went off, but Weghorst wasn't involved very much in the game. Antony went off at the same time and his spot on the wing was taken by Bruno who kept giving the ball away, further putting us under pressure. It's frustrating that people can't see this aspect because they're unable to look beyond his reluctance (or inability, perhaps) to drive at his man and play like Giggs when he broke through, as if there's only one aspect to a player and his role in the team that is of importance.
Compare this to Bruno and see how we were put under pressure once he went out to the right wing. Every out ball of ours became a chance for him to try a neat little flick, resulting in him inevitably losing the ball and exposing us to counter-attacks whenever AWB had pushed up (as he is encouraged to do). It also led to us losing Casemiro because Bruno tried to do a little tippy-tappy outside of the boot lay-off instead of receiving the ball and waiting for support.
Late edit: People keep saying that we lost control once Weghorst went off, but Weghorst wasn't involved very much in the game. Antony went off at the same time and his spot on the wing was taken by Bruno who kept giving the ball away, further putting us under pressure. It's frustrating that people can't see this aspect because they're unable to look beyond his reluctance (or inability, perhaps) to drive at his man and play like Giggs when he broke through, as if there's only one aspect to a player and his role in the team that is of importance.
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Yeah sky did a big piece on it and it was all over twitter.
He's being hung, drawn and quartered for it tomorrow.
I wasn’t in the room when it happened but my son tells me he tried to beat his fullback on the outside last night, eventually winning a corner? If so, I’m calling that progress.
Ahh, good. Then it's probably me that missed all the outrage then!
I may have said he was rapid, and I may not think so anymore. He doesn't have that extra top gear that some players have, but he's far from slow. In that run against the defender, he showed more speed than Rashford did in a similar run on the other side. I think the defender was just fast. My concern with Antony is that he's quite poor at using his pace. Firstly, he always goes wide, which of course forces him to run farther than his defender who can easily tuck inside and follow him. Secondly, he either goes full sprint or full stop. Instead, he should try and put the defender on the wrong footing and then accelerate. Even the fastest of players won't get many yards off a decently fast defender both going at top speed. You need to think quicker as well.
Agree on City though - it's an element they are truly lacking. Too many similar playmaking players that are brilliant in their own right, but they need that dimension as well.
He did, and whatever people say he did show a pretty decent turn of pace as well. Their defender was just fast and athletic, and even Rashford failed to get away from him.
His head is not in the right place right now. He genuinely looks frustrated, probably because the things that used to work for him at Ajax don't have the desired effect in England thus far. I'm sure that's something he and ETH will work out together.
Having pace counts to very little when the defenders almost always expect you to turn around and use your preferred foot. You are just not afforded the time on the ball to do that. He understands this, and it showed in the chance he missed in the first half when he read the situation well and had all the time in the world to hit the net, but he rushed his lob.
As things stand, he and AWB aren't a good match on the right side (but this can be worked on in training). Dalot is more than willing to play on the underlap and open up the pocket of space in the half-space for Antony to cut inside. More importantly, Dalot times this run well when we switch play over to that side. AWB doesn't offer that option much (or in a manner that's effective). And when Bruno comes to that side of the pitch, he often tends to occupy that exact pocket of space, leaving Antony with two options he doesn't really fancy: To either run down the line or go backwards. It's something that can be fixed at Carrington through exercise.
Having pace counts to very little when the defenders almost always expect you to turn around and use your preferred foot. You are just not afforded the time on the ball to do that. He understands this, and it showed in the chance he missed in the first half when he read the situation well and had all the time in the world to hit the net, but he rushed his lob.
As things stand, he and AWB aren't a good match on the right side (but this can be worked on in training). Dalot is more than willing to play on the underlap and open up the pocket of space in the half-space for Antony to cut inside. More importantly, Dalot times this run well when we switch play over to that side. AWB doesn't offer that option much (or in a manner that's effective). And when Bruno comes to that side of the pitch, he often tends to occupy that exact pocket of space, leaving Antony with two options he doesn't really fancy: To either run down the line or go backwards. It's something that can be fixed at Carrington through exercise.
But for real, a guy who had very mediocre stats in the Eredivisie, did we expect anything other than this? I recall the discussions here before the transfer was a done deal, and literally 95 percent of the people who followed the Dutch league closely had no idea why we even considered buying him, letting alone for the price tag.
I have absolutely no clue why we put this amount of money on the table for a player that didn't even dominate in the best team in the Dutch league. Like, what is your logic, he was OK against RKC and Volendam, pretty sure he'll nail it against top-tier PL teams. I have only but respect for Ten Hag's reign so far, but this is not his best move so far, to put it mildly.
I have absolutely no clue why we put this amount of money on the table for a player that didn't even dominate in the best team in the Dutch league. Like, what is your logic, he was OK against RKC and Volendam, pretty sure he'll nail it against top-tier PL teams. I have only but respect for Ten Hag's reign so far, but this is not his best move so far, to put it mildly.
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The caf and myself included have given the player slack in abundance. With that price tag we should be seeing a lot more. Bruno gave him a rolocking last night which triggered what looked like a nasty confrontation between the two. He's starting to look under pressure now when he gets the ball. Playing the easy pass instead of creating. So I'm worried!
There you posit a hypothetical as a fact and deduce a false conclusion from it. I agree he's performed far below what his overpriced value might suggest and I do worry he's a one dimensional player in possession, but I suspect he'd improve a number of teams.
He wasn't bad. Still our best outlet on the right. Not as good as I hoped he would be but well... Still time to improve
This was the signing that we made using money that we borrowed from the upcoming summers budget.
So this better come true, because outside investment isn't going to help us with that. We'll fall foul to the new FFP rules
So this better come true, because outside investment isn't going to help us with that. We'll fall foul to the new FFP rules
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