He doesn't really create chances or get assists and his XG is in top percentile for shot attempts but hardly has any goals in the prem so it doesn't read well. Reads someone who spams shots, can't shoot that well and has limited vision/creativity or decision making skills
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 44
- Goals
- 8
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 8
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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His decision making will improve with time mate. He's a young player from a South American background who is settling into a new team and acclimatising to a new country where he I don't believe he even speaks English. And he's still contributing both in the middle third and defensively where he's clued on and is constantly looking over his shoulder to see where his man is.
I like him and I've got a lot of time for him. He can be really frustrating, but I just have the feeling that he's going to figure out his game at some point. He's still got a few years before we'd expect him to be at his peak
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So many seem unable to understand this. They just think he’s “dangerous” because he gets fed the ball in space.
He’s fecking 23 and is expected to start week in and week out. We don’t have years to just cross our fingers and hope he goes from an average winger to a top class one when he hasn’t shown any underlying signs of doing so
We hope his decision making improves and he makes the extra necessary pass. It's not guaranteed, just look at Marcus.
Antony was the best player today and did so much, but he should have had multiple assists and goals in the first half alone if it wasn't for poor finishing and poor decision making. When a team really needs goals, making the best decisions for the team is crucial.
Gonna be a star, 10-15 league goals next season, calling it now 
His lack of productivity doesn't concern me. He is fast, direct and no matter how many times he misses, gets tackled, or fecks up, he is straight back up and trying again. Plus he works hard in defence too. A summer of coaching and he will be a totally different player next season.
It reads as someone who is getting into the right positions but makes the wrong decisions when he gets there. We had another tricky winger like that once.
Wasn't he already coached by ten hag prior?
Except 18 year old Ronaldo was a geniune terror running at defenders as well as having world class pace and elite two footedness. They aren’t even close to comparable. Oh and he was 5 years younger
While playing in Holland, yeh. Entirely different environment and setup, so a seamless transition without hiccups was always unlikely.
I agree.
But I have to say that, alot of the time he gets into good positions due to how he reads the game and hence the chance opens up for him. I think he will improve when it comes to decision making because he's a pass and move player which really helped AWB today. Antony was making himself available for the return pass, which made life a lot easier for AWB. And Antony is also good when it comes to tracking back, which also really helps the team.
Rashford hasn't improved alot when it comes to decision making over the years and he's a player who is best utilised as a inside forward who cuts in and shoots on goal. He's used to playing in transition and has scored important goals for us this season. But the more the team develops and becomes more dominant, then I have a feeling more will be expected of him in the approach play where he has to play in rondos (triangles) instead of passing it and running direct or looking to receive the ball in behind.
It’s almost like the PL is another league.
I mean i'm not expecting him to get anywhere near that level, very few ever will, but the point is that getting into the right positions in the first place is the hardest thing and can't really be coached. You can be taught what to do when you get there, most of the time anyway.
Yeah just look at the guy who is about to hit 30 goals for the season from the wing and has 122 goals for the club at 25.
Antony probably won't ever be a big creative force. He can improve the final ball for things like today, but he's more scorer than creator (though not as much leaning scorer as Rashford). Absolutely can improve his decision making all around, and most likely will, given it's his first season in the prem.
He's got world class potential without a doubt.
I feel that all that he's lacking is a bit of better decision making and coolness in front of goal. Apart from that he's got it all I'm excited about him
So hel become a different player after a summer of training then? Bit nonsense.
He's doing fine now and will adapt in his own time.
This is true, however we should give him mroe than 9months. Player from South AMerica, was in Europe for one season before comiing here....where he missed virtually all pre-season, doesnt know the language, cluture.
There is obviously a very talented player in there, the price tag was insane, hardly the first time, but we should at least give him a period of time to see how he develops here and if a lot of things people are slating are traits or areas he may massively improve.
Do find it a little strange the slating he is getting, yet Sancho has had nearly two seasons now and is generally getting support and though I think they are equally talented, its the former who has shown a hell of a lot more so far here.....if he is underwhelming next season I can understand, and I understand we shoudl expect the finished article for the price we paid....but that isnt the case these days.
I think he can go on to be a very good players here, not world class, but very good....whether he does or not really is up to him
Iam happy that he passed to Martial instead of shooting for the goal. He had made 3-4 wrong choices ( shooting instead of passing , passing wrong player ) but 1 out of 5 instead of zero is a great improvement in my opinion.
He's a good player, but his limatations are there for all to see, obviously the most left footed player ever to exist, with a few tricks he should think long and hard about using in a real game, I'm also intrigued by the way when he kicks the ball and then has to run into alot of space, it looks like his legs are giving way underneath him the further and faster he has to run, not sure I've seen that before.
But you can't fault his effort, and he certainly has something, I just hope he can improve a bit still on what we've see so far.
But you can't fault his effort, and he certainly has something, I just hope he can improve a bit still on what we've see so far.
I think the biggest limitations and the ones ETH would want to take a look at are his decision making and shot selection, as in his inability to do anything other than cut in to his left. Some were very good at it to where opposing teams knew it was coming but still couldn't do much about it (Robben), others that aren't either have to get there or else diversify their shooting to keep the opposition guessing.
He's not fast but bounces off players which sometimes feel like he beat the man with his pace (see Alexis Sanchez) . He is pretty agile though.
If we dropped points he would be the main culprit, so I don't see how exactly was this a good game? Garnacho's goal changes everything, another day it would be loss of points(just like it was so many times this season). Game after game he ruins good chance early in the game, and one or two later in the games too, and I am yet to see what exactly does he create that eventually new good striker might score? Even his assist today wouldn't probably end up as assist if he reached the ball earlier, but in that situation he had to pass.
He gets on the end of some good chances that are created by others(mostly Bruno) and he manages to ruin pretty much every one of them because he is easily the most selfish player we've had in last decade or so.
He is still young, and has time on his side, but he will need to change his game massively if we want to become serious team that scores their chances. Greenwood would easily score 20 goals this season and add 10 assists in his position this season, IMO, shame he is an idiot.
He gets on the end of some good chances that are created by others(mostly Bruno) and he manages to ruin pretty much every one of them because he is easily the most selfish player we've had in last decade or so.
He is still young, and has time on his side, but he will need to change his game massively if we want to become serious team that scores their chances. Greenwood would easily score 20 goals this season and add 10 assists in his position this season, IMO, shame he is an idiot.
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Well for one, Sancho was genuinely world class creatively for Dortmund and also a decent goalscorer in a tougher league, so people had more patience. Antony, again, is terrible creatively and is really just a volume shooter currently. He’s also quite average as a dribbler carrier, so regardless of “being patient” or giving him time for the sake of it there needs to be areas that you can clearly point to and say “yeah he’ll certainly improve”. Garnacho is a great example: he’s raw as feck but at the bare minimum provides elite take on skills and burning pace with an okay eye for goal for an 18 year old. Antony doesn’t provide either of those, so his contributions have to be more technique driven. And I haven’t seen anything to think he suddenly becomes an elite creator (or even good one), he’s one dimensional as a finisher, and is supremely one footed (which also doesn’t just magically get better when it’s to this extent)
I think people need to learn that there’s a time to give players more patience or games and there’s times where you can evaluate what you have and pretty quickly figure out what the ceiling is.
Yeah mostly agree with this exactly. Too many are excited to applaud “getting into dangerous positions” when I put that down way more to a decent manager with a good team shape and some quality passers. It’s not like Antony is Edinson Cavani with his movement from all over.
Can't disagree with any of this. He's very good at starting attacks and getting us near the box - its what he does once he's there that needs fixing, which is something I suspect will happen gradually over the next season. He's not far off though.
He’s going to be a lot better next season
I trust ETH and his coaches to improve his decision making
I trust ETH and his coaches to improve his decision making
I agree with this. My best hope for him is a scoring winger like Freddie
everyone has world class potential in that case. literally every winger in the league
Had him for 2 years and this is his 3rd coaching him now
So he assessed the situation and made the correct decision? I don’t understand this trend of making up imaginary scenarios to get annoyed about and criticise players, whilst failing to mention even any of the positives, it stinks of a lack of balance.
How many times has he squandered great chances in the first 15-20 minutes now? His decision-making, especially when we're on the counter and he has to do things at speed is suspect, but just hit the fecking target when you're through on goal.
Finishing practice for him every day is required.
Finishing practice for him every day is required.
Not passing to Sancho and Martial in the first half was criminal.
Today was an easy home game so we were lucky enough to create enough chances for it not to matter. In the tighter games this is where we drop points based on small margins like this. Tbf to him he's not the only one in the team that shoots when they should pass but he's the biggest culprit.
Today was an easy home game so we were lucky enough to create enough chances for it not to matter. In the tighter games this is where we drop points based on small margins like this. Tbf to him he's not the only one in the team that shoots when they should pass but he's the biggest culprit.
Um... No. Having that combo of technique, touch, movement, press resistance and work rate is pretty rare. He has a great ability to get shots off quickly too. Needs to tighten it up but he has been close a ton of times this season. The sort of stuff that will positively regress as time goes.
If he improved his decision making by about 50 percent for next year he can play a key role for united. The tools are there. I want to see him and garnacho attacking the wings this last stretch
Then EtH must see something to be willing to spunk 80-100m on him.
I thought he was okay and I cannot find fault in his workrate or commitment and he was unlucky when he showed variety in targeting the opposition's near post with a couple of efforts.
On the downside of things I think he shits his pants when it comes down to finishing the chances that he really should be putting away and we were lucky to get Alejandro back and he shows the rest of our strikers how it is done.
On the downside of things I think he shits his pants when it comes down to finishing the chances that he really should be putting away and we were lucky to get Alejandro back and he shows the rest of our strikers how it is done.
It really bothers me that he can't beat a defender in 1v1
Show us some step overs, you're Brazilian FFS
Maybe he'll try to create more chances to Martial as we seen yesterday.
Show us some step overs, you're Brazilian FFS
Maybe he'll try to create more chances to Martial as we seen yesterday.
Involved again. He’s a game changer for sure. Even the cushioned little pass into Bruno before the garnacho goal was class.
Honestly, I love him and can’t wait to see how he improves in his second season. His self belief is good to see, no matter how things go he never tries to play safe and we need that from a RW at old trafford especially. Teams almost always have to put two guys close to him, and he’s getting a bit better with his give and go passing. His work rate given his playing style is admirable, and I think he’ll be a mainstay of the team for the next 5 years. Has not looked out of place in his first season in the premier league at all.
Honestly, I love him and can’t wait to see how he improves in his second season. His self belief is good to see, no matter how things go he never tries to play safe and we need that from a RW at old trafford especially. Teams almost always have to put two guys close to him, and he’s getting a bit better with his give and go passing. His work rate given his playing style is admirable, and I think he’ll be a mainstay of the team for the next 5 years. Has not looked out of place in his first season in the premier league at all.
I honestly don’t know whether to give him credit for constantly getting into the right positions or criticise him for constantly messing them up. His selfishness and desire to look for the shot and ignore all options around him until it’s too late is absolutely infuriating though. He should have had three comfortable assists and a goal in that first half and all he came away with was one assist. Its that kind of decision making that has cost us all season long. It’s not difficult to see why his output throughout his career has been so low though. Unbelievably frustrating player.
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