[NZT-One]

Playing with inverted wingers making us look worse. It's all well and good doing it if you have top fullbacks but we don't.

Don't know what you have seen, but it is as clear as it gets that our wingers are instructed to not only stay wide but also to stay high up the pitch. One of the actual issues is that both Shaw and Dalot are very riskaverse and will do nothing in the half spaces plus Bruno and Fred aren't really playing in the space as they should. Bruno does it to a degree and Fred tries it but is lacking the ability. Doesn't help having Ronaldo up front who isn't bringing as much chaos into the defence as he could/should.

 

[Santoryo]

Can’t take on a man
Can’t cross properly
Decides to play every ball to cr7 despite having better choices

He has to improve a lot

It that why Eddy Howe had to take off his fullback, because he couldn't be taken on by Antony?

Antony had this dude by the balls. His issue wasn't taking on his man since he gave his fullback issues, it was his obsessions with trying to feed everything to Ronaldo which resulted in him ignoring other, often better options to look for him.

 

[Nou_Camp99]

Don't know what you have seen, but it is as clear as it gets that our wingers are instructed to not only stay wide but also to stay high up the pitch. One of the actual issues is that both Shaw and Dalot are very riskaverse and will do nothing in the half spaces plus Bruno and Fred aren't really playing in the space as they should. Bruno does it to a degree and Fred tries it but is lacking the ability. Doesn't help having Ronaldo up front who isn't bringing as much chaos into the defence as he could/should.

Inverted in the sense they have to cut inside on their favourite foot. Every. Single. Time.

 

[JuriM]

Can’t take on a man
Can’t cross properly
Decides to play every ball to cr7 despite having better choices

He has to improve a lot

He literally ripped their defence to shreds and they marked him with 2-3 men. Some of you know really nothing about football.

 

[groovyalbert]

Absolutely love this guy. Even when he's not on his best form, he puts in everything.

Great shot on him, really good at carrying the ball from our half/alleviating pressure for the defence, and doesn't stop running.

Needs to improve his crossing, and perhaps turns back from advanced positions a little too often, but he's a really promising signing.

Not to bash him too much, but it feels like something could always happen with the ball at his feet. Compared to Sancho on the other day, the difference is pretty stark.

 

[Red_Aaron]

I thought his general play and defensively he was very good today

Far too tentative in the final third though, taking the safe option pretty much every time. He doesn't appear to lack confidence so it's odd really, was expecting much more of a risk taker

 

[marktan]

True, but Nani was a huge talent, more talented that Antony I would say though it doesn't mean he will not be better.

Nani for us what Ousmane Dembele is for Barca. Could breeze past people for fun and shoot and pass with either foot. He got overshadowed by the expectations of being the next Cristiano, but many generational players like Rooney, Benzema and Bale failed in that comparison.

Whilst he could be inconsistent Nani was a lot better than people give him credit for. Just look at his performances in Euro 2016, many years after he regularly played for us, he was class for them.

 

[NZT-One]

Inverted in the sense they have to cut inside on their favourite foot. Every. Single. Time.

Ah ok, understand your point. Not sure, if that is what is meant usually when there is mentioning of inverted wingers though. Because from what I know, an inverted winger is a winger who is instructed to go inside while (usually) the fullbacks are going to provide width. That our winger personnel suits that is a given - but it doesn't seem to be the plan of ETH seeing his fullbacks making underlapping runs, not overlapping most of the time.

 

[Andycoleno9]

He finally did what 100 mil winger should do; beating his man over and over. Loved seeing that.
But he blew it with acting like 15y old kid and trying to pass every ball to his idol. Now we have two players who see only Ronaldo on the pitch

 

[Nou_Camp99]

Ah ok, understand your point. Not sure, if that is what is meant usually when there is mentioning of inverted wingers though. Because from what I know, an inverted winger is a winger who is instructed to go inside while (usually) the fullbacks are going to provide width. That our winger personnel suits that is a given - but it doesn't seem to be the plan of ETH seeing his fullbacks making underlapping runs, not overlapping most of the time.

Probably got the terminology wrong. Apologies.

But our wingers are so predictable and it's a huge issue. Antony hasn't got a right foot. Rashford and Sancho haven't got a left foot. They are all very easy to predict.

 

[Josh 76]

He’s so comfortable on the ball. Think he’s still settling in the PL. Will be a great signing. Played well today.

 

[NZT-One]

Probably got the terminology wrong. Apologies.

But our wingers are so predictable and it's a huge issue. Antony hasn't got a right foot. Rashford and Sancho haven't got a left foot. They are all very easy to predict.

Yeah fully agree. I mean, Sancho isn't really a winger, more like a wide playmaker in terms of assisting more than he usually scores. But that side of him has been largely absent in his time with us. Antony on the other hand was lauded to be at least somewhat decent with his right as well, being capable of crossing with good quality... At least that was said about him before he joined. Don't know, maybe his curlers went into his head too much, I agree with with unpredictability. Issue is starting earlier though, I mean, we often are too slow to move the ball up the field, once it reaches Antony, the Penalty Box is usually already packed with players, I wouldn't go for a cross then too.

 

[Oly Francis]

He finally did what 100 mil winger should do; beating his man over and over. Loved seeing that.

Guys, the "full back" on his side was Dan fecking Burn, who's actually a center back and is even considered slow by center back standards, the guy is slower than Maguire. Thanks god he could beat him consistently.

 

[avgp_1]

He literally ripped their defence to shreds

That never happened but he did beat Burn a few times on the turn in the 2nd half but they still had enough bodies to cover.

 

[Nou_Camp99]

He’s so comfortable on the ball. Think he’s still settling in the PL. Will be a great signing. Played well today.

I don't think he played well at all. His final ball was off all game.

Doesn't look much of a creator to me. Looks like he's more of goalscoring wide player so far.

 

[Cutch]

Only seen the second half and thought he looked our most dangerous player. I don't like the positions he chooses to cross from though

 

[RedRonaldo]

His crossing/delivery was bad, but thought he is getting better in carrying the ball and running past defenders.

 

[kaku06]

Antony is fine but we needed someone like Raphinha who is much more physical, trickier, faster, unpredictable and takes on his man more often than not. We have two wingers in Sancho and Antony who don’t/can’t beat their fullbacks. Cost us more than £150m.

 

[Matt851]

Antony is fine but we needed someone like Raphinha who is much more physical, trickier, faster, unpredictable and takes on his man more often than not. We have two wingers in Sancho and Antony who don’t/can’t beat their fullbacks. Cost us more than £150m.

Yep, it would be staggering if it wasn't us

A lot of people seem to be blaming our full backs lack of end product but we did know their limitations prior to signing Antony and the fact we paid so over the odds meant we had no budget for a better right back

 

[Marwood]

He literally ripped their defence to shreds and they marked him with 2-3 men. Some of you know really nothing about football.

It was Dan Burn. If he can't beat him over and over something is badly wrong. An 8ft ,slow as they come, CB playing out of position.

That isn't a criticism, he's shown some good stuff so far.

But we haven't yet seen him give a decent LB a hard game.

 

[IFC 1905]

He literally ripped their defence to shreds and they marked him with 2-3 men. Some of you know really nothing about football.

I guess we watched a different game then. He made a couple nice oriented controls and won a couple races against a CB who was playing LB and is obviously slow. And judging that, he did almost nothing productive. It hurts my eyes watching him doing a couple step overs and passing the ball back to midfield. I don't want him to destroy every single defense, but I want him to try taking on a man. I want him to be a threat and not just a guy you know is gonna stop and cut to the inside or pass the ball backwards. He didn't even used the right back properly a couple times.
It worries me, I'd be less worried if at least he tried, I don't want him to win every duel at all, but he doesn't even try. I think most people do not realize how important it is for our attack to have a winger that could go both sides. I'll leave you a video with his game, made a couple good things of course, He was playing against a CB, but he made so many mistakes, and never ever tried to take on a man since he joined United.

 

[UnitedRepublic]

He is extremly one footed great technical ability though but the one footedness is a problem teams are gonna force him on the outside and that will lead to a loss of the ball or a back pass.

 

[Red-17]

I guess we watched a different game then. He made a couple nice oriented controls and won a couple races against a CB who was playing LB and is obviously slow. And judging that, he did almost nothing productive. It hurts my eyes watching him doing a couple step overs and passing the ball back to midfield. I don't want him to destroy every single defense, but I want him to try taking on a man. I want him to be a threat and not just a guy you know is gonna stop and cut to the inside or pass the ball backwards. He didn't even used the right back properly a couple times.
It worries me, I'd be less worried if at least he tried, I don't want him to win every duel at all, but he doesn't even try. I think most people do not realize how important it is for our attack to have a winger that could go both sides. I'll leave you a video with his game, made a couple good things of course, He was playing against a CB, but he made so many mistakes, and never ever tried to take on a man since he joined United.

How can you watch that video and then make this same statement? What was he supposed to do? Ask Newcastle to sub someone else on to defend him so that he could have take ons that you deem valid? He progressed the ball up the pitch numerous times in that video and if he had a better final ball could have had 2-3 assists. No it wasn't a perfect game, but he was still a big threat and forced their manager to sub off the man marking him which obviously shows he thought he was a big threat. Taking on defenders when there are 2-3 men able to mark you is not being aggressive or daring, it is usually wasteful. I would much rather we implement effective patterns so that when he cuts inside we have a runner over/underlapping so that they cannot just double up on him coming inside.

 

[croadyman]

Pains me to agree with ex scouser Hutchison on Optus today,however he was spot on about saying he should run at Burn on a yellow card.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

People are really harsh on him. I guess it's the price tag.

 

[croadyman]

People are really harsh on him. I guess it's the price tag.

Like I said in above post my frustration is stemming from his lack of confidence to run at the defender down and take me on outside

 

[kaku06]

He literally ripped their defence to shreds and they marked him with 2-3 men. Some of you know really nothing about football.

First, try to learn to not over exaggerate things to the max. It’s basically a lie what you have just said.

 

[Pronewbie]

Expected more ability in taking on his man in dribbles but as a EUR60M player he's done well enough for us. I love that he seems to be relishing the physicality of the league and dishing out some.

 

[pratyush_utd]

People are really harsh on him. I guess it's the price tag.

What else is he supposed to do i dont understand? He has already scored 3 goals in 5 games for us and has been quite decent on the right side

 

[Zlatans Knee]

I think some people in here would rather have Traore who can beat a defender with some ease occasionally but the rest of the time is shite. Antony basically shut down the left hand side of Newcastle’s attack by keeping them preoccupied. Yes he can still improve his final ball but give the guy a break, I am fairly certain that he is following ETH’s instructions to the letter and he is doing just fine.

 

[Bebestation]

Saw more skill and technique in taking on his man which was nice to see.

 

[Real Name]

Another strong showing by him.

 

[red_de_pologne]

had a good game again, he's like the last of our problems at the moment

 

[Adam-Utd]

It was Dan Burn. If he can't beat him over and over something is badly wrong. An 8ft ,slow as they come, CB playing out of position.

That isn't a criticism, he's shown some good stuff so far.

But we haven't yet seen him give a decent LB a hard game.

Dan Burn is a solid fullback. I don't remember ever seeing him embarrased like that before.

 

[pascell]

Dan Burn is a solid fullback. I don't remember ever seeing him embarrased like that before.

Dan James toasted him the other season.

Yesterday Antony had him were we should've used it to out advantage, then we started trying to play from the LW or centrally, then they subbed Burn off and that avenue was closed.

 

[Elcabron]

Thought he was good yesterday, especially in the second half. Can't help thinking however that he would be better on the left, you know.....given that he is left footed.

Having wingers on both sides who need to cut back inside every time slows us down too much in my view.

 

[El Jefe]

I think its now clear that he's not really fast. He's quicker than Sancho sure but he's still lacking in that department. He was able to blow past Burn a few times in the second half which was positive but that's only Dan Burn.

I watched closely and he had two foot races with Jacob Murphy and Joelinton and both were faster than him quite clearly. Murphy is pretty fast tbf but in the race with Joelinton, Antony had a huge head start and the amount of ground Joelinton covered on him was worrying.

His idolatry of Ronaldo has to stop though and the coaches need to have a word with him about it. It's not helped that our current captain suffers the same problem but Antony takes it to a whole different level.

Saying that he's still our best option on the right and he does have many tools to be developed into a top player but it will take time and patience.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I think he will get better with a better right back alongside him. Was very frustrating how often Dalot stands still and barely overlaps, at least helping to draw a man away from Antony or even offering a genuine option for a cross. Antony tracks back well too, so even if Dalot overlaps and gets caught Antony can get back and cover.

Having a better RB would help a lot.

 

[Stacks]

Doesn't look like an 84m player to me. His final ball is absolutely awful.

I think it has already been established that we had to pay over the odds due to timing. best to look at him as more a £50 million talent. In that bracket he is doing ok

 

[crossy1686]

Doesn't look like an 84m player to me. His final ball is absolutely awful.

Because we overpaid by about £30m.